"That was a great, great trip! Except Macron mashed my hand up with that handshake!"
Predictably, Trump on return from his nine-day Middle East, European junket overinflated it for his Trumpie fake news supporters' benefit: "It was great! A home run!" Actually, more like a foul out two-strike bunt. From his groveling and ass-kissing performance with the Saudis, among the most repressive regimes on the planet, to his European NATO summit and G7 meet which The Financial Times described as a "disaster" and "chaos". It even prompted Germany's Angela Merkel to assert Europe must now "become self reliant and stop depending on traditional allies". Translation:
Germany and Europe can't depend on the U.S. with a nutwhack, unstable leader.
The Saudi spectacle was especially appalling, Trump et al doing sword dances with these degenerates while making hundred billion dollar weapons' deals. Did Trump even know or was he aware that most of the 9/11 hijackers - terrorists hailed from Saudi Arabia, and these vermin have hatched more terrorists (under the Wahabbi sect) than any other group? Where were the snarky voices of the Trumpies screaming "Ragheads!" ? Well, nowhere to be heard, as they seemed by their silence or mute blogs to make a special exception and heap more praise on these scumballs than long time allies who actually have our best interests at heart.
As former Dept. of Justice official Matt Miller put it this morning: "If you look at the way Trump behaved in Saudi Arabia versus the way in Europe - so much of it is personal for him. He likes autocrats who are willing to throw him big parties and are to say nice things about him. But he doesn't get along with other leaders who are going to stand up for the democracies but not behave with this personal allegiance to him."
Which is the mindset of an autocrat, going all the way back to the fascists Mussolini and Hitler. (Recall again Hitler regularly had his S.A. pummel and beat German journalists, as he berated the press for being "unpatriotic")
Particularly outrageous was that while Trump courted and paid homage to the Saudi terror regime he essentially spat on the Europeans at the NATO summit and G7 meet. At the former venue he browbeat NATO members by asserting they weren't paying "their fair share" to the U.S. But the dolt doesn't even know they wouldn't be paying to the U.S. anyway but to a common NATO defense pool. The U.S, pays the lion's share, but as one commentator noted over the weekend it also reaps the biggest payoff - the immense military spending catapulting it into the role of sole superpower. None of the other NATO nations would remotely approach that given it would mean tossing their own citizens' needs and welfare under the proverbial 'bus'. Besides, they wouldn't gain anything - the NATO bond is supposed to be "one for all, all for one" anyway and the U.S. would have as much or more to lose by a retreat - say in the face of aggressive Russian advance.
As in the G7 meeting, Trump's boorish behavior was on display as he literally pushed the President of Montenegro out of the way, jostling to the head of the pack. Trump literally acted like another head of state didn't exist, and might have merely been an obstacle in his way. But why be surprised given this is his M.O.?
At the G7 he managed to nettle all the allies by his irksome and aggressive, arrogant behavior - even calling the Germans "bad" for their trade surplus. The moron isn't even aware that shows the U.S. isn't properly in technological competition - showing they might do better in trade if so much wasn't squandered on military toys - many of which end up with cost overruns.
Angela Merkel and others were appalled by Trump's behavior and it also didn't sit well in the German Press. The Editor of Der Spiegel wrote in the aftermath:
"Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. He does not possess the requisite intellect and does not understand the significance of the office he holds nor the tasks associated with it. He doesn't read. He doesn't bother to peruse important files and intelligence reports and knows little about the issues that he has identified as his priorities. His decisions are capricious and they are delivered in the form of tyrannical decrees.
He is a man free of morals. As has been demonstrated hundreds of times, he is a liar, a racist and a cheat. I feel ashamed to use these words, as sharp and loud as they are. But if they apply to anyone, they apply to Trump. And one of the media's tasks is to continue telling things as they are: Trump has to be removed from the White House. Quickly. He is a danger to the world.......The U.S. elected a laughing stock to the presidency and has now made itself dependent on a joke of a man. The country is, as David Brooks wrote recently in the New York Times, dependent on a child."
Ouch! But watching his antics in Europe and the reports on his histrionics in assorted European media, one can now grasp how spot on the Der Spiegel take is and why most sane U.S. citizens and voters are ashamed to have this disgraceful clown representing us and the country.
Perhaps the single most compelling image to emerge from the NATO summit was when the Donald tried to outdo French President Emmanuel Macron in a photo op handshake. However, Macron got the better of him and crushed his little hand to the extent Donald had to pull away first. The details were captured by the WaPo's Philip Rucker with a similar degree of attention to the six-second shot sequence in the Zapruder film described by Jim Garrison during his New Orleans trial:
"As President Trump met French President Emmanuel Macron for the first time, welcoming him to lunch Thursday at the residence here of the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, the two men shook hands for six long seconds. Their knuckles turned white, their jaws clenched and their faces tightened. Trump reached in first, but then he tried to release, twice, but Macron kept his grip until letting go."
Double ouch! That'll teach ya, Mister Tiny Hands! Macron himself had been forewarned about Trump's gimmick handshakes so was prepared. As he noted in a remark to the French press: "It wasn't innocent." The newly elected president said the fierce handshake during their first official meeting on Thursday was “a moment of truth,” in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche.
"My handshake with him, it wasn’t innocent," said Macron. "One must show that you won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones but also not over-publicize things, either
In some French media images the Donald was caught still rubbing his widdo hand in the aftermath and pouting as if to say: "He mangled my hand! BWAAAHAAHAHA!'
The awkwardly long, white-knuckled, handshake was seen by many as a power projection, of sorts, by two newly elected world leaders in the full glare of the international media.. As fate or chance would have it, Trump lost and came away the weakling. (Though his blindsided, deluded followers will probably think otherwise.)
Trump basically tried to do a "reset" with this trip and deflect attention away from the heat of the Russian-Trump cabal investigation. But it won't work. The cold, efficient special counsel continues his task, unrelenting and single -minded, and he will overturn every phone record and every grubby 'stone' in getting to the bottom of it all. Trump's followers, for the sake of their dubious sanity, had better hope it's all "fake news" as Trump tweeted yesterday. In one he blabbed like the idiot he is:
"It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #Fake News media"
If only! The truth is most of those leaks 'coming out of the White House' are emanating from terrified staffers - disturbed by a president who can't even exert the most minimal control over his erratic behavior and now risks taking them all down with him. They want to be sure the word gets out before that happens and that it's the nut- in -chief, not them, responsible for the chaos and misfires- not to mention the lawlessness, especially obstruction of justice.
See also:
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/kali-holloway/73124/8-embarrassing-things-trump-did-on-his-european-tour
And:
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/tom-engelhardt/73122/little-big-man-into-the-whirlwind
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