Donald Trump has figured much in my posts lately. And it irks me. Why am I wasting so much of my time on a vulgar narcissist, someone who ordinarily would be of no interest to me.

Wasting time on Trump is not only my problem. Everyone concerned with the world’s affairs is similarly afflicted. We have no choice. He is, as if an affront to human intelligence, the most powerful man on Earth. The American people, apparently in a fit of collective insanity, elected him to that position, and the rest of us are now stuck with him.

And he is not just the most powerful man on the planet, he is a man who can never get enough attention—such is the way of narcissists. So he flaunts outrageous views and policies, and it works. He is front page 24/7.

On the overarching issue of our time, global warming, he doesn’t offer sound approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He says it isn’t real, promotes more fossil fuel production, and pulls his country out of the Paris accords.

On the Middle East, he doesn’t offer a path to self-determination for the Palestinians and thus to peace in the region. He wants to ethnically cleanse Gaza and hand the Palestinians’ land over to real estate developers.

On Ukraine, he doesn’t work out an approach with American allies. He arranges a private meeting with Putin’s people, excluding not only his county’s allies (or former allies?) but Ukraine as well.

And then there’s this tiresome 51st state business, insulting his country’s neighbour and its prime minister. What kind of national leader engages in such juvenile behaviour?

And so it goes. Craziness, but marvellously attention-getting craziness.

Of course it could all just be ignorance. He is alarmingly ignorant on most issues—one wonders if he ever reads a book—or perhaps he’s just taking revenge on the liberal “elites” he seems to believe disrespect him. But the result is the same. We have to take him seriously because of the power he possesses, buffoon or not.

As a result the world is distracted from real solutions to issues. We must instead focus on whatever nonsense the President of the United States is up to and dance to his crazy tune.

So there we are. No way to avoid it. If I wish to maintain an interest in my fellow men and women and their follies, and write about them, I will have to maintain an interest in and write about one of the least appealing of them. No one said the life of a blogger was easy.