He said of Obama and Macron, both are “too slim” and “too elegant” to relate to the man on the street.
We need to lift up the man on the street.
I was brought up blue collar, worked my way through high school and college, first generation to go to college.
Since 2000 with W Bush vs. Gore, I have been told I am the liberal elite.
We need to get more lifted up like I was able to do.
And not every one needs nor should go to university. There are trade schools.
But for the good of he country, all should have some level of reading and thinking.
129
Ambassador Araud comes across as a bit of a cypher . Where as he’s critical of the DC-NY parochialism and inane self-referential approach, his life style seems to fit right in - the lumberjack bit, for one People of good will are critical of Donald Trump because he’s, no matter the circumstances and platform, a reprehensible individual. He clearly conspired with the Russians, has actively engaged in unpatriotic, perhaps even traitorous acts to subvert the US Constitution, ignore treaties, cuddle up to dictators and thugs, while splitting the country along ethnic tropes that blame the few for the ills of the system.
84
Araud is right. Trump did not come out of nowhere. He fully represents the USA . I have lived 30 and more years in this country and I was not and am not surprised at the elections results nor at the general flegme about the Mueller report now.
One third of the nation was thinking and is still thinking it lives in an other world but if you look at the history of the USA ,it is consistent with the policies of Trump.
There was a slight progress with Obama but he did not succeed at changing anything.
Still a capitalist killer no prisoner ideology, no global health insurance, the highest crime and incarceration per capita in the world by 6 times the world average, the worst education level , wide ignorance, still the death penalty, invasion of other markets with dishonest commercial and financial practices, cowboy country !
And 750 Billion annual military budget with 1 million soldiers army !
The New World !
72
I wonder if we are reading Mrs Dowd's interpretation of what the ambassador said, or whether he actually believes what she is writing here. The former I would understand, while the latter is just not very believable. Talk about Trump's daily bullying and attacks on the enemies he sees everywhere. as well as the indictment of so many of his posse, are not only the talk in D.C., and Monsieur Araud must be aware of this.
26
My wife is French, and I was just recently telling her that I disliked the French obsession with clothes and the tendency of the French (especially Parisians) to judge people based on what they wear. She denied that this was true, but I feel vindicated in my views when I read that two out of the three reasons Araud gave for not liking Washington have to do with styles of clothing.
66
Araud said:
“The deep state is real, not in the sense of plotting. But when Trump arrived here, basically without a team, without experience, people were convinced that they would manipulate him. But no, you can’t manipulate him.”
Putin seems to be doing a pretty good job manipulating Trump.
Mr. Trump, show us your taxes.
101
‘What does it mean to be on the left in America?’
if there is to be a Democratic Party post Trump it can no longer be a doppelgänger of the Republican Party on economic policy.
Can anyone reasonably argue that Clinton's economic team—absent Wilbur Ross— would be meaningfully different from Trump's?
18
How could someone this smart, this experienced, be so utterly fooled into thinking Trump is politically astute in any way. He makes the same mistake others make when they try to normalize this administration by grouping it in with preceding administrations. Mr. Araud has been around long enough to know when a country has come off the rails completely, and his treating this totally corrupt administration as a small event, not worth discussing in Seattle or Chicago (doubtful), insults my intelligence more than his, I guess. This psychodrama happening in the White House has everything to do with Trump's narcissism and nothing to do with the politics of our recent past. Trump doesn't have a party, a philosophy or a care about America's standing in the world. If Mr. Araud was unaware of that, perhaps it was time for him to step down.
999
@Rick Gage
The French Ambassador may agree with you completely. Remember that the filter is Ms. Dowd, and remember also that it was more important to Ms. Dowd that Ms. Clinton not be elected in 2016 than trump be elected. Evidence of that was the copy space in this column provided to her "brother" Kevin who wrote in favor of trump.
171
@Rick Gage
Trump has convinced a large enough group of people in the US to vote for the interests of the 1% rather than their own interests. He has done this by feeding into their fears and cleverly painting the democratic side as the enemy, all to serve the interests of his class and not those of the people who believe in him so strongly. This is no easy trick, Trump may be the worst, least competent, immoral (the list goes on) president in our history but he is nothing if not politically astute, democrats ignore this fact at their own peril.
96
I live in Chicago and I wonder with whom the Ambassador met. Trump comes up in casual conversations. I was on a bus last year when a Santa Claus look-alike got off the bus and turned in my direction from the street to give a Heil Hitler salute; I was the sole White person within his view.
338
@Geraldine Conrad
Dreadful! From someone playing 'Santa Claus"?
27
“I have a sort of big mouth, I guess.”
Trumps "big mouth" is not really the problem. The problem is the predictably wearisome and arrogant speech that routinely pours out of his mouth. This is one voter and taxpayer that no longer watches segments of the news when Trump is speaking. He has made me realize how important the mute button is for maintaining sanity.
79
So Stephen Miller says the chaos is intentional, huh? Omarosa said the other day that Trump has a bunch of 'crazy' ideas ready to pull out of a hat, just for distraction purposes. Things getting a little too hot? Just pull out another crazy idea and watch the press go nuts chasing after. Want to slide something through with nobody looking? "Stephen, time to pull another crazy idea out of the hat".
Fascists are so cute, aren't they? And press? Please stop chasing the crazy and stay on top of these people before the Constitution is completely destroyed.
1329
@sophia Please, tell me the specific portion of the Constitution Trump and 'these' people have "destroyed"?
12
Someone at least admitting that Trump is savvy about something is both refreshing and frightening. Trump’s “astuteness” is incredibly narrow and limited, of course, but effective. But Araud is not the first to acknowledge this. As this newspaper knows well, even Stanley Fish warned us about him (and his rhetoric) and his non-rational appeal.
Too bad he has no soul, at least as indicated by his behavior. He’s also unprincipled, historically stupid, childish (in the bad sense of that term), mean, and basically evil. This pretty much cancels out his “astuteness,” but also makes him more difficult to deal with. Flimflam men are notoriously slick.
712
@rjon
You do know that Trump's approval ratings have always been sub-50 percent?
Good presidents expand their bases. Trump has failed to do so, which places in grave doubt his ability to get re-elected.
62
@Ricardo Chavira Unfortunately, Ricardo, those same voters who elected trump aren't surprised by trump and are still out there waiting for 2020.
57
This French ambassador is a snob of a kind. But I wish him well. He can look down his nose at Trump and his supporters - everyone does. But, we are not getting into crazy wars, we are refashioning trade, the economy is showing good signs, the lowest paid workers are seeing gains, and he wants order at the border. The ambassador lives in a rarified atmosphere, and likely shrugs at this stuff. It's an old story.
12
Araud wants what every Europeans wants from the US: largely unimpeded access to the US market and a nice fat defense subsidy. The four presidents after Reagan should have ended all of that since it was largely based on the Cold War policy of supporting allies. But they didn't and now Trump want to end it almost thirty years later and Europeans are peeved. So what? The only substance in Dowd's otherwise typical facetious article is that she reported in essence how Europeans really see the US and that's a useful measure of who and what they are.
13
The American media is so obsessed with their ratings they give trump 24/7 free press .
Might as well so I listen to some FOX interviews often on Sundays with Chris Wallace and weekdays sometimes Shep Smith much better than CNN and MSNBC in that same time slot.
What is wrong with the Republican old white men in Senate and Congress for being so afraid of trump`s wrath ?
At least Mitt Romney had some mild criticisms as he knows well trump can not touch him.
Hope someone among Democrats either Mayor Pete, Kamala Harris or Joe Biden would beat the liar in chief and puts where he belongs.
To the funny farm .
11
When a diplomat is so ill informed and deeply confused about the nation he's in, it's no wonder he's looking for another line of work!
18
Arnaud is right that we need to look carefully at what the finger is pointing at. But if the finger is also putting out your eye, you can't just ignore it, or excuse it. The 'burn-down-the-house' mentality of people like Trump, Bannon and Miller is dangerous in itself - because it's burning democracy, instead of inequity.
21
I find it difficult to find any new or useful observations by the French ambassador.
17
Araud is on point. From a "hyper-rational" perspective, it is remarkable that so many economically anxious people actually believed electing Trump would be a good idea for anyone. (the misogynists and racists of course knew exactly what they were doing with their votes). But when you're afraid, you see value in tearing everything down as the least worst outcome. This is why Buttigieg and Warren are most in tune with what is actually happening in the heartland. Warren has the policy argument, and Pete has the values argument. they would be a devastating tandem for Trump and Pence, especially in debates, and especially against the stark relief of what is bound to be a slowing economy come fall 2020.
