The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously

j brown's body said:

"The leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea are not good men....But they are, nevertheless, serious men, and they know an unserious man when they see one. For nearly a decade, they have taken Donald Trump’s measure, and they have clearly reached a conclusion: The president of the United States is not worthy of their respect. Wednesday’s military parade in Beijing is the most recent evidence that the world’s authoritarians consider Trump a lightweight. ...Likewise, the North Koreans, after playing to Trump’s ego and his ignorance of international affairs during meetings in the president’s first term, have continued their march to a nuclear arsenal that within years could grow to be larger than the United Kingdom’s. Trump was certain that he could negotiate with Kim, but the perfumed days of “love letters” between Trump and Kim are long over. Pyongyang’s leadership seems to know that it costs them little to humor Trump politely, but that they should reserve serious discussion for the leaders of serious countries.

Authoritarians are unfortunately in good company in treating Trump as an incompetent leader. Even America’s allies have recognized that Trump may be their formal partner, but that they mostly get things done with the American president by soothing his ego and working around him. After Trump emerged from the summit in Anchorage essentially parroting Putin’s talking points, seven top European leaders rushed to Washington to tell Trump that he had done well and that they truly, really respected him, but that perhaps he should hold off on being a co-signer of Kremlin policy.

Trump's damage to American power and prestige would be less severe if the president had a foreign policy and a team to execute it. He has neither: Trump ran for president mostly for personal reasons, including to stay out of prison, and his foreign policy, such as it is, is merely an extension of his personal interests. He holds summits, issues social-media pronouncements, and engages in photo ops mostly, it seems, either to burnish his claim to a Nobel Prize or to change the news cycle when issues such as the economy (or the Jeffrey Epstein files) get too much traction. Worse, Trump is no longer surrounded by people who care about foreign affairs or can competently step in and create consistent policy. In his first term, Trump had a secretary of defense, James Mattis, who helped to create a national-defense strategy, a document that Trump might have ignored but was at least promulgated to a national-security establishment that needed direction from someone, somewhere. Now, at the Pentagon, Trump has Pete Hegseth, who shows little apparent inclination or ability to think about complexities."

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With his pathetic foreign policy and foreign policy team, things will only get worse.

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dmpi said:

Ah... World Leaders don't get their intel and insight through left-wing media. But whatever floats you boat....

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dmpi said:

Ah... World Leaders don't get their intel and insight through left-wing media. But whatever floats you boat....

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Peacenik said:

You can fool some of the people all the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time. But you can't be an asshole all the time without most of the people figuring it out.

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Fearandloathing said:

Well....

The rest of the world has him figured out...

But America?

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BabaVoss said:

If only we in the US HAD an actual leader - instead of a sleazy self-serving wannabe dictator.

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Peacenik said:

Most of us do but unfortunately many are so apathetic they can't bring themselves to actually go vote. In a nation of 340 million he was elected with just 86 million votes.

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Fearandloathing said:

Well


He won't be leaving as long as he's breathing.

As of last reading he's threatening to "declare war" on Chicago.

That's how it starts. "Protecting freedom" takes many forms.

California is next.

There likely won't be any election in 2026......being that there's a "national emergency"

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Peacenik said:

Trump has screwed the pooch messing with the great Biden economy; and is in the process of getting caught at it. Maga thought he was going to make America great, but high prices for everything is not what they had in mind. Trump's BS is golden but talk only goes so far. At some point if you can't walk the walk people will no longer listen to you talk the talk. Maga is running it's course and it appears there could be some light beginning to be seen at the end of the tunnel.

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Fearandloathing said:

Trump is an empty vessel filled with gas. He has NO IDEA what he's doing, is too arrogant to learn or be directed.

At the core I believe there are many Americans who know he's a ****-up, the worst thing they could have imagined. Not just in here, but across the board we're seeing a drastic retraction, BUT a refusal to admit they made the biggest mistake in the history of the country.

I am not the only one who is convinced he isn't leaving at the end of this term. Insiders speculate he will force an 'emergency' at home and a "threat" abroad at the same time and mobilize troops for that but really to ensure the 2026 vote is suppressed.

As I have been saying, read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William R. Shirer.

It's happening again.

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Peacenik said:

No doubt Trump and the cult will do everything in their power to attack the 2026 elections. There will be elections, but they face unprecedented attacks by Republicans. - more so than ever before.

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