WHAT a week! Just when you thought Donald Trump couldn’t sink any lower into the amoral pit of his mind, he posts an image of himself looking like Christ healing the sick, with paratroopers, bomber planes, and the American eagle behind him.

It is a blasphemous, even sacrilegious image. And no harm to Vice President Vance; one doesn’t need a doctorate in theology to recognise it.

After much criticism at home and abroad, Trump claimed the image was intended to be him as a doctor, which is about as believable as finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or nuclear warheads in Iran.

The president doubled down, only to remove the image from his social media site.

Trump also went on a rant to criticise Pope Leo – a man cut from the cloth of St Augustine, the learned and humble saint who defined the components of a just war, which were later refined by St Thomas Aquinas.

By no measurement do the American-Israeli attacks on Iran meet the standards of either.

Trump, in interviews, claims the Bible is his favourite book, but can’t recall a single verse, and that’s despite a host of evangelical pastors regularly praying over him in the Oval Office.

Remember too, at his inauguration, Trump didn’t, as previous presidents have done, place his hand on the Bible during his swearing-in.

(I’ve often wondered if the president ever watched Al Pacino as John Milton, aka the Devil, in the movie The Devil’s Advocate, and had a flashback to the ironic scene where Pacino dipped his hand into the holy water fountain, and the water sizzled.)

JD Vance, who seems to have as much self-awareness as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then told the Pope, the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics, the Vicar of Christ on Earth and the 267th successor to St Peter, that he needs to be careful when talking about theology.

This comment suggests there’s more light in a 20-watt bulb.

In case Trump or Vance ever want to open the Bible, a good starting point would be Matthew 5:1-12, the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus definitely didn’t say “Blessed are strong and mighty… Blessed are the merciless… Blessed are the warmongers.”

Whilst the Pope remained dignified, he did send one strong message to leaders across the world, saying “I’m not afraid of the Trump administration.”

Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, has in recent weeks also seemed less afraid of the Trump cabal and has taken a qualified stand over the Iran war and the barbarous Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

Trump, in petulant retaliation, has threatened to tear up his trade agreement with the UK.

Thankfully, Starmer has also taken a precautionary step of indicating that the UK may rejoin the single market, undoing some of the national economic self-harm caused by Brexit.

He has been a slow learner on that. America under Trump is now an unreliable ally – the future of the UK lies with Europe, where, along with Germany and France, the UK is a powerful player.

The culmination of these events must make Starmer feel that his tenure in Downing Street is like a personal Gethsemane.

The UK’s entire military capabilities and defence systems are wholly dependent and interlinked with the USA.

Successive Tory governments have denuded each branch of the armed services. Little wonder various retired generals have been at pains to point out that the UK is not capable of joining a large-scale war.

The UK, like Ireland, is overly dependent on fossil fuels, and energy prices are spiralling out of control – removing any feel-good factors amongst the public for some otherwise very good government policies.

Elections loom, and Labour find themselves taking the hit for economic conditions not of their own making.

Squeezed between the ruthless populism and duplicity of Reform and the near hippy-like promised Nirvana of the Greens, Labour will likely take a hiding at the forthcoming polls.

Starmer may struggle to hold on until his party conference in September, but the summer holidays are not far off. In truth, his real advantage is that there is no obvious successor as of yet.

All that said, the real albatross pressurising (with an ability to sink) the Starmer premiership is the lingering stench from the disastrous decision to make Mandelson the UK ambassador to the USA.

The recent revelations that Lord Mandelson didn’t pass the robust, deep-dive security clearance are worrying.

The immediate fallout has led to the resignation of the Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir Olly Robbins, at the Foreign Office.

It’s hard to believe that he and he alone decided to override the risk assessment advice and not share concerns with his political masters or their senior advisors.

It seems a very big call for a controversial appointment for risk-averse senior civil servants to take, and Robbins should now be given the opportunity to clarify the process next week.

The earlier resignation of the PM’s Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, may provide some answers but must now form part of the Westminster probe into the appointment process and scrutiny.

If, as the PM and former Foreign Secretary David Lammy are now saying, they weren’t told about Mandelson’s failure to pass the enhanced vetting process, why did they not know and who made the call not to tell them?

Wonder if the PM is familiar with Luke 22:42?

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