11
“I do think the genius — and I’m using the word genius — of Donald Trump is to have felt the crisis,” he said.
The Democrats realized the crisis and had proposals to address it!
They failed to realize that when you're dealing with trogs you can't rely on fact based analysis and reason.
They need to be entertained and stimulated and fed nonsense.
Reality TV.
13
Excellent insights from Mr. Araud. Trump a genius? Pretty much. He trademarked “Make America Great Again” six days after Obama was re-elected. Trumpophobia outside the Beltway? Nope. I work with global clients every week across every major industry and have yet to hear Trump’s name invoked in anger, seldom in passing. The media is anti-Trump? Well, that’s not an insight as much as an observation that the sun rises in the east.
12
What i read and see here are passengers on a ship discussing how well or badly the captain and crew are doing while an iceburg sits awaiting.
16
This is more about Dowd and her eternal need to be on chummy terms with high-society types. When she's not part of the 'in' crowd, she feels scorned. Her fury at being scorned is what led her to lash out at President Obama and lash out at the Clintons. It's not what the French ambassador thinks about Trumpy that is relevant. It's what the deplorables think and do that counts. The deplorables being the members of the Republican party that has been conning the working class for quite a long time.
18
One thing that the Ambassador gets right is that we spend too much time responding to Trump’s provocations, insults, and mindless tweets.
Trump thrives on chaos. He creates it. He manipulates it. And he uses it to ensnare his critics in diversions from the real damage that he and his advisors and Cabinet members and Mitch McConnell’s Senate minions are doing to America.
16
Nobody says the word Trump? But does he know why? The reason is that people either despise Trump and all that he represents or they are part of the hardened cult who support his every utterance. There is no in between so most people avoid the danger of approaching someone with a comment about Trump unless you already know the person's position on him. Go to any party with people you don't know and you are well aware that Trump is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
11
What a nice, exclusive life he leads; free to go and do whatever and however he chooses with his partner in tow. Is he going to emigrate here now tax free and visa proof with his diplomatic immunity? He is a swell guy, but seems to be the sort of bourgeois elite the French Revolution tried to eradicate. Our president both a genius and a fraud, while his is too slim and intelligent for the average man. I’m sure this debonair delight will fit right in wherever he lands.
11
One of the better analysis of the establishment and Trumps presence in WDC.
4
Very many commenters are frightened by a piece, and an ambassador, who do not savage Trump unequivocally. This is sad.
15
Remember, the French also considered Jerry Lewis to be a genius.
19
"It's the economy , stupid." After the repeal of financial regulations, a huge financial meltdown in 2008 threatened a modern day "Greater Depression." Through the intelligent and determined decisions and policies of "adults in the room," total economic catastrophe was avoided and the US slowly recovered. The responsible bankers were made whole and liquid, but the middle class lost their homes and economic security. The Obama recovery has been long and continues.
However, as the financial industry is getting deregulated again it is only a matter of time before before the risky "investments" that banks are packaging into new economic "weapons of mass destruction" will wreak havoc again.
In Trump's World there are no "adults in the room" to save us this time. That's true in D.C., NYC, LA, SF, and everywhere else.
No amount of snarkiness can compensate for determined ignorance and hubris for Trump and his coterie.
7
Interesting that he's choosing to stay in New York!
4
Araud lives in glitzy social circles of refined elites,haughtily speaking of Trump. Araud typifies European social elite attitudes, condescendingly unaware what's happening in the countryside at home. de Touquville he isn't. de Touquville traveled the countryside to understand America, not sitting in an ivory tower lamenting how a boorish Andrew Jackson was elected.
9
Writing hateful pieces about Trump got harder for Maureen after the Mueller report deflated that whole thing. I love the quote from the gay French ambassador that both men (Macron and Obama) are “too slim” and “too elegant” to relate to the man on the street. At least there is the admission that neither could relate to the man on the street and that, of course, is what we now have Trump. Hillary couldn't relate to the man on the street either, although no one would accuse her of being "too slim" or "too elegant".
7
The ambassador perfectly fits the French stereotype. What an arrogant egotistical party boy. He'd make a good caterer. His country is falling apart and he'd rather stay in NYC and make big bucks. Sorry, I don't need a do-nothing "diplomat" to tell me what's right or wrong with this country or any other.
17
With all due respect, comparing Macron to Obama is a little far fetched. Araud has spent to much tome in the United States.
2
I've read the reviews of MD's column, and find myself contradictorally
agreeing and enjoying the comments.
I like 'em.
Because the NYT is savvy in discussing the issue, and all pov are published
which impresses my sense of open candidness, and public disagreement
is as fair as can be without boredom.
If I can't explain my points of view, then so what.
Humor and irony are subjective, and I perceive MD concurs.
The French are complex
Bravo! I think most the squirrels I've seen in Washington D.C. emanate primarily from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Its the Capitol nature preserve for all shape and mater of rodents. Some have been redacted from premises however and permanently transferred to Capitol hill.
2
Trump can't be manipulated? Just ask Ann Coulter..
13
Araud’s comments about Chicago and Donald Trump indicate he has never been there, read about the city or spoken to any of its residents. Chicago is one of the most anti-Trump cities in the US. Does he not remember the feuding between Trump and Rahm Emanuel? Just one example: https://www.google.com/amp/s/chicago.suntimes.com/news/city-takes-down-honorary-trump-street-signs/amp/
6
Maureen’s columns are like a magic telescope revealing our somewhat goofy silly human flaws. While the view makes for a snappy column, this telescope does not bring into focus Trump the arsonist burning away another supporting section of democratic norms and laws. Or show Trump the lawbreaker of Volume 2 of Mueller’s report, who continues obstructing justice by not cooperating with any Congressional request. Finally, it does not show Trump the mobster who values loyalty above the law and sees himself above the law. These other views of Trump are cumulating elsewhere, notably in the House, which will exercise legal oversight that Trump will soon find is nothing he can thumb his nose at.
4
Here in the Midwest Mr Araud doesn't hear the word 'Trump' because mere mention of the name is enough to provoke anger leading inevitably to unpleasantness. One side sees him as the soulless, spineless toady of Putin while the other side is ready to go down to the last Article of the Constitution with him. Doesn't mean the Trump word isn't a burr on the brain no different than Washington's.
4
We have become so marginalized!
He thinks Trump is “governing”? It’s all about style? How shallow!
4
Stop the spinning world, and it won't be as interesting rotating around our
Sun King, who is smarter but dumber than I could explain.
Toxic, "above it all" cynicism... not unsurprising from a French man. While I agree that Trump is the result of a much larger problem, the idea that we should all be sighing "c'est la vie" over Trump, the president, is insulting.
We have a HUGE (inference intended) problem with wealth disparity. The fact that a gold-plated, Machiavellian bottom-feeder like Trump was half the country's answer to fix this, is anguishing in it's stupidity.
I do think there is one point Araud "poo poo's" correctly: The Democratic leadership has no idea what it's doing, and the press is shamelessly feeding at the trough of stoked controversy. Continual focus on the now DOA issue of Russia/Trump and impeachment will cost the Democrats the presidency in 2020... and cost serious media the term "serious."
8
That’s an interesting Chinese “saying” the Ambassador notes, and clearly it is one so appropriate for this column. In fact, it serves quite well for Mo herself. As with this obviously lightweight Frenchman, it so well illustrates, specifically and generally, the thrust of piece and the approach of Ms. Dowd. It’s always the finger and not the moon. I don’t know how endemic this disease truly is but in the age of Trump, you know, it’s all the show, forget the story. So French and oh so Mo!
4
Ms. Dowd, place your glass of champaign down and spend some time with the folks up here in the North Country. We'll talk to you about unemployment, opioid addiction, healthcare and squirrels, too. Blue jeans and a flannel shirt are acceptable. See you soon.
12
Tocqueville!! Hardly. Maureen, take the majority of these comments to heart. I can’t take the reflections of this Ambassador seriously; why do you? He is simply self-serving and looking forward to a lucrative “career” on East 73rd St. in New York City. His contributions are what exactly?
8
Arnaud has his views on this administration and quite frankly its not overly important whether we agree or disagree with him since he doesn't get a vote. On the world stage, this President is considered a boorish buffoon in some circles and to many others a threat to democracy itself, but in the end he is forcing a apathetic, disconnected electorate to look in the mirror at itself and whether we want to continue to develop this 242 old grand experiment in governance of, for and by the people.
