Making frenemies
16 June 2018, 20:39 | Updated: 16 June 2018, 20:49
While the President of the United States of America cosies up to dictators and calls them smart, European officials are still upset over their treatment at the hands of the demented orange whirlwind.
The French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian hit the nail sur la tête when he said, “In the space of just a day you see President Trump attacking Canadian leader Mr. Trudeau, who is an historic ally...and the next day practically hugged a dictator born into a communist dictatorship, which just a few days ago he said he was completely opposed to,”
Donald Trump changes his mind more than most people change their underwear.
First, the meeting was never going to happen - “waste of time”, then it was all infantile insults about “little rocket man”, which he repeated so often that he must have thought it was among the most amusing witticisms that humankind has ever created – best insult ever, everybody says so, I can tell you that, totally great insult, I know the best insults, no-one knows better insults than me...
This was followed by the summit being on, then off, then on again.
Who would doubt his word, apart from anyone that has ever had any dealings with him?
At the meeting, he cosied up to L'il Fat Kim so much that Melania must have got jealous...or relieved that her husband has a new love interest.
Trump claims that the “deal” he made with Kim was all due to “my touch, my feel, it's what I do”, as many former Miss World's can attest.
Of course, the “deal” was all worked out ahead of time, before Trump even landed in Singapore. He reportedly became bored and grumpy on arrival on Sunday and demanded that the meeting be moved from Tuesday to Monday.
This is understandable, as the whole thing was just a photo-opportunity, no real deal making was entered into.
He was persuaded to keep to the timetable as it was explained to him that, had the meeting taken place on Monday, it would have been late at night on Sunday in America, and he would not have received the wall-to-wall TV coverage he craves so very much.
When asked by a reporter how he knew that Kim would keep his word, Trump replied in that self-aggrandising way that is his trademark and announced that he had an unparalleled ability to read people.
Pressed on what might happen if the North Koreans acted as they had in the past and agreed to things they never had any intention of delivering, Trump slipped up in his Tourettes stream of lies and said something true.
He said, “I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey, I was wrong.”
Then he caught himself and added: “I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”
And there you have the political philosophy of the US President: take all the credit, unless it is something bad, and then it will be someone else's fault...probably Hilary’s.
Those in the West are trying to understand what motivates Trump to appease dictators and pick fights with America's traditional friends.
Donald Trump never met a murderous, tyrannical dictator he didn't like. That weasel who runs Canada on the other hand...
He says the mass-murdering psychopath Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is “doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem”, a “job” that has seen executions in the thousands and cash rewards for those that kill anyone either dealing or taking drugs.
Duterte said “I don't care about human rights, believe me”. Looks like he has a soul mate in the Whitehouse.
Trump called Chinese President for life Xi Jinping a “good guy”, Vladimir Putin is “very smart”, yet America's closest ally, Canada, is run by a man who is “very dishonest and weak”.
Trump falls over himself to appease dictators and cosy up to every strong man ruler he can find, while showing how tough he is by starting fights with allies.
This just shows how needy and weak a person Trump is.
He doesn't want war, he ran for office on the promise to bring back troops from abroad not send more out, so he appeases America's enemies to avoid conflict with strong adversaries.
He knows that Britain or France, Canada or Germany will not attack under any provocation, especially desperate-for-a-trade-deal Britain, so he treats allies like dirt, knowing he can get away with it.
It makes him appear tough, and his presidency is all about appearances.
That piece of paper he signed in Singapore, with that big-boy angry squiggle, guaranteed absolutely nothing and contained weaker promises than those previously given by North Korea that they subsequently broke.
On his arrival back home, Trump tweeted that “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”
The most optimistic scenario you can think of is that he doesn't actually believe what he tweets – that he knows he is lying and just says anything to make himself look good at any time.
That would be OK if he was still just the host of that stupid Your Fired game on the telly but, embarrassingly for the human race, he's our default leader.
There seems a fault with our default leader.
