America’s isolation is increasing around the world. President Trump’s utter and complete lack of familiarity with international diplomacy and foreign governmental relations has him steering the ship of state without a rudder or a sail. In a word, he’s winging it. And not very well.
Shooting from the hip might make it in American business, but the old west is just that– old, and west.
Trump has embarked upon a course of conduct that is increasingly alienating the nation from the rest of the world– and forcibly wrenching it away from its one-time position as “the leader of the free world.” Now, few world leaders want to be seen with Trump, and even fewer still have any respect for him.
He called Mexicans criminals and rapists, then tried to say he didn’t say what he said. He told the Mexican president he was going to build a wall between our two nations and then announced that Mexico was going to pay for it.
Trump openly advocated banning Muslims from entering into America. He said if Muslims left the country they would not be readmitted. His executive order was widely criticized both within and outside of America as being discriminatory and a violation of religious freedom– and because he implied that all Muslims are terrorists. He listed seven nations on his do not enter list, but did not include oil rich Saudi Arabia. This decision was also criticized because, as the Washington Post stated:
In contrast to the countries included in Trump’s executive order, Saudi citizens have been directly linked to terrorist attacks on U.S. soil numerous times. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists who committed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks called the country home, while the al-Qaeda founder and mastermind behind that attack, Osama bin Laden, was born into one of the kingdom’s most prominent and wealthy families. Saudi citizens also make up a considerable number of the Islamic State’s foreign fighters in Syria.
He pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate control agreement, signed by 196 nations in 2015 and formally approved by 55 percent in October 2016, prompting U.N. secretary-general António Guterres to warn that if the U.S. created a “geostrategic vacuum” by giving up its global role, “I guarantee that someone else will occupy it.” He clearly implied that the new world power would be Beijing, and added: “I don’t think this is good for the United States.”
Neither do we.
Trump’s arrogance in the face of his political inexperience quickly eroded any confidence other world leaders may have placed in him simply by being elected President of the United States. Without regard for the long-term damage it would cause, he slammed longtime allies such as Germany over trade and within two months of being elected caused French President Emmanuel Macron to begin positioning himself as a sort of “global anti-Trump.”
He is becoming increasingly hostile to China, and allegations of Russian collusion with his campaign and interference in the US election have a number of nations carefully eyeing his connection to Putin.
Nothing, though, says the US is suffering from Trump’s bullish run through the proverbial china shop like South Korea– the nation under constant threat from North Korea– warning the U.S. that Trump’s threat to rain down hellfire on the North is unacceptable.
“No one should be allowed to decide on a military action on the Korean Peninsula without South Korean agreement,” said South Korean President Moon Jae-in a nationally televised speech.
Speaking before thinking is not a good trait for anyone over 18.
Here at home, Trump is constantly under fire for the things he says before the minds of his advisers catch up. He has proven himself incapable of reasoned reflection as he governs the nation from home via Twitter, calling people names, spewing vitriolic falsehoods, and then accusing the media of being “fake” for reporting his words.
His outright lying has achieved legendary proportions. The New York Times published, on June 23, 2017, “the definitive list” of the president’s lies told since he took office in January, adding to the more than 101 published by the Daily Wire in April, 2016.
Trump supporters are just as embarrassed by the man as the rest of us. They just can’t bear the thought of admitting they made a bad mistake.
Trump’s North Carolina comments prove he probably doesn’t have the capacity to think before he speaks. His ego is so big he doesn’t think that anything he could say would be something he should not say. But loose lips sink ships, and as more and more people on both sides of the aisles see their view of the president slowing sinking, #45 will hopefully keep quiet long enough to actually see the damage his unbridled yapping has already done to his name, reputation and credibility– and to the image of the United States.
The next time he speaks he needs to be informed, make sense and be truthful– or else we should invoke the spirit of Presidential Apprentice and treat him to his own words: “You’re fired.”
