The biter bit
Trump left the NATO gathering early because he mad.
US President Donald Trump called Justin Trudeau “two-faced” Wednesday after Canada’s Prime Minister was caught on camera appearing to joke about Trump with other world leaders at a Buckingham Palace event the night before.
So…until that moment he thought Trudeau liked him?
I don’t know why I keep being surprised, but I do. My theory of mind isn’t good enough to grasp the complete lack of theory of mind in Trump.
The video appeared to show British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte having a laugh about Trump’s behavior during the summit.The 25-second clip, which has gone viral and was first reported by CBC, begins with Johnson asking Macron why he was late.
“Is that why you were late?” Johnson asked.Macron nodded, as Trudeau replied, “He was late because he takes a … 40-minute press conference at the top.”At no time in the video do the leaders mention Trump by name, but Trudeau’s comment appeared to reference Trump’s lengthy remarks to the press during their earlier meeting on Tuesday.
That’s what he does, isn’t it – he talks endlessly. He talks and talks and talks and talks. He must think that’s what he’s there for. He says almost nothing, but he says it over and over and over. It’s either Alzheimer’s or cumulative stupidity, but either way it’s embarrassing and dysfunctional.
Trump spent Tuesday in meetings in London headlined by a clash with a key ally, France. He met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Macron and Trudeau, making extended remarks and taking questions from the press on each occasion.
Trump’s one-on-one meeting with Macron was remarkably tense as the French President refused to back down from remarks that Trump called “nasty” and “insulting.” Last month, Macron had described NATO as suffering from “brain death” caused by American indifference to the long-time alliance.
Trump complaining about someone else being “nasty” and “insulting.” Oy oy oy.
These are not mutually exclusive. He could be both.
Yes that’s true. That’s what makes it so hard to tell – he’s always been stupid, though not this stupid, so who knows if it’s more of the same or the same plus a new thing.
Foreign leaders (at least, those of democratic countries) face an interesting dilemma with Trump.
It’s trivially easy to manipulate Trump, as we’ve discussed here. He’s a sucker for flattery as well as pomp and circumstance, so you can roll out the red carpet for him, say nice things about him especially at a joint press conference, and suddenly he thinks you’re best friends.
But there’s a downside to that. Most of those foreign leaders are dependent on voters who HATE Trump, so being seen sucking up to him is politically dangerous. And it also rewards a lot of bad behavior — if Trump gets to go around starting trade wars and undermining NATO allies and so forth, yet still gets treated nicely, then you’re playing right into his hands by allowing him to brag to his supporters about how his “toughness” has won America respect again.
So I wonder how many of these hot mike moments or leaks are really accidents. It’s a neat way to have your cake and eat it, too — signalling to your voters that you know damn well Trump is a shmuck, while maintaining some plausible deniability with him.
Ophelia, I suspect he was always this stupid but unless you lived in NY or Jersey there was little occasion to experience the depths of his shallowness.
I think foreign leaders are probably aghast with another problem with Trump. Most of them probably have no problem with a weakened USA but everyone has a problem with an unstable one. How do you handle that? It’s like dealing with a person who is either consistently kind or consistently a dick vs someone who is volatile. As long as they are one or the other you can develop strategies to cope. It’s when they play change up ball that it becomes hard. How do you plan ahead with an America that can shift overnight from Obama to Trump?
The reason – the only reason – I say he hasn’t always been this stupid is because I’ve seen video clips from his Less Stupid days, in the context of discussions of whether he’s always been this stupid. I think I’ve probably shared one or two here. There are clips where he talks more coherently and to the purpose and with a larger vocabulary than we ever see him do now. He hasn’t always done this cycling in place cycling in place repeating himself repeating himself because his brain refuses to cough up anything new thing.
I read a piece a week or-so ago (damned if I remember where, ironically enough) in which a doctor and former medical advisor to Obama expressed concerns that Trump’s sympoms strongly suggest that he’s suffered a series of mini-strokes. He suspected that Trump’s unscheduled hospital visit had included a brain scan, implying that if it hadn’t then his doctors were grossly negligent.
Here’s one story on it:
https://www.newsweek.com/ex-obama-doctor-worried-about-trumps-alleged-inability-find-words-suggests-hes-having-small-1472561
I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I could not figure out what the big deal was until reporters started quoting Trump themselves… I kept hearing him say “He’s too fast…” *shrug* Even now hearing the quote I can’t seem to hear it properly. Just me?
Best response I’ve heard so far is an (obviously irritated) interviewee asked what the quote might mean quipping “Trump is very thin-skinned”.
Hm, I heard it as “two-faced” but then I’d already read that that’s what he said so I was prepped to hear it.