Trump's Horribly Failed Trip To Europe

Here in the U.S., Trump is the least popular American "president" at this point in his term. It's much worse in the rest of the world. Except for outright fascist countries like Hungary and dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, Trump is almost universally hated. Even before he went to the U.K. and made an ass out of himself, YouGov polling showed him with an 11% approval rating. 67% of Britons say he's either a "poor" or "terrible" leader.

Scotland hates him even more than the rest of the U.K. and they're pissed off that his vacation/advertisement for his failed Turnberry golf resort, a money laundering machine, is costing them $6 million.

Before he flew up to Scotland, he did a 30 minute interview with right-winger Piers Morgan aboard Air Force One. Morgan wrote a long article about it for the Daily Mail but I'm just excerpting a tiny bit:

Trump spectacularly blew up his trip this week with an incendiary interview in The Sun that attacked Theresa May for watering down her Brexit plan to such an extent that it might kill off hopes of a trade deal with America.

It was the political equivalent of going to someone’s house for dinner and telling them their food is inedible.

He tried to rein back on his criticism when they appeared for a joint press conference on Friday, but a lot of the damage was already done with May’s critics leaping on the belief that her new Chequers plan which caused David Davis and Boris Johnson to resign, doesn’t allow Britain to do a bi-lateral deal with America.

I was curious if Mrs May had managed to change his mind during their series of private meetings.

‘No, no, I think my position is the same-- I just think it’s really their choice. And if you speak to the Prime Minister, she’s really saying: “No, it is Brexit, it is what it was, but we’re leaving certain things.”

‘Do you believe that?’

‘Well honestly it’s not for me to say.’

‘Most people don’t believe it.’

‘Well yeah, I know, but…’

‘They think it doesn’t allow for America to actually trade.’

‘Well that would be bad, I mean look, I think it’s worse for UK than it is for us because we’re doing very well, and we’re doing very well at trade, and we’re doing incredibly well overall, and we’re having the best numbers we’ve ever had as a country-- best employment numbers, best GDP numbers.’

‘If we were free, Britain, to do a genuine free trade deal...’

‘We would make a tremendously big deal.’

‘People say: “Come on. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, he wants to put America first, we’re not going to get a great deal.”

‘That’s true. Sure, but you’re going to put UK first, and we’re going to, you know, we’re going to argue, we’re going to fight, and we’re going to end up making a deal.’

‘Is it in your interests?’

‘We are putting America first but you have to put your country first, and other people have to put their country first.’

‘The sceptic in me would say: ‘What is the incentive for America to do a great deal with the United Kingdom?”

‘We would make a great deal with the United Kingdom because they have product that we like. I mean they have a lot of great product. They make phenomenal things, you know, and you have different names-- you can say “England,” you can say “UK,” you can say “United Kingdom” so many different-- you know you have, you have so many different names-- Great Britain. I always say: “Which one do you prefer? Great Britain? You understand what I’m saying?’

‘You know Great Britain and the United Kingdom aren’t exactly the same thing?’

‘Right, yeah. You know I know, but a lot of people don’t know that. But you have lots of different names. The fact is you make great product, you make great things. Even your farm product is so fantastic.’

Trump revealed at the press conference he had privately suggested Mrs May activate a ‘brutal option’ to bring the EU to heel.

I asked what it was.

‘Well I recommended her something, I gave her an option, I’d rather not tell you what that option is, but I think she might. I think it would’ve been great, but it’s not too late for her to do that necessarily.’

One more thing from Morgan's interview that was kind of hilarious-- and a little sad: When the ass-kissing Piers asked him about the hundreds of thousands of protesters, Trump told him that "Some of them are protesting in my favour, you know that? There are many, many protests in my favour." Among the imaginary pro-Trump protesters were not members of the royal family which largely boycotted Trump, although, poor Queen Elizabeth couldn't. Her husband, Prince Philip found something else to do and so did their son and grandsons, Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry, who are all friends with the Obamas and who are still fuming that Trump threatened England if the Obamas were invited to Prince Harry's wedding.

