Evelyn Waugh was an exceptional English novelist. His best political satires were very good. Truth, though, can still outwit the best fiction, says Richard Cullen
A LIVELY SHORT STORY published by Evelyn Waugh in late 1932, entitled “Incident in Azania” discussed events that unfolded on an imaginary, colonial island off the East Coast of Africa. Azania was a joint Anglo-French protectorate, with the British acting as the managing condominium partner (link).
Various British officials and business folk are officiating awkwardly but intensely and continuously, when Prunella Brooks (a typical Waugh female character) arrives in Azania. Prunella is young, beguiling, rather dazzling – and shrewdly self-serving. Local awkwardness and intensity move up a gear, aided by a lift in pink gin consumption.
Lethal banditry is afoot in Azania. Prunella, it transpires, is able to align herself smoothly with this bandit element and – under the eyes of the supervising British elite – organize a “fishy kidnapping” of herself prior to making off with the sizeable ransom, free as a bird, back to England.
This entertaining short satire (like several others) relies on Waugh’s trademark, improbable mix of dim, sharp, blimpish, cunning, enticing, charming and desperate characters in order to sustain the incredible plot and, thus, deliver the critical-comic effect.
Nevertheless, as splendid as Waugh may be, a recent detailed report in the English edition of The Chosun Daily, a conservative paper of record in South Korea, provides convincing evidence that President Trump now has the jump on Waugh when it comes to fabricating extraordinary narratives (link).
The newspaper features a composite photo (above) lately posted by President Trump, himself, on his social media platform, Truth Social. The report explains how this (enhanced) image combines:
- A photo taken in August, 2025, when European leaders visited the White House to discuss a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire; with
- A remarkable, superimposed, background display map showing American flags drawn over Greenland, Canada and Venezuela.
The report further explains how the August photo has been enriched by depicting all those European leaders now “listening intently as Trump explains a plan to incorporate foreign territories”.
Soon after posting the first augmented photo, the president shared “another composite photo of himself [accompanied by J D Vance and Marco Rubio] holding a massive American flag on Greenland soil with a sign reading, ‘Greenland, U.S. Territory from 2026’.” (Below.)
If we did not know better, it would be reasonable to conclude that the fabrication of all this weirdly altered imagery was the work of some beastly foe bent on satirizing the President as a person who combines exceptional vanity with comprehensive moral vacuity.
But we do know better. This is how President Trump normally approaches the world.
Anyone in any doubt about this need only recall how he has populated the Trump administration with a cast of real-life leading characters sufficiently incredible to rival those found in any Waugh story (click image below).
Richard Cullen is an adjunct law professor at the University of Hong Kong and a popular writer on current affairs.
To see a list of articles he has written for this outlet, click this phrase.
Image at the top and other Trump image by the White House.