I haven’t payed close attention to Trump’s doings in Asia, choosing to enjoy the novelty of his absence from this continent and revel in this week’s election news instead. But it’s worth noting that Trump is an ignorant, arrogant dope who is being shrewdly manipulated by his hosts. They must be pinching themselves disbelievingly and giddy with joy that such a smug, empty-headed and credulous sheep has blundered straight into their fleecing sheers. For example, this:
Asked why President Trump didn’t take questions from reporters today, Sarah Sanders said, “It was at the Chinese insistence there were no questions today.”
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 9, 2017
But that’s not how it works, Sarah. Ambassador Susan Rice set Huckabee-Sanders straight:
They always insist, Sarah. The trick is to use diplomacy to extract that concession as a matter of principle, despite their resistence. https://t.co/4SrSmvUPSi
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) November 9, 2017
Even usually informed sources don’t seem to get the scale of the idiocy playing out on the world stage right now. For example, Vox misses a key point in this article, IMO:
China isn’t the first country to flatter its way to Trump’s heart. It won’t be the last.
We may be witnessing the dawn of a sweet-talking arms race.Chinese President Xi Jinping is honoring President Trump with an unusually lavish reception and one-of-a-kind perks in China this week — the latest example of how leaders around the world are using flattery as a diplomatic tool for influencing the American president…
As heads of state struggle to predict what the leader of the free world is thinking or likely to do at any given moment, they have settled on massaging his ego as a way to nudge his mood in their favor…
We could be witnessing the dawn of a flattery arms race. And while the phenomenon is a reliable source of funny photos, it’s also a troubling development for the US. Foreign leaders are keen on exploiting Trump’s unrelenting hunger for validation and susceptibility to distraction.
As they grew more skilled at sweet-talking the president, they’re also subtly tilting power in their favor during talks where their interests diverge from those of the US. As they cultivate personal chemistry with Trump, they can tug his worldview closer to theirs or convince him they’re making bigger concessions to the US than they are.
“Trump risks mistaking personal flattery for geopolitical realities,” Richard Gowan, an expert on diplomacy at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told me. “Everyone will be nice to the US president — but behind the scenes, they will adjust their political calculations to reflect real-world politics.”
The author almost gets it, but the unvarnished truth is much worse than Trump being fooled about concessions and making bad deals. Through his absurd antics and constant lies, Trump has already squandered “leader of the free world” status.
His hosts are acutely aware of this, and they will pants him (and us) mercilessly and contest one another for the spoils while their bloated fool of a guest lolls around eating hamburgers on a golden chaise lounge from Despot Depot and glories in receiving tributes in the form of parades, lavish spending at Trump properties and gold-plated golf clubs.
Our hegemony is being vaporized for pitifully small bribes. Now, I’ve always been torn about US preeminence. For all our moralizing, we behave like international gangsters more often than not.
But now a soft, flabby, gullible idiot is in charge of the “gang,” and he’s representing our interests in the company of some extremely ruthless and canny individuals. Speaking of which:
A Russian presidential aide says Trump and Putin will meet Friday in Vietnam. Sec. of State Tillerson told reporters in Beijing a short while ago that a meeting was not nailed down.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 9, 2017
Yeah, that’s going to go well. I hope there’s something left to salvage when this idiot is shooed off the stage.