The American people are going to decide in 2020 whether this bull in China shop gets to continue his campaign of upending the status quo and all that entails.
Our collective challenge? Do we continue this chaos? Do we lurch to the left? Do we go back to the center? or maybe something else will come to the fore?
This 240 year old grand experiment is fragile and our soul searching is justified and necessary for a healthy democracy, let's hope we get it right, whatever choices we make.
5
Amazing to see how many people get their knickers in a bunch when someone suggests Trump may be more than a demented sociopath.
It must be therapeutic for those deeply invested in what they are told to believe.
6
I am surprised that a French Ambassador so patronizing about Americans would not return to France after leaving his position but instead move to New York City.
6
I don't know how diplomats do it. I could never attend any party — featuring guests like Mnuchin, Linton, Ross, Miller or Conway — without feeling a nagging urge to dump the contents of my glass upon their heads. And I love a good Bordeaux as much as anyone, but some opportunities require action. Au revoir.
11
Of course it is still very easy to ignore Trump, if you are not minority, you are white, not a Muslim and not an immigrant.
Still.
4
It was so refreshing and invigorating to read this marvelous piece on the outgoing Ambassador, a man who appears to share with Donald Trump a deep understanding of and compassion for the majority of people who don't live in wealth.
Good riddance.
3
Did he learn about the “forgotten man” from the people attending his over the top parties such as Kushner and Conway?
What makes him think he’s such a judge of character to opine on Obama as being out of touch?
What a ridiculous column
15
What the gentleman from France fails to understand is that Trump had no ”genius” plan. His anti-intellectual position is nothing more than ignorance (“another low I.Q., folks”) and failed preparedness for the top job.
9
What emerges from this column is a man who has deluded himself that he can stay relevant by trading in thoughtfulness for cynical trendiness.
He comes off as an impeccably-tailored empty suit.
11
I too wonder to whom the ambassador is talking in Seattle. I am in Alaska and the only reason you wouldn't hear many of us outraged about Trump is that we are exhausted by his inanities and frustrated by Washington's lack of action. I found his comments patronizing and out of touch, Typical DC. Au revoir
9
Suffice it to say the French have their own problems. Au revour.
5
No, Trump’s “genius” was merely in remembering that Americans are a gullible bunch of fools who are willing to believe that a snake-oil salesman is this time selling real medicine. And Hillary Clinton’s “failure” was in forgetting that logic and reason don’t work on such people.
9
"When the finger is showing the moon, the fool is looking at the finger and the wise man at the moon." I'm going to remember that one. I only hope our Democratic leadership will also.
1
Ugh. I used to look fowad to readln' MD.... now not amused. The Trump problem is "it ain't funny, Magee/Maureen."
Long cold nights...
7
VERY insightful. I found myself agreeing with Araud, on the lack of relatedness of "slim, elegant candidates" and the baggy suits. Pearls of wisdom here for the 2020 Dem slate of candidates who have a relatability problem..
2
Perhaps I’m daft but... what is this piece about? If it’s an opinion piece, where and what is the opinion in this extremely shallow piece?
8
This guy sounds like the second coming of former French Ambassador to the U.S., the obnoxious Citizen Genet who, Washington (George, that is) couldn't wait to send on his way back to France due to his constant interference in American foreign policy. When it was discovered that the new Jacobin government planned to guillotine him, M. Genet was granted asylum in 1794. He spent the rest of his life, ironically, in New York.
2
Racism, fascism, tax cuts for the Uber rich real estate parasites that cling to the Trump Republic Evangelical movement all fade into the background amidst the clatter of white males whining about their not recognizing their country any longer. Sounds just like a modern version of the Germany my father described when the Nazis swarmed over Germany in the early 1930s motivated by the traitors to the nation humiliated by defeat in WW1. We all know how the chants of blood and soil turned into the most catastrophic war in human history and the holocaust. Fascism, racism must be fought from minute one. It is a categorical imperative, not a preference for seating arrangements or attire at an embassy party.
7
Nobody mentions Trump? It’s true outside of the beltway that we don’t talk about Trump that much. That's because it's too painful to consider how embarrassing it is to have such a man as president. We may recover, but if he is reelected in 2020, it will be the end of the USA as an admirable nation. 4 more years will send us into a downward spiral that we will never recover from.
6
"Social democracy is in a coma in Europe..."
"Social democracy" is just yet another euphemism for "Big Government." It's a system of government perhaps ideal for those who can't or won't take responsibility for their own lives and are perfectly willing to surrender personal freedom in exchange for relief from that responsibility. On the other end, it's a system of government ideal for those who think that they're better than the rest of us and it's both their right and their responsibility to dictate the lives of their inferiors--it's sad how many people are perfectly content so many people are to accept the role of "inferior."
6
@Henry Miller, Libertarian
Germany is known for high-tech manufacturing and has a huge (yuge?) trade surplus.
They have universal healthcare.
They don't have the poverty we have.
They have better schools for the working class.
They have a couple of years for trade school or university.
They have better economic mobility, the ability to pull oneself up by your bootstraps. Which of course is because of their education policies.
And they have faced the same globalization we have.
After 35 years of trickle-down Reaganomics, we got an opioid crisis.
15
We traveled to Australia in January, and when we outed ourselves as Americans rather than the Canadians we could have been, accent-wise, EVERYONE, even strangers on the commuter train, asked us how we could have elected Trump.
11
I note that many folks here are taking Ambassador Araud to task for not understanding America better. Let's face it: Americans don't understand America very well either. Araud, at least, knew what his job was and did it rather well.
It is the function of an Ambassador to represent his own country's interests in a foreign land. If that means shading the truth occasionally, or being polite to monsters, or not stating the obvious and engaging in a bit of cynicism -- well, that's the profession, isn't it?
It sounds to me like Araud was one of Washington's more talented diplomats. Too bad we don't have more people like him on our team.
7
I have no doubt that Mr. Araud and his partner will be welcomed in Manhattan, which is no longer true of the Trump's. After all, tolerance has its limits.
8
Two days in here Seattle without hearing the word "Trump" would be like two days in Seattle without hearing the word "rain." My friends and I have sometimes been known to agree in advance not to bring him up at dinner, etc. It's not paranoia, and it's not overreaction. The guy is helping destroy the country and people are alarmed and not sure what happens next.
15
France's apex was The 100 Years War. Descartes, Voltaire, et al. were anomalies...
3
As someone with two homes I must sadly report that the Ambassador is not accurate in all of his statements.
we do about Trump in the Puget Sound, including my small town, and we even talk about him on the beach in Mazatlan. No Exit.
13
So Trump first felt the economic frailty that afflicts many Americans. What has he done about it? A tax cut that disproportionately favors the rich, a promise to end healthcare coverage for 20 million Americans, and a proposed budget that cuts Medicare and Medicaid spending. Interesting response. Hopefully America is paying attention.
16
“The deep state is real, not in the sense of plotting. But when Trump arrived here, basically without a team, without experience, people were convinced that they would manipulate him. But no, you can’t manipulate him.”
I've got news for you, M. Ambassador, trump can be manipulated. You have just manipulated trump. You have given him what he wants: the cachet of omnipotence. Now, in your new career, trump will follow you everywhere. You may not want that.
10
Perhaps Msr. Araud can blow off trump as just a "big mouth", but this big mouth has now told over 10,000 lies since sworn in.
This big mouth has threatened the press, our intelligence agencies, our courts and citizens who did not vote for him by declaring that he now has the military, law enforcement and "bikers for trump", at his disposal.
He has cozied up to dictators admiring the way their citizens can be brought to heal. He asked for, received, benefited from and rewarded Putin for helping him win the election.
Perhaps Araud should recall the words of another Frenchman, for they are on my mind a lot lately.
"Those that can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."
Voltaire
36
I disagree completely. The finger is the crisis. As soon as the press stops reporting the utterly deviant words and actions of Trump, they will become normalized. That should never happen. This president’s actual words and behavior are being reported. That isn’t anti-Trump bias, it’s a daily reminder of how historically aberrant he is.
25
Araud is just incorrect that Trump is never mentioned outside of Washington.
He or his "policies" come up unbidden, cast in a mostly negative light, from people you would tag as "deplorables" from their appearance, mannerisms, and modes of speech.
Maybe Araud runs with a crowd too polite and restrained to mention our national embarrassment, but the hoi polloi mention Trump all the time.
18
"... the Democratic Party will be obliged to answer the question, ‘What does it mean to be on the left in America?’”
