It's beyond embarrassing: the US, the "indispensable nation," the "exceptional country," has elected a fking idiot. And this is what happens:
NATO is scrambling to tailor its upcoming meeting to avoid taxing President Donald Trump’s notoriously short attention span. The alliance is telling heads of state to limit talks to two to four minutes at a time during the discussion, several sources inside NATO and former senior U.S. officials tell Foreign Policy. And the alliance scrapped plans to publish the traditional full post-meeting statement meant to crystallize NATO’s latest strategic stance.
On May 25, NATO will host the heads of state of all 28 member countries in what will be Trump’s first face-to-face summit with an alliance he bashed repeatedly while running for president...
... Trump has the alliance more on edge than any previous newcomer, forcing organizers to look for ways to make the staid affair more engaging.
“It’s kind of ridiculous how they are preparing to deal with Trump,” said one source briefed extensively on the meeting’s preparations. “It’s like they’re preparing to deal with a child — someone with a short attention span and mood who has no knowledge of NATO, no interest in in-depth policy issues, nothing,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They’re freaking out.” ...
... After months of Trump’s threatening a radically new approach to global alliances the United States helped create, there’s nobody even charting a new course. Trump hasn’t appointed any high-level posts for Europe... With no middle management to give direction on a day-to-day basis, Europeans are struggling to decipher what the new administration wants from them.
“That’s where there’s a ton of panic in NATO,” a source told FP. “The United States put that issue forward, but it has nobody on tap who’s doing any sort of fresh thinking on that front.”...It's a long article. It doesn't get any less embarrassing.
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I can imagine that he'll be a pariah if there's any reception or social activity. Nobody will want to be found in a photo or on camera with him. in addition to his severe limitations and coziness with Putin, Trump is a wounded figure at this point.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for conversations after Trump leaves the room?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, yes, it would certainly be interesting to hear their reactions. Perhaps there will be some European press "leaks" regarding the reactions to Trump.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if walking into a conference of this nature is enough to make Trump sweat. Or can his opinion of himself be so colossal and impregnable that he imagines the leaders he will meet to be inferior or at best his equal? Probably the latter. He'll come with prepared statements, of course, but once he's done with those he'll be naked among relative giants.
We are going to be embarrassed -- again.