Trump Is A Laughing Stock. But If We Weren’t Laughing, We’d Be Crying

By Michael H Fuchs
The Guardian (9/25/18)

For the rest of the world, President Donald Trump’s America is a laughing stock, not a leader.

That was the takeaway from Trump’s speech to the 2018 United Nationsgeneral assembly. Trump opened his speech the same way he opens his campaign rallies, TV interviews, and probably conversations with every visitor he meets: “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

The response from the leaders assembled in the room? Laughter. The entire world literally laughed at the US president – and they weren’t laughing with him.

Even Trump himself was taken aback: “I did not expect that reaction …”

And while reporters and foreign policy experts could not recall another leader ever before drawing derisive laughter at a UN speech, it did not end there. When Trump made another claim – “Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy …” – the cameras revealed the German delegation laughing and snickering to one another.

With Trump’s own behavior and policies as a backdrop, the substance of Trump’s speech merited laughter – it was an incomprehensible joke.

The main theme of Trump’s speech was protecting US “sovereignty” and he said that all countries should do likewise. He claimed: “The United States will not tell you how to live, work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.” But shortly thereafter Trump spent portions of his speech telling Iran and Venezuela what to do at home. …

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• Trump Is The Laughingstock Of The World — Promise made, promise kept.“The world is laughing at us,” Donald Trump often said during the campaign. The claim was not obviously true then, but Trump has made it so. The world is now laughing at us — specifically, at our president. “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country,” Trump boasted, in typical fashion, to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. “So true,” he added, as if addressing a campaign rally. The world leaders chuckled at the braggart before them. “Didn’t expect that reaction,” Trump acknowledged, “but that’s okay.” In fairness to those who chortled, Trump’s speech was funny, in a way: a kind of rhetorical blitzkrieg. Trump spoke as though he had accepted a dare to see how much of the world he could offend in the span of a 35-minute address. … Read the Rest and 1-Minute Video

(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2018. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link toe www.thecommonercall.org )

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