Absolutely spot-on. C'mon Nancy - put forth a bold vision of where the Dems stand on major issues - it won't pass, yet, but it'll give the populace an idea of the fundamental contrast. They will respond.
Your enemy is false equivalence.
4
@the dogfather
The press doesn't seem to think it exciting enough that the Democratic House has passed a bill on making voting a "right" again. They are working on environmental laws, workers' rights, all sorts of things. Such things get passed by the House and then Mr. McConnell refuses to have them brought before the Senate. These things should be brought up by all media daily. Instead the latest craziness of the White House becomes story #1 all day, every day.
9
I might be as cavalier as Araud if I was holding a French passport and was bouncing from soirée to soiree offering my uninvolved opinions to the elite of the political class, but alas, I have grandkids growing up here and must continue to resist this administration and try to cope with the damage it has and will continue to do
35
The French Ambassador has interesting insights about Trump. Democrats obsessed with ousting him should seriously consider them. He is only a symptom of a disease, he's not the disease himself. His genius was tapping into widespread economic discontent and general distrust in the political process. While he is disgusting to me, each political party should be doing a major assessment of where they've gone so wrong that such a grotesque individual could become president.
13
Interesting perspective, from someone who does not feel a moral obligation to hate Trump. That said, I don’t like the snotty condescension from the representative of a country that lost its relevance in 1815. He’ll fit in perfectly on the Upper East Side!
6
Yes well you may have France mr ambassador. With the constant threat of a strike looming always, and large marginalized foreign populations living in squalid apartments. The french do not have a clue any more than anybody else about integrating and assimilation their disenfranchised populace. Trump IS an aberration. The guy who got in the door when nobody was really paying attention. Or the guy who got in because he shouted louder and insulted better than most. The ambassador must have lived a very charmed life to have been here this long. I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
7
The only thing that Araud and de Tocqueville have in common is that they're French.
As might once have been said; " I knew Tocqueville...and he's no Tocqueville".
8
Trump is Tom Buchanan from "The Great Gatsby." It has always been a popular American MO, so maybe it was missing from Washington "culture" a little too long.
What DC doesn't need more of is a 24/7/365 mass recitation of how horrible everything about Trump is. That orientation is destroying the news media and political discourse.
5
So why move to Manhattan and not back to France? Does he think New Yorkers will be slimmer, more elegant and thus more appreciative of his parties and French wine? Or does he think Trump makes a better president than Macron? I don't know if Dowd has painted an accurate portrait of Araud but it makes him sound extremely shallow, like a man watching his finger instead of the moon.
15
As a non-citizen this must be a wonderful form of entertainment. Front row seats in Manhattan.
The press is not anti-Trump. It is pro America and the First Amendment and facts. All things Trump despises.
24
Based on the guests named, nobody on the A-list from either political party showed up at Arnaud's dazzling soirees.
6
another commenter mentioned a scene from blazing saddles..... when i read the ambassador's words i am reminded of a different scene..... the one with madeline kahn singing "i'm tired".
i have to believe that hosting top members of the trump administration is not that much fun. they will come for the french wine and ingratiate themselves to the host. perhaps they are even witty and urbane in private..... but then they will leave the party and return to their day jobs as supporters of a tyrant that is undermining world order as best he can.
i'm tired too.....
8
Araud comes across as bemused, glib and condescending. He's convinced we clear-minded Americans, as opposed to Trumpistas, are making too big a deal over a president who has fomented hate, discord, dysfunctionality and at this moment is intent on becoming an outright autocrat.
.. the Democratic Party will be obliged to answer the question, ‘What does it mean to be on the left in America?’”
No, that's not the question. The correct questions are what does it mean to not be a demented Trump cultist? What does it mean to be a moderate and inclusive party, one that can douse the hate that Trump has ignited and fanned?
Way out here in Tucson, Trump is very much on people's minds. How can it be otherwise as he dominates the news day in and day out?
This Frenchman is no De Tocqueville.
10
I certainly agree with the Ambassador; Washington is full of squirrels. Each squirrel believes he or she is the voice of the American people and speaks for the true values of the country. Yikes. Most speak for two things above all else, raising campaign dollars and keeping their job. The thought of returning home and becoming a productive citizen is the last thing on their minds.
4
This individual was the representative of the country of France in the United States. Doesn't speak well for that country when the French Ambassador has a blasé attitude towards American politics and seemingly used his appointment as it's party time in Washington. Yeah, let him pack up his stuffed animals and exit the scene.
11
It's perfectly okay to entertain people with exaggerations and half-truths and caricatures and name-calling.
But political leadership needs serious focus, background research and a visionary policy that is consistent with the arc of American interests.
Donald is an entertainer. The media are entertained. But here, in Oakland, people are resigned to yet another white guy focus on all our problems.
I wish the ambassador well. But New York isn't any more reflective of the country than Washington is. Perhaps if he moved to Rochester...?
4
So true. Everything he said. My only question is this: how come he didn't invite me to any of his parties when I lived in DC?
3
Always interesting, but superficial. There’s not much insight here, other than the obvious point that the Democrats seem bent on ignoring the sorry plight of the middle class and former middle class. He is suggesting that the Western liberal elites have become too enamored of the benefits of their positions, too focused on the upper reaches of the economy and utterly neglectful of the folks real democrats from FDR to Bobby Kennedy knew in their hearts and minds were at the core of our party.
4
Odd that Macron didn't see the yellow vests coming, his own election was a reaction to the technocrats running France. Much like Trump, just because you are able to activate your base voters in an election cycle doesn't mean you can control those voters (or the crazies within) once elected.
But France is not like the US, if anything it provides a look at one potential future where the state provides health care, education regulates generous working conditions and vacations. Yet only the elite can go to the best schools leading to plum assignments in government and business, not to mention their North African immigrants that get shortchanged and discriminated against.
Net result is increasing frustration across society, increasing anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic sentiments. Sound familiar?
7
Ah, the French, le hauteur! Want to hear the word Trump outside of DC? Go to any bar in any city in the US and open your big blue ears. Not just conversations about Trump per se...but about immigration, the economy, Russia, the EU... If Trump deserves credit for just one accomplishment, he has heightened awareness of political issues to such an extent that the 2020 election is likely to set a modern record for voter turnout.
Finally, voters here are untroubled by a President who is too thin or too smart or lacking the common touch. What we want is to be confident that when our president says something in public, or on twitter he's not lying ALL THE TIME. No one in the world tells no lies whatsoever, but if Trump says today is Sunday I'm shocked, because I know it to be true.
15
Life spontaneously lived, meaningful and dispassionately happy, affectionately detached, timeless and causeless of things and being: this is the enlightened life, wherein the blind man sees no color.
6
Western societies have reached an inflection point where income inequality has become so severe that we might equate ourselves to the times before the French revolution when the people had just had it with the monarchy. Now we have these insanely rich technocrats which the people resent. There is this 10th of a percent of the population which is just insanely rich and compensated beyond anything that makes sense. We are living in a world of rapid and accelerating change. People who are ending up in the bottom half of the economic ladder are increasingly uncomfortable with this development. Perhaps out of frustration the people elect someone like a Donald Trump who is exactly what they hate - a member of the 10th of a percent that is extracting from the system his unfair portion of the spoils and can now actually manipulate the system to increase his spoils. Does this make sense? Not in a logical sense. It was a highly emotional response. After all we went from a Black, inclusive President in Obama to almost the exact opposite. It was a marginal victory but a victory nevertheless. Being a devoted capitalist my bias is clearly towards this system of economic organization . But I deeply worry that income inequality has reached a point where something is broken in the system and people are not being rewarded according to their actual inputs to the system and talents. The problem is complicated but we must not throw out the baby with the bath water.
9
“You had a Republican Party that was really free trade, interventionist in foreign policy, connected to budgetary restraint,” he said.
Reagan's supply side didn't work (even OMB's Stockman admitted years later that they didn't know what they were doing). Bush Sr. was forced to raise taxes despite his faux-macho election promises to the contrary. And his son's interventions (much too kind a word) erased the economic/deficit gains of the Clinton years, and then some. So to say that the Republicans are the party of budgetary restraint is such a great American political myth that it's laughable.
On the other hand, his use of the Chinese finger/moon proverb (forest/trees) is right on target as Biden jumped in merely posturing himself as the Anti-Trump. As Hillary underscored, that's not nearly enough.
10
Being anti-Trump may not be sufficient, but it is a threshold issue, and being able to defeat Trump is the necessary side of the dual requirements to run against him. Joe’s ok.
5
A light and breezy treatment of a squalid, immoral president that leaves one wishing for a shower at this late hour.