Now, back to Piers' unanswered question on Air Force One, the one about the "brutal option" he had given Theresa May. Because he shot off his fat mouth and because Morgan wrote about it, the Prime Minister had no choice but to reveal it when Andrew Marr asked her about it on the BBC the next day.

The prime minister was asked on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show what the “brutal” Brexit negotiating advice was that Trump had talked about in their joint press conference outside the prime minister’s Chequers country retreat.

Revealing it for the first time, May said: “He told me I should sue the EU.” After being prompted by a surprised Marr, May repeated: “Sue the EU, not go into negotiations with them, sue them.

The prime minister smiled, and indicated she had disregarded the advice, saying “actually we’re going into negotiations with them”, in remarks that will be interpreted as a put-down of the president.

At least in Finland, not all the protests, scorn and hatred were directed at Trumpanzee. That was all shared between him and his buddy Putin-- and the weather, the hottest day (86 degrees) in years. Even before Trump arrived, Helsinki police were reporting that at least 10 16 demonstrations were planned to protest the two of them, primarily in support of human rights and democracy. During the Sunday rally, Heidi Hautala, a popular Finnish member of the European Parliament told the crowd of several thousand that "The current world order... has been challenged by admiration of force and an attitude of 'every man for himself.' And this is what these two men, Trump and Putin, have in common-- contempt for democracy, contempt for international agreements, contempt for human rights." The Finnish neo-Nazi party also organized a Welcome Trump event at Narinkkatori, a pedestrian plaza across from the train and bus station which also includes the Chapel of Silence, a church dedicated to the absence of sound, an odd place to hold a pro-Trump demonstration.

Before the meeting, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that they agree with Trump that the bad relations with our country are the fault of... our country-- "U.S. foolishness" and the "witch hunt"-- a word for word interpretation of Señor Trumpanzee's morning tweet. America First?

Trump kept Putin waiting 20 minutes before the summit started, it lasted 90 minutes. That was some weird press conference! David Frum summed it up like this: "We still do not know what hold Vladimir Putin has upon President Trump, but the whole world has now witnessed the power of its grip. Russia helped Donald Trump into the presidency, as Robert Mueller’s indictment vividly details. Putin, in his own voice, has confirmed that he wanted Trump elected. Standing alongside his benefactor, Trump denounced the special counsel investigating the Russian intervention in the U.S. election-- and even repudiated his own intelligence appointees. This is an unprecedented situation, but not an uncontemplated one. At the 1787 convention in Philadelphia, the authors of the Constitution worried a great deal about foreign potentates corrupting the American presidency... The reasons for Trump’s striking behavior-- whether he was bribed or blackmailed or something else-- remain to be ascertained. That he has publicly refused to defend his country’s independent electoral process-- and did so jointly with the foreign dictator who perverted that process-- is video-recorded fact."

Senator John McCain, watching from home in Arizona, issued a statement that one could only hope some of his colleagues in DC will pay attention to: "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake."

Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.

It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout-- as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.

Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.

No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.

I wondered if any congressional candidates would have the courage to call it like it is. Kara Eastman (D-NE) sure did-- and fast! "Today, we all watched as Trump committed treason on live television. He sided with Russia over his own appointed staff, despite evidence of Russian meddling in our past election. He has continued to alienate our allies and ignore the advice of our intelligence community, while catering to dictators. This is not how our government is supposed to operate. We have a system of checks and balances, and right now, Republicans in Congress are not doing anything to stop the reckless and dangerous behavior of the president. Despite Trump’s actions, Don Bacon has promised to be a “firewall against impeachment” and has stood by Trump regardless of how far he debases the presidency and our democracy. We need principled leadership in this district-- a leader who will condemn this behavior and ensure the investigation into Trump’s possible collusion with Russia continues."

I want to leave you with one thought. Most people I know probably agree with the sentiment Karoli from Crooks and Liars told me after watching the shocking circus in Helsinki today: "I have never seen a press conference that made me cry, but that one did. It was absolutely treason and he should be arrested when his feet hit American soil."

Traitor! by Chip Proser