Beware of Geeks bearing gifts

A YEAR ago, Americans installed a reality TV star in the White House who doesn't let facts get in the way of a good tweet. Donald Trump's shambolic management style has given America's enemies a perceived opportunity to drive their country's agendas.

Not long after the last new year fireworks had gone out, Kim Jong Un announced that North Korea's nuclear missiles could now strike the US, saying: "The button for nuclear weapons is on my table." And how did the leader of the free world respond? By Twitter, of course, boasting that his nuclear button is "much bigger & more powerful".

It is surreal, not only that the fate of humanity hangs in the balance of what resembles a schoolboys' pissing match, but that we - the US and the rest of world not under a dictator - aren't doing more about it. Maybe it is the belief that the verbal one-upmanship will not result in actual war - that Pyongyang's claims of nuclear ability are overblown, and that, if push comes to shove, there are sufficient checks and balances in the US system to prevent Mr Trump from starting an apocalypse. Or maybe the more immediate threat of global conflict is from elsewhere.