28
He's tired of hearing about Trump at dinners and he's moving to Manhattan? He's going to be severely disappointed.
26
Another French / European left-wing liberal who doesn't like Trump !
Quelle Surprise !!!
7
@Ron I'm curious. What reasonable person with a conscious likes Trump?
10
Just a bit insufferable.
13
Odd sense of ‘genius.’ To appeal to racists, bigots and misogynists. Armchair ambassador.
17
Araud overestimates himself. And anyone that considers Kushner smart has perception issues.
30
@Imperato
Smart as compared to what?
Kushner is not smart when compared to Henry Kissinger.
He is smart when compared to Donald Trump, Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka and Melania.
Metrics are important.
Everyone is smarter than someone. Even Jared Kushner.
6
The Press is anti-Trump because Trump is an idiot, and they, the Press see that as a threat to world order, world peace, the global climate and domestic tranquility. Araud shouldn't be so patronising; he ought to embrace the alarm. And really, a Christmas tree with an elfin lumberjack? Quel gauche...
28
Au contraire. The Sun King may not have been the smartest person but smart enough to surround himself with very bright minds and, most importantly, listened to them. Trump has none of the above.
26
Any ambassador wining and dining Miller and Conway et al isn’t a good person.
He has as big an Ego as trump!
And he is a hypocrite too. I won’t bother w details of his character flaws but glad and good riddance to you.
Please leave your lofty privileged perch and go back to France!
Too bad you remain here.
I bet our immigrants would love your privilege. Disgusting.
13
An Ambassador's job is to represent his government to another. You may not personally care for Trump staffers, but it is the Ambassadors job to interact with them to represent his government. It would also be undiplomatic of him to log bombs on the way out, and make the job of his successor that much more difficult. The ambassador is simply doing his job, and we are not entitled to know his personal feelings, and it is unlikely that he shared them all.
6
Oui Monsieur! Thank you for you honesty in this intellectual and moral vacuum, this swamp of perceived power and dishonesty. I celebrate your release and hope that your successor is as astute a diplomat as you have been.
I propose we ignore the infantile, narcissistic, pubescent rants of The Dotard and focus only on his actions. Do not let him dominate the airwaves - it is nauseating to hear that shrill whine and see that orange face with the ugly comb-over sitting atop that morbidly obese body. Let the news be news and not TrumpTV.
Trump's base will not change - they are as damaged as he is. What we must do is to keep him in check until we can dramatically vote him and his sycophants out and then pursue accountability for real. We will keep a cell at Guantanamo available for him, Miller and McConnell, right next to Kellyann's and Sarah's non-stop propaganda blithering. Truthful opinions are fine, lies are not and they have grave consequences.
14
Say it, Mo: your colleagues blew it.
The Times like every other hystericin Washington and New York pushed an outlandish fairy tale, a moronic fable, a Big Lie.
Trump is a jerk. He's not and never was and never could have been an agent of a foreign power.
Your colleagues swallowed an idiotic lie told by a ridiculous ex-spy in the pay of Team Clinton, and they hyped this nonsense beyond any level permitted by a normal sense of decency or shame. For nearly THREE YEARS.
You don't need to let Ambassadeur Insouciance tell the truth on your behalf.
Say it yourself: your colleagues _sont devenus fous_.
7
@T-bone: It is not difficult to argue that the press has given Trump and the topic of Trump too much airtime, but I think you underplay both the risk to political systems and the collusion of Trump. The Mueller report does not address “collusion”, but details a lot of secret contacts and mutual backscratching with Russia, which may not rise to the level of criminal conspiracy as currently defined, but certainly is immoral.
Of course, before the report had been released, reporting and investigating the repeated lies about Russian contacts was not only not “blowing it”, but was part of the required function of a free press, even if a little less excitement and exclusion of other stories might have been good.
4
Recall author has already written another article about the same diplomat, rather tedious and so politically correct and whose main distinction was that he was gay. How goody goody of you Ms. Dowd,subscribing to the "pensee unique" like so many of your colleagues! At the risk of not seeing my comment published, I would go so far as to say that you have become preachy, rather than funny, and this piece, like the former one, is a waste of good editorial space. What u fail to mention in your excoriating remarks about Trump is that he is presently more popular in France than Macron himself, who has acquired the reputation of being a tool of the wealthy bourgeois, "citadins,"promoter of "delocalisation,"or off shoring who can barely return to his home town of Amiens except under armed guard, only a slight exaggeration perhaps, because of his betrayal of the "classes laborieuses,"working class folks who depended on Maytag to earn a living before the" societe anonyme"@Macron's encouragement relocated abroad. "Sondage" among average folks in France, especially among the "gilets jaunes,"would reveal that Trump is more popular than their own "chef d'etat!"How "ennuyeux,"is this promo for gay rights, and misleading as well.Dowd was much funnier, indeed sharper in her young days: "anno domini" or the years add up, "n'est ce pas?"
7
"You can't manipulate him"... Why doesn't the sycophantic French "ambassador" ask Putin?
19
Mr. Araud, With all of your blithe "analysis" you leave out the simple. Is Trump a rabid liar - yes, Is Trump a tax cheat - yes. Is Trump a corrupt money seeking scoundrel - yes. Is Trump a serial molester of women - yes. Is Trump so childish it insults children - yes. So please Mr. Aruad take your analysis and go back to France.
21
Bon Voyage Araud
6
People are self-observers, and generally, when they judge people, they see in others their character traits with good and bad as well as their personal expectations.
Failing to separate your own self and expectations, it is no surprise that many are judging so badly on President Trump.
It's the same with what the Frenchman said about finger and moon.
Why NYC and not Paris? Um...inquiring. Minds want to know and Ms. Dowd missed an obvious question.
7
NYC is the real center of the world, other places are always a bit provincial, even London and Paris
3
Remember back in 2016 before the election when Maureen Dowd wrote innumerable columns based on her telephone conversations with Trump? Indeed, other than her incessant and bitter demonizing of the Obamas and Clintons, "My Conversations with Donald" was a mainstay of her um ... "work." The truth is that Dowd is a big fan of Trump but does not have the courage to deal with the backlash that an overt admission would engender. By using the absurd comments of a pompous, self-absorbed Frenchman who does not appear to know what he is talking about as a stalking horse, Dowd has offered a stealth column in which she implies that the illiterate and childishly petulant Trump really is a genius! Nice try Maureen, but you are SO easy to analyze.
26
lol Maureen. Still Obama hating after all these years. Is there no cure for Obama derangement syndrome? Probably not until you cure white privilege and racism. Which you and your family have shown no interest in doing
15
Jaded columnist talks to jaded diplomat. Superficial, largely irrelevant and, it goes without saying, boring.
21
Sounds like Araud is morphing from a Trump sympathizer into a Trump supporter. Sort of explains why a closeted gay and Jewish man by the name of Roy Cohn could aid and abet anti-gay, anti-Semites like Joe McCarthy and later Donald Trump. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, indeed.
13
being blasé is oh, so, French..... but not so long ago, hitler steam-rolled them.....
we have work to do..... hard, difficult work..... I'm happy to leave blasé to 'mes amis', but please excuse moi while I roll up my sleeves....
13
Trump Derangement Syndrome has hit the hinterland, as well, but in a slightly different way.
We’ve been hearing a lot of humor now aimed at snowflake Democrats sucked in by the corrupt Democrats’ fake Trump Russia collusion nonsense fairy tale lately.
That Democrats have succeeded in making a joke out of themselves with their hysteria does not bode well for them.
5
@Ken: I think you may have missed the conclusions of the report: collusion was not addressed, although certainly reported and a case for criminal obstruction was clearly made.
Apart from one Frenchman, the rest of the world sees an easily manipulated, weak and thin-skinned President. Maybe I am missing something, but isn’t the epithet “snowflake” meant to apply to someone like that? Have you really not noticed how much he complains and plays the victim?
5
The media reports that the emperor is buck naked, and Araud’s focus is on the finger.
12
So we have found something that Maureen does not use her snarky wit upon after all these years. A French sophisticated male whose culture is so superior that he is returning to NEW YORK.
7
Truly plain speaking from Araud (so cherished by Trump supporters) but the push back from conservatives has been interesting. They are unwilling to face a blunt appraisal of the dysfunction in Washington and it starts at the top.
4
Araus acts like what trump is doing is good but he's doing it in unconventional ways.He's wrong. trump is taking our nation backwards and doing real damage to the world. He is making the country more unequal. He is encouraging hate and discrimination. He is destroying our environment by deregulating everything and allowing corporations to do whatever damage they please in the name of profit.
