Terry Sarten: Everything is black, white and orange

Donald Trump really does know everything.

IT IS not hard to see President Trump's obvious disdain for people of colour. Much of what he says is ranting gibberish, but even those with a beginner's understanding of the language of gibber can pick bigotry and inciting hatred out of a loose line-up of the usual suspect words.

He is vocal in his demonising of Mexicans and his loathing of those from African countries. He appears to be deliberately stoking hatred towards African Americans by snuggling up to right-wing extremist neo-Nazi groups while at the same time trying to ban Muslims from entering the US. He has supported separating children from their parents at the border because they come from somewhere else. All are attacks on people of colour.

Does he never look in the mirror? Silly question, but does he not realise he is a person of colour himself? The man is orange. It might be a fake tan, which — like the fake news he is always on about — is not actually real. Artificial or not, it does make him appear to be a coloured person. He is orange.

I have no idea why he feels the need to be orange. Does anybody know? I mean it may not be a fake tan — it could be he just eats too many carrots, but we know he really likes burgers, so that seems unlikely.

Perhaps it is his way of finding a kind of belonging in a world where his overwhelming sense of superiority makes him feel alone? He clearly feels that no one can know as much about everything as he does. He recently gave advice to the Paris Fire Brigade on how to put out burning medieval cathedrals. He knows everything about fire-fighting, and being so clever must be a lonely place.

What do you do when you do actually know everything? You are on your own and need to find a belonging. The orange people are a widely misunderstood group who pale by comparison with others and therefore seek out the protection of a fake tan. It does not look real. Non-orange people stare at you in the street. Maybe they snigger when you go past. It is probably very hard to be an orange person in a world where no one understands.

I recall seeing small groups of orange people in Melbourne on a visit to that fair city a few years ago. I often wonder what became of them? Most were quite young. Did they marry other orange people and have little orange babies?

Sorry, dear reader, I digress. Back to Trump. As well as orange skin, he has orange hair. This shows a commendable determination to be orange all over with no compromise. If nothing else, he is a man of resolve. The elaborate comb-over is therefore a step to far. It undermines the confidence displayed in the flagrantly orange fake tan by revealing rather than hiding his weakness.

Trump's ardent followers in the white supremacist movement should be challenging him on his orange tinge, as surely that does not fit well with supporting the "white is right" ideology. Maybe these are the same people who will go to great lengths to get a tan while on holiday without considering how this might fit alongside their own prejudice against those with dark skin. Or is this just further evidence that bigotry is strongly associated with a lack of intelligence, sometimes called being thick, as defined by unrelenting stupidity?

There is the always the possibility the President's orange colouring is not a fake tan but is, in fact, the glow radiating from the relentless fires of Trump's ego burning so brightly within that it shines out of his very being. That is probably what he thinks, and he does know everything.

Terry Sarten (aka Tel) is a writer, satirista (coffee-drinking satirist) and social worker by trade.