This weekend a crisis erupted, essentially two crises, one abroad and one domestically. Last week it was discovered that the Government was selling weapons to both opposing sides of a war conflict in the Middle East, after previously promising not to sell to either.

IN THIS SATIRICAL, DYSTOPIAN SHORT STORY, published in 1987 in the collection Stories of Natural and Unnatural Disasters (Agra, 2015), Patricia Highsmith is inspired by the political situation of her time, which appears to have great similarities to our own, and prophetically predicts the persona and politics of Donald Trump.

A huge arms and financial scandal hits the White House, from which President Buck Jones tries to escape. However, a key advisor is found dead, unable to face the crisis. How will they cover up his suicide, as well as the scandal? The First Lady will provide the solution.

The end of the world has come, the shelters for nuclear disaster are full, and there is no longer space even for these two.

Like the unparalleled black comedy SOS Pentagon Calling Moscow (1964) by Stanley Kubrick at the height of the Cold War, President Buck Jones Regroups and Waves the Flag takes us to a dark version of today’s US leader, whose presidential office hangs a photograph of Reagan from Highsmith’s time.