Kushner may be smart but he's naive. He is being played just like trump is being played by the autocratic leaders. Kushner and trump will go for anything that profits them personally.
13
Being French doesn't make one to be smart always. Even Geniuses are not smart all around. I do concur with him about Obama and Macron, and the aptness of Chinese proverb in the current context. The Democratic party establishment is obsessed with the Russian connection because they want to be "more loyal than the king" in the sense they want to show they are moreanti-Russia and anti-communist than the Rabid Republicans. They are not honest. Obama wants to be safe and sound always and is not a risk taker even in support of Truth like FDR was. Macron is similar but more brash and believes he can con France but an average Frenchmen are not easily duped like Americans. About Trump, Arnaud is smitten by quirky Trump because "intellectual" Frenchmen are themselves quirky. Trump is a Prop, allowed to stand up like he is real but very astutely tuned by the Powers That be who always chose who the POTUS will be and what policies he will put into practice. It is true that we are "looking at the finger" and not the moon because Trump's antics are a distraction but his actions are dangerous and destructive to America. Tragic, it is, that the Democratic party establishment and the likes are too obsessed with Trump's antics. The world is not collapsing but America, as a Democracy, IS! Just undoing all the damage that Trump has done will take a decade or longer. After all, such has been America's saga since its birth. One step forward and two steps backward.
1
They cannot manipulate Trump. Araud's got that right. This is part of the reason why they despise Trump so intensely. He neither seeks nor needs their counsel or analysis. He has marginalized the media and punditry like no other president. They hate being inconsequential.
11
@AACNY: Trump has marginalized truth, respect for law, national security, environmental standards and the future of the nation and the planet. It is too soon to say that he has marginalized the press as viewing and reading statistics are higher than they have been for a while.
6
@AACNY: you got this upside down, or simply wrong. Trump is a mouthpiece of FOX news. He tweets what he sees and hears on there and FOX journalists specifically target him by tailoring their news “reporting”.
6
“Smiling, he said both men are “too slim” and “too elegant” to relate to the man on the street.
This sums up the depth of the man. That how you look defines you. A man who is known for lavish parties is probably more of a problem.
Again Dowd misses the mark....
21
today is my 80th birthday. I wish after being on this earth for such a long time that we had another man for president. I don't want to leave this earth in the hands of our present leader. I think when I was young he would have been called an "idiot savant"....a person whose brain was fixated on very few things. His brain is fixated on making money, having power, insulting people, dismissing criticism, and he has perfected the art of lying. He is, in short, a dreadful person and a dreadful leader and I sincerely hope he doesn't succeed in winning another term in office. Is this too much for an old lady to wish for?
38
Happy birthday, Joyce.
11
Wishing you all the best for your birthday and for the future, Joyce.
5
@joyce, Your half right, he is an idiot.
4
There's an early Humphrey Bogart movie Black Legion that builds into an exact replica of what is transpiring due to this president. It is so extremely poignant and specific of the anti immigrant white supremacist movement that it should be shown in every high school across the country.
7
Au Revoir Grerard Araud. Que desire vous Ambassador. Those who elected Trump as president elected him knowing that he was going to place America First once for a change. America has spilled blood and spent dough (Marshall plan) so that France could proclaim Liberte, Equality and Fraternite and make croissants every day uninterrupted since America saved France from stranglehold of Hitler.
I can understand that frustration of the Europeans and including the British on the verge of Brexit that Trump is not at their service as they have been used to with the other presidents who served like French waiters (maitre d ) and say voila. Trump has forced NATO nations including France to pay their fair share. Had Trump not unleashed his generals to decimate ISIS in the middle east and move eastwards towards remote areas like Sri Lanka they would have expanded the caliphate into Europe and the submissive Europeans would have welcomed them to their own detriment and destruction the kind that we saw on our news 24/7 before Trump took office. We also were not aware that Obama had responded to US troops request by France in Niger until 4 of US returned in caskets.
I cannot believe how close minded and ungrateful intellectuals and pundits from Britain and Europe can be for much that they should be grateful for but instead they are frowning at. The world is benefiting immensely from economic growth in America that has occurred in the past 2 years. Have people stopped fair minded thinking?
6
@Girish Kotwal, Do you really think ISIS could have expanded the Coaliphate into Europe?
Your analysis of Trump's push to bring NATO members to meet their commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense is important. I think many from the left and right can agree on greater burden sharing. Thanks for sharing. Best, Jamie.
1
@Jamie Pfeffer NYC. Yes I believe ISIS had already spread to Europe in the minds of many who were regularly radicalized committing barbaric acts of violence and it could have gotten worse had Trump not ridiculed European leader's lack of toughness on extremists in their countries.
There are places in France, UK and Sweden where even French, British and Swedish army, respectively are afraid to go. So I know for sure ISIS was on the march in Europe before Trump took office and after Trump unleashed his generals and decimated ISIS strongholds in the middle east they have moved east in remote corners of the world eg Sri Lanka (SL), which is just 22 miles off the Southern tip of the world's 2nd most populated country in the world and the largest democracy, India.
Trump cannot claim that ISIS has been defeated and eradicated from the face of our planet earth. The technology of exploding weapons of mass destruction that ISIS has in its arsenal is in tact. You just have to see images of the blown out church roof or the millions of shattered pieces on the floor of the once beautiful landmark churches in Colombo, SL as recently as last Sunday.
So my fellow humans of the world, the powerful evil of extremist Islam co-exists with billion plus innocent and peaceful followers of Islam and the rest of us. 911 was pearl harbor of terror and the beginning of world war III, the war on terror and along with America's longest war raging in Afghanistan, it continues as a silent killer. .
5
If Araud thinks he can spend two hours in Chicago or Seattle without hearing about trump, it just shows he hasn't spent any time in either place. I'm in Texas, of all places, and must work to avoid the subject!
C'est ridicule.
15
Well it seem that Maureen has found a friend that can make the sort of excuses for Trump that she did in her columns. One wonders if Maureen and Araud could also share a drink to the attempt Trump made to lock up Hilary, well at least she got one more attack in. From here Maureen will have to wait until the Trump re-election that she so desires or possible Hilary's assassination to write that final "stick in the knife" column. If we ever wondered whether America could become as vicious as it is under Trump we should have just read your idea free gushes of venom that you have been churning out for decades.
6
Msr. Araud thinks Washington has too many squirrels. I love the squirrels in Washington, so you put me on alert from the get go. This man is not deToqueville, and neither are you. Just as I begin to think I respect you again, you come up with a column like this. SAD!
9
All this tells me it's that the man is gay, appreciates flashy people and affairs, and has zero insight into genius. By moving from DC to NYC he's also probably lowered the average IQ in both towns in one move.
11
Terrible things are happening in this country because terrible people are profoundly influenced by the hateful, disgusting rhetoric coming directly from the White House on a daily basis.
Just today another hate crime in Poway, CA. A crazed individual went into a Synagogue with an assault rifle shouting and cursing and shooting on the last day of Passover. Perhaps all houses of worship of all faiths should have armed guards.
4
Absurd and insulting article featuring a dilettante French diplomat who is clearly a superficial, decadent elitist who upon his retirement makes light of the greatest threat to America’s democracy in its history, that being the very real, insipid and existential threat of treasonous, evil, bigoted and corrupt trump, his bigoted, power obsessed, treasonous and corrupt family, his diabolical and amoral administration, & the Republican sycophants and enablers who with the Russian mafia under Putin have weakened our electoral system, threatened our Democratic Institutions and the very core of our Constitution to wield themselves unlimited dictatorial power with grave consequences to all Americans and the world.
The triviality and offense glorified in Maureen Dowd’s vacuous opinion does not deserve exposure in NYT, as it belies the grave threat Trump’s ILLEGAL and AMORAL presidency represents to the future of ALL Americans and to the world.
The press must clearly define the illegality of trump’s plethora of crude, deceitful and abhorrent trail of lies, & not make light of trump’s atrocities with such offensive opinions forgiving these injustices.
We must all assume the role of patriots to act loudly & decisively, as America & our friends abroad have also been viciously attacked from within, by our own citizens “in collusion” with our gravest enemies utilizing “chameleon like tools” to deceive. These weaponized tools must be eradicated to enable democracy to prevail.
15
The French ambassador thoughts are best left for the elites who attend his parties. Not sure Ms. Dowd's is frequenting many diners these days.
