The world is staring at Trump, mouth agape [View all]

[Demovictory9]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-world-is-staring-at-trump-mouth-agape/2019/10/16/5f861f88-f05a-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html

The world is staring at Trump, mouth agape

President Trump stood in a crowded East Room on Wednesday afternoon with the Italian president at his side, scores of aides and reporters at his feet, and a bank of cameras relaying his words to millions.

Yet he seemed alone against the world.
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And Trump acted the way he increasingly has lately: as if the walls are closing in. Trump lashed out, indiscriminately, in all directions. His unfocused rage was as cogent as a primal scream and as subtle as a column of Turkish tanks.




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Sickeningly, he attacked just-abandoned Kurdish allies as if they deserve the massacre they are now receiving. He portrayed these friends as enemies, saying they’re “not angels,” that it’s “natural for them” to fight and that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party is “more of a terrorist threat in many ways than ISIS.”

Trump even attacked his fellow Republicans over Syria, unleashing particular fury on the GOP legislator who has compromised himself more than any other to appease Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.). Told that Graham had warned Trump’s abandonment of northern Syria could be a “disaster,” Trump snapped: “I think Lindsey should focus on Judiciary.”



Implicitly threatening Graham, Trump continued: “The people of South Carolina don’t want us to get into a war with Turkey, a NATO member, or with Syria. .?.?. The people of South Carolina want to see those troops come home. And I won an election based on that, and that’s the way it is, whether it’s good or bad.”

From there, Trump went on to a private meeting with congressional leaders in which he called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a “third-grade politician” and his former defense secretary Jim Mattis “the world’s most overrated general.”

More revealing was who Trump didn’t attack: Turkey and Russia. He said Turkey’s invasion “didn’t surprise me.” He praised Turkey for being “almost paid up” with NATO. He said Russia, Iran and Syria can be trusted to take over the fight against the Islamic State.


Such incoherent rage, combined with confusion distinguishing between friend and foe, is uniquely disconcerting coming from the most powerful man in the world. Trump once worried that “the world is laughing at us.” Now the world is staring at us, mouth agape.