Behind His Back, the Whole World Thinks Trump Is a Joke

Claessens/Euc/Ropi via ZUMA

No, wait. And then he said he really likes french fries but not German chocolate cake. And he loves the Eiffel Tower but thinks it would look better in gold. No, seriously, that's what he said. And he thinks you should smile more. I swear.

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Let’s count up our ruined relationships around the world:

  • We’re in a trade war with China and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says talks have “broken down.”
  • The North Korea summit was obviously a joke. Kim Jong Un blew off Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during last week’s follow-up, which participants said was a complete waste of time. North Korean negotiators failed to even show up for yesterday’s talks about POW remains.
  • NATO is in shambles after Trump spent his time in Brussels slamming everyone and everything in sight.
  • The EU writ large is none too happy about Trump’s love affair with the likes of Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen, nor with his notion that the whole point of the EU is to oppose the United States.
  • Our relationship with Britain is in the deep freeze after Trump kicked off his state visit with an incendiary interview in the Sun in which he blasted Theresa May and suggested Boris Johnson would make a great prime minister.
  • Ditto for Germany after Trump accused Angela Merkel of being in Vladimir Putin’s pocket.
  • Canada and Mexico are both infuriated too, partly over Trump’s insulting trade theatrics and partly over his wall.

So who do we still have good relations with? Israel, I suppose. Saudi Arabia. Russia, if we’re stretching the meaning of good. And I guess the new Five Star bros in Rome are sort of sympatico with Trump.

Anyone else?

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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