5
Dowd’s facile comparison of Araud to de Tocqueville prefigures the “lightness” of what follows. Araud is just another charming Frenchman who throws good parties and, as such, captures Dowd’s attention and disarms her critical skills.
9
I was hoping for at least one pointed jab at the Trump family’s vulgarity and lack of class by the Frenchman.
7
So on what immigration status basis is he being allowed to live in Manhattan after this ambassador gig is up?
8
Hitler was a genius too, by that criterion. He discovered and channeled the discontent of the common man into the biggest disaster in world history for Germany and for everyone who came into contact with Germany. He spread paranoid hatred and death everywhere he went. Trump is that kind of genius.
16
Greed, stupidity, selfishness, laziness, pomposity, shallowness, and deception always existed before. But they were diffused and not well organized. They were never celebrated, never championed collectively, and never embraced publicly.
The Trump administration has been a rallying point for all these formerly embarrassing traits. He’s been the champion for brutish behavior, for immodesty. Villainy has been empowered worldwide. Kindness, honesty, and loyalty, values the rest of the world admired, are now proudly rejected.
Blind obedience to this carnival barker by groups in our country who have a narrow wish list - personal wealth, racism, abortion, mysogyny, and political power - no longer lurk in the shadows. Now we will see how fragile our republic is.
7
My jeans are fine. No need to be another jerk trashing our city, much like Trump. Enjoy NY and good riddance.
2
Without the French. Americans would speak English.
Count your blessings.
1
The world will blow past 1.5c above pre-industrial levels in ten years, the country is consumed with deadly hate, the national debt soars to accommodate the rich, unemployment continues at record lows yet with suicide and drug addiction ravaging our rural communities...... and what is Ms, Dowd’s noteworthy message?
C’est la vie!
14
Well now Mr. Araud you a lucky guy to have the luxury of publicly sharing your nonchalant, 'C'est la vie' view on the state of my country.
I heard the little grin as you spoke to Ms. Dowd.
President Donald Trump is as a 'whimsical, unpredictable, uninformed Sun King' and a certified liar who continues to polarize our nation.
I do wish Mr. Dowd had asked him to expand on his 2016 election night tweet that was 'quickly scrubbed';
"Tribute Dinner Hosted by His Excellency Gérard Araud, Ambassador of France Araud dramatic 2016 election night tweet — “A world is collapsing before our eyes. Vertigo.”
Politico 04/19/2019
Well Mr. Araud....'C'est la vie' for no skin off of your nose as you head off to Manhattan "feeling young."
4
What a particularly droll opinion piece, Ms Dowd. To think, the French were so critical to our American Revolution, our Constitution and the beauty of Washington, D.C. How times have changed with this guy.
4
IMHO, Araud's comment about Notre Dame is causing me to opine about him, as a superficial man living in the moment.
We already know Trump is squirrely and his use of the Chinese axiom enforces my bias. One should step back look at the finger, the moon, the hand and the trickster picking someone's pocket with the ruse of distraction.
If Trump has any genius it's his ability to distract and deflect.
"Bouquet of blunt assessments" Excellente!
4
People still speaking of Trump’s time in office in rational and reasonable tones, trying to intellectualize a disaster, remembering the dinner parties and “genius” admirations that mean little in the scheme of things as Rome is close to burning, Plein d’idiots en Washington.
6
c'est domage, bien sur. pity the french ambassador is unable to see Trump as a real threat to our democracy. I wonder what le president, monsieur macron thinks of his ambassador's remarks to you. In any event, bon voyage, monsieur ambassador, bon debarras. Conrad Varner, Kure Beach, NC
1
Funny. Well, I guess another group besides old WASPs can now be ridiculed with impugnity: these snobbistes, les Francais. M. Araud comes across as a caricature of the type, but aan accurate one.
3
Yeah, just what we need. A frog telling us what's wrong with the US. I'm sure he'll be welcomed by the yellow vests upon his return to his idyllic country of wonderfulness. Good riddance and don't let that door hit you on the way out.
2
Flip, glib, MoDo does it again. Superficial. in crowd vignettes, insight, non.
5
This is the most ridiculous quotation of all:
"But when Trump arrived here, basically without a team, without experience, people were convinced that they would manipulate him. But no, you can’t manipulate him.”
All trump is is manipulated. By his crooked advisors, foxnews and, of course, the last person he spoke to.
He does not have the brains or inclination to come up with a policy on his own. The few times he has, they are so stupid that they are immediately walked back.
10
"He said that he pointed out to Democrats in the whiny wake of that election that their own statistics should have shown them that many Americans felt economically shaky.
“I do think the genius — and I’m using the word genius — of Donald Trump is to have felt the crisis,” he said."
I guess if we were looking at historical parallels regarding your use of the word genius by feeling and exploiting the resentment and anger people felt economically, Hitler would do nicely. Please do not employ the word genius to the right wing demagogues who are on the rise all over the world. In my day they would be described as madmen.
9
He has some good thoughts but clearly doesn’t understand Americans. Especially Trump, who is a malign, incompetent fascist.
7
Little wonder he held the ambasadorship for so long.
French are always insular, self-centered and exasperated and disgusted by anything nonFrench
2
Please take me with you!!!
Trump & Co. will probably sic ICE on M. Araud and try to get him deported for expressing his opinions.
1
The French dude telling America it has a crisis while Paris burns. Funny.
4
Another one, this time a Frenchman, who does not see the obvious, which is that Trump is sociopathic and mentally ill. That defines the Trump difference.
3
Ms Dowd appears to be culpable of plagiarism. Or at least,
10 days behind the European Press
Ten days ago, The Guardian featured this article
"Trump administration : Trump administration
'Whimsical, uninformed': French ambassador's parting verdict on Trump
Exclusive: Gérard Araud compares regime to court of Louis XIV
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/19/whimsical-uninformed-french-ambassadors-parting-verdict-on-trump
Worth reading. Even more is Le Monde
"Avant de partir, l’ambassadeur français aux Etats-Unis compare l’administration Trump à « la cour de Louis XIV »
Should you be able to reach French.
https://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2019/04/19/avant-de-partir-l-ambassadeur-francais-aux-etats-unis-epingle-une-derniere-fois-donald-trump_5452726_4832693.html
2
Parties at the French Embassy with the likes of Steve Mnuchin and Louise Linton, Wilbur and Hilary Ross , Kellyanne and George Conway and as “pièce de résistance” Stephen Miller -oh la la!
How interesting it would have been to be privy to Gérard Araud’s scintillating conversations with those “Trumpsters,” over fine wine and petits fours.
With Steve Mnuchin he could have spoken of the 2018 eclipse in Kentucky.
With Louise Linton, the price of the latest Hermès “Birkin” bag (French after all!)
With Wilbur Ross, the “refreshing” lack of political protest in Saudi Arabia.
With Kellyanne Conway- alternative facts and how to create them.
With George Conway- “how politics makes strange bedfellows.”
And as for “wooing immigration tyrant Stephen Miller to the château with good French wine” surely Mr. Araud would have known that Stephen Miller only drinks “blood.”
13
To speak of Trump without mention of his treason with Russia and general criminal conduct helps normalize the racketeer. Maureen knows better. Shame on Maureen.
6
We remember how the French cozied up to the Nazis in World War II, so forgive us if we don't care to do the same today with Trump. Also, how nice for Ms Dowd to get in another pointless shot at President Obama.
10
Araud's comments say much about him, not our President, nor the State of our Union. In typical French fashion, the ambassador patronized our elected President from 2016 on, and saw fit to pronounce him unworthy of his social and other graces. From the nation which is the master of both collaboration (Second War) and unreliability (Iraq), this is a bitter dose to swallow, but Araud believes elegant soirees make up for the real work of diplomacy. Maureen, you will not miss a latter day De Tocqueville, but rather yet another self promoter living abroad. As Exhibit A, he returns not to his native France, but to Manhattan's upper East side.
245
@William Sparks
So many assumptions. So little understanding. Reading and history not the absolute strength of this commentator.
France was very reliable when it came to the Iraq war. They decided from the beginning - different from Afghanistan - that this was an unlawful invasion and would not participate.
113
@CitizenTM
In addition, I think @William Sparks should take a closer look at French history when it comes to the times of the German occupation of France during World War 2. That would probably help him understand the real meaning of the word "Collaboration", and inform on another one "Patriotism".
39
@William Sparks
My reading of Araud's comments - as filtered, remember, through Maureen Dowd - is different! I thought they were surprizingly laudatory of Trump. He gave him credit for sensing the crisis in 2016, for correctly realizing Washington and the press had ganged up against him - or conspired - and Araud also acknowledged that there was a strategy behind what many see as chaos in Trump's method of governance. As French compliments go, I construed this as a typically oblique one but a compliment nonetheless.
