Thursday, August 31, 2017

Our Dangerous National Embarrassment



It's common knowledge that man-baby and reckless demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump is viewed with a mixture of horror, disgust and confusion among our closest allies. His antics at the NATO meeting in May, where he declined to endorse the concept of mutual defense, to spilling secrets from an ally (Israel) to the Russians in the Oval Office, have alarmed our friends and emboldened our adversaries. His subservience to Russia's autocrat Vladimir Putin is there for all to see, especially those in Europe who are threatened by a resurgence of Russian expansionism.

Reuters reports that one of those close allies, Japan, has chosen to deepen relationships with the adults in the White (Supremacist) House and administration. Building bridges to, for example, Secretary of Defense Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is seen by Japanese government officials as the best solution to keeping bilateral relations normalized, given the erratic, ignorant and puzzling behavior of Rump.

Working around Rump may be the only sensible way to deal with the U.S. government at this point. But one has to wonder what would happen if his delicate ego catches on that he's being quarantined by the adults. We can only imagine the tantrum he'd have, as he takes international relations into his own, incompetent and bullying hands.