TRUMP TRAVELS ABROAD: TIME TO BE AN EMBARRASSED AMERICAN

….A Caricature of our man-child US President

 

Apparently the president doesn’t know that both Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia are in the “Middle East”.

 

Well, the one thing I knew we could count on with our new president is that we would continue to be embarrassed by our Commander-in-Chief when he was allowed to leave the country.  It was bad enough when he does what he does here in the US, but at least that keeps it here at home.

 

However, on this his first trip out of the country, he started off by not knowing where he went and where he was.

 

Upon arriving in Israel from Saudi Arabia, what does his bumble-ass have to say?  “We just got back from the Middle East,” Trump announced. “We just got back from Saudi Arabia.”

 

This is the same president that didn’t know what America’s “Nuclear Triad “ was, and apparently he doesn’t know that Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia are both in the “Middle East”.  Where in the hell does he think that Israel is located, Eastern Europe?

 

(There were pictures published in Israel of the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, putting his head in his hands upon hearing the president’s pronouncement of from where they had just arrived.)

 

But of course, it didn’t stop there.

 

As usual, when the president goes off script, it is usually due to a session of Trump having a quick case of “foot-in-mouth” disease.  And once again, the president did not fail to perform. 

 

When the president was winding up his news conference with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,  the reporters were shouting questions when Trump went off script.  Trump apparently just had to volunteer his confession. “Just so you understand,” he announced, “I never mentioned the word or the name Israel in conversation. Never mentioned it during that conversation. They are all saying I did. So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word Israel.”

 

Of course, no publication or news reports had said that he had mentioned Israel.

 

But Trump just confirmed that he had given confidential info to the Russians and that Israel was the unnamed ally that had provided sensitive intelligence to the United States.  Trump just handed it over to the Russian officials that he had invited into the Oval Office. This was the issue that had worried US officials concerned that if the ally were identified, Russia might try to go directly after the info's source.  It is reported that the Israeli intelligence officials are now concerned about continuing to share their intelligence info with the United States.

 

Isn’t it just great that now we get to share our spoiled man-child of a president with all our good friends abroad.

 

As to other traveling screw ups, while visiting the Arab nation that treats women as second class citizens, that forces them to be totally covered in public, not able to drive a car, not to be out in public without being escorted by a man and to not be allowed to hold high or public office, here’s what President Trump brought to Saudi Arabia.  Both the First Lady Melanie and the First Daughter Ivanka, during the formal meeting with the Saudi King at the Royal Palace, they both sat there with their heads uncovered and in traditional Western women’s dresses.

 

But when the first lady later visited the Vatican and when she was introduced to the Pope, she did have her head covered with a tradition veil or head scarf.

 

One recalls that others have written  about what has been called the “Ugly American” when traveling Americans show no regard for the customs of other nations when the Americans roll into town.  I saw it so many times when I visited Japan, Asia and even in the E.U.  But even back in the days of Mark Twain, he had written a similar story entitle “The Innocents Abroad” back in 1869.  He did this while he was traveling through the Holy Land and in Eastern Europe

 

But once again, the man-child didn’t stop there.

 

You may recall that over Donald Trump’s extended presidential campaign, during the Trump Train of rallies, speeches, and during his TV interviews, he at times referred to individuals such as: Rosie O’Donnell, Cher, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Maher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Howard Stern, Jeb Bush, John McCain, Marco Rubio, Karl Rove, and Megyn Kelly, among many others as “losers”.

 

Well, once again, while going off-script, President Trump felt he had to say something the morning after the terrible ISIS suicide bomber attack that killed 22 innocent attendees at a concert in Manchester, England.  Trump reacted with appropriate outrage and sorrow for those killed.  But then he made this aside: “I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. . . . I will call them from now on losers because that’s what’s they are. They’re losers.”

 

Yes, he actually used the same name for those that continue to execute and murder innocent victims by beheadings and suicide bombers, using the name he has used for his fellow American celebrities, politicians and news reporters.

 

As usual, Trump didn’t think it through. I’m sure he also didn’t mean to offend his hosts in Saudi Arabia by referring to “Islamic terror” rather than “Islamist terror.”  He must have been exhausted  when he referred to the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman, as “King Solomon”.  Sorry boss, King Solomon died about 3,000 years ago.  But then he decide to expand the “Strait of Hormuz” into multiple “Straits of Hormuz.”

 

As usual, this is always to be expected because Trump never thinks strategically.  He never thinks anything through beyond the here and now.

 

This is why so many people continue to be concerned that this is the man that controls the “nuclear launch codes”.  This is the same man that once said about the US building its nuclear weapons:  “Why did we spend so much time and money to build them, if we weren’t going to use them?”  The man has apparently never heard of the words: “nuclear deterrent”.

 

This is also why so many people, both here and abroad, are so concerned about what this president plans to do when dealing with the man-child that is ruling the “about to be a nuclear missile capable nation”, of North Korea?

 

To emphasize the situation that all Americans have in dealing with a President Donald J. Trump, The Post, Op-Ed writer, Dana Milbank wrote the following as to an example of what the Gettysburg Address might have been like, if it had been introduced by President Trump, instead of President Abraham Lincoln:

 

“Four score and seven years ago — that’s a long time ago, very long — our fathers, who spoke about this at great length, did what perhaps has virtually never been done before: brought forth on this continent, a new nation, a very great new nation — there’s no question about that — conceived in liberty — and that is so important! — and dedicated to the amazing proposition — and they felt very strongly about this, I can tell you — that all men are created equal. That’s number one for me.”

 

I’m personally not sure it would have been written that well.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017