Peter Rhodes: How Donald Trump’s deals measure up to previous US presidents - and is the EU flag just a pretty design

Donald Trump takes a different view to previous US presidents - like Woodrow Wilson

Donald Trump demands Ukraine's vast mineral wealth in exchange for political support. Now, before Trump's Golden Dome anti-missile project has even begun, he is drawing up a bill for Canada to pay. American presidents have not always counted the beans so meanly.

When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared: “We have no selfish ends to serve. . . . We seek no indemnities for ourselves, and no material compensation for sacrifices we shall freely make. . . The day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and might for the principles that gave her birth.” Wilson had his faults but he understood duty.

In a similar situation, Trump would probably ask: “How about doing a deal, Kaiser Bill?

Is the EU flag just a pretty design?

We are bound to be seeing more of the EU flag as Keir Starmer's “re-setting” project takes off. So it may be worth recalling that the flag has its own conspiracy theory. This is the one that says the blue background and 12 gold stars are inspired by images of the Virgin Mary, revealing that, although the EU claims to be secular, it is founded on Christian and Roman Catholic beliefs. That's the conspiracy theory. An alternative theory is that the EU's founding fathers just thought it was a pretty design.

Thomas the Tank Engine wasn’t the only talking train in the golden age of steam

Fans are celebrating 80 years of Thomas the Tank Engine who first appeared in print in 1945. The first 26 stories by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry captivated kids all over the world. But how original were they? A few days ago I came across At Home and Away, a children's book published by Dean & Son in the 1920s, when Awdry was a lad. It contains a collection of railway stories “told by the Tank Engine.” These locos did not have humanised faces like Awdry's but the Tank Engine had some waspish Thomas-like opinions, such as: “Those impudent electric trains will soon be all over the place. How I shall hate them, especially when people say they are nicer than steam trains.” 

Nothing can dim the popularity of Awdry's creation but clearly, in the golden age of steam, he was not the only writer to dream that locomotives could talk.