11
I am not surprised the French ambassador does not hear Trump's name. We, in Fort Collins, do not talk about Trump publicly either. It isn't because we are not aware. It isn't because we don't have opinions and talk about him in private. It is because we can't. It is too distressing. In public, meetings and conferences, rarely is his name invoked and if it is, it isn't positive - even from the (educated) right wing.
We have our share of Trumpytes here who love to spout their rabid Fox informed opinions, absolutely convinced they are right and are totally uninterested in another viewpoint or the truth.
Avoiding Trump in conversation is a goal. So if the French Ambassador doesn't hear Trump's name invoked, it isn't because we aren't talking about him. It is because that conversation takes place in private, safe space.
Honestly, even in phone conversation now, if Trump is talked about negatively - of course - we find ourselves jokingly and rather nervously saying "Hey, if you're listening...... just kidding!"
We , in America , are worried about the future of our country because of Trump and his followers.
17
I am not impressed by the ambassador and by Maureen's column.
What was the point of it?
5
Did the Pence's RSVP?
2
Araud: The term "plain vanilla" comes to mind.
If he thinks no one talks about Trump in the hinterlands, he's not paying attention. I have friends in rural Oregon who can't *stop* talking about Trump.
And for good measure, if the press is hard on Trump, maybe someone can tell me why it should go easy on him. What positive thing is there about this guy; this mendacious, self-absorbed, philandering, intellectual dullard?
I say "Thank God!" for the press. All of it—right, left, and center.
I've made my analysis and I'll vote accordingly, Mr. Araud.
6
So the loathing of the horrid Trump has nothing whatsoever to do with his ghastly behavior? The fact that he is a dangerous and ignorant buffoon with far too much power?
Not the keenest observer of the American comedy, but he has credentials so the Times interviews him.
7
Yes, Ambassador. Yes, Ms. Dowd. It’s all so amusing how people in Washington obsess over Trump. Perhaps it is because he is an obvious threat to democracy and the rule of law, two pillars upon which such people have built careers in government and been able to look themselves in the mirror.
But, really, why go there, Ms. Dowd, when you have your fresh chance to diss former President Barack Obama, complete with quotes from the departing representative of the French government. Too bad the enchanting ambassador never got around to disparaging Hillary Clinton. Now, that would have made your day – or at least completed the requirements of a certifiable Maureen Down column. Waiter, more Champagne here!
10
Thanks Ambassador Arnaud for the pearls of wisdom garnered from your experience as a professional fop.
Unfortunately for Mr. Khashoggi, "smart guy" Jared Kushner's courting and empowering of Muḥammad bin Salmān ended not in a swanky party with champagne and caviar, but with his grisly murder in a Saudi embassy as the hands of assassins armed with daggers and a bonesaw. The so-called "Crown Prince" would never have dared that outrageous behavior in any other American administration in modern times. Only the greedy, self-serving, and wickedly corrupt band of brigands Trump has assembled would have allowed it to pass.
Whatever indignities the press has visited on Mr. Trump, they have been well-earned and justified, especially given the continued threats these men and women labor under while the "President" foments the unhinged elements of society with attacks on the free press and the echo of Stalin-era Soviet slogans like "enemy of the people."
11
Amazing justification for an insane president. The press is anti trump because trump gives them all the material they could possible use to distrust and dislike him.
Maybe this guy is trying to get trump to line him up with a new job.
4
The interview sounds like satire, actually. Diplomacy light--how not to offend too many people at once by being either just a bit outre, or completely trivial. Poor clothing choices? Check. Early dinners? Check. The banality of real evil (aka Miller)? Check. Escape to an impossibly expensive globalized Manahatin? Of course. One suspects the ambassador will not be missed much either.
3
There are a few things mentioned by the Ambassador that I will agree with.
Trump, despite his lack of understanding of many things, is genius in understanding what "his people" want to hear and he delivers it and insures he does not speak of his failures, lack of progress.
Second, the GOP has been "trumpified" into submission and cold fear should they dare cross his path with an idea or thought that is for the good of the country or believe the Miller Apartheid Policies are harmful.
Lastly, the press is too hard on Trump? No, the press reports what the grifter does and it is mostly bad stuff. Not much positive to report from this dark circus and his hate rally last night is proof positive.
4
I am really wondering exactly where in Seattle and Chicago this guy was where he didn't hear the name Trump for two days. I suspect in was in the imaginary Seattle/Chicago inside his head. I live in Bridgeport, CT and I wish I go even a morning without trump coming up in a conversation. It is impossible to escape him.
7
Arrogant. Wonder why Britain wants out of the EU?
3
Trump hated the press from day one (Except for FOX news.). He recognized the meme of the “liberal/biased media” that his base already had bought into for years and then—in the most brilliant tactic that defines “gaslighting” —this creator of “fake news”, the birther himself, accused the media of being the originators and creators of “fake news”.
The ambassador, in his faux sophisticated worldly, typically French, above-the - fray -attitude can’t seem to understand why people accused of being “enemies of the People”, sceamed at and villified at his own rallies for simply asking questions Il Duce doesnt like might not be in love with the man.
Other than her obvious delight at interviewing a sophisticated Frenchman, and throwing her usual shade on “whiny” Democrats (the Womens March and Resistance in general, has been anything but whiny) what purpose is served by interviewing this man?
3
Will never understand why we continue to allow a mentally ill person to run this country into the ground.
Saying you can’t prosecute a sitting President is a bit nuts in itself!
5
I'm very unimpressed w/ Araud. He should have taken a stronger stand against dump. France is having the same amount of bigotry as Germany and other countries in the E.U. I will NOT read any of his writings.
2
As you can attest to, Maureen, the wealthy have no fear of Trump because he does not disrupt their lifestyle . . . yet, the rest of us can not afford to be as blasé as Mr. Araud.
2
This guy would seem to be rather condescending and his partner sounds like a weirdo.
2
Does this sound - in some strange, perverse way— like a puff piece on Trump? It’s gossip, no?
2
This will be added to the long list of reasons why nobody likes the French. Pontificating blowhards who we had to save twice from the Germans and still require our NATO troops to protect them.
3
@Jack In Ellijay as a French-American I'd like to remind you that the U.S. would not even exist without France's help. Look it up! You're welcome.
4
@Roberta
Jack might benefit from a visit to the Lycee Rochambeau in Washington.
2
Not attacking Ms. Dowd here, whose columns I like, this column shows how disconnected the ambassador, Washington politics, and frankly Ms. Dowd are from the rest of us who did not vote for Trump.
Washington politics has nothing to do with the American voter, Dem and Repub and everyone else. This disconnect is felt by all voters. The Trumpers thought Trump was the solution. He'd go in and shake things up. For the rest of us, we also feel the disconnect but we don't see the solution as electing some Yahoo.
Sorry, Mr. Araud, but we do talk about Trump outside of Washington.
But we are not elite like yourself so we don't attend the events you do so you can't hear us talk.
The problem is that the system is corrupted totally by money. Electing Trump will not solve the basic problem. Nor, frankly, will electing Pete or Biden or anyone else. The system itself if rotted with money.
4
“The deep state is real, not in the sense of plotting. But when Trump arrived here, basically without a team, without experience, people were convinced that they would manipulate him. But no, you can’t manipulate him.”
True, that. Trump really can't even manipulate himself. Putting Trump in office has been the equivalent of handing your wallet and car keys over to your dog. You're not broke, yet. And, at the same time, you haven't gotten anywhere.
1
Donald Trump is NOT about America. He is all about Donald Trump, period.
If we ignored him, as we should, he would go away. We don't and thus he won't.
2
Mr. Araud has one thing right. Private lives should remain private.
On everything else, not so much. He comes across as French and American Aristocracy, looking down his nose at anyone who has the intellect of Obama or Macron. While I do not agree with Macron's policies, Obama actually cares about the less fortunate.
By the way our American Aristocracy are the Republicans in Congress, or so they think, and in the White House.
I appreciate Mr. Araud's bluntness. I just wish he had more of an open mind.
2
Yeah, that's it Maureen. We should just be IGNORING Trump's crimes.
Yahoo News recently reported, a member of the independent counsel team that recommended the impeachment of President Bill Clinton {Paul Rosenzweig} said that President Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice are
“blunter by a thousandfold” than anything Clinton did and more than justifies the House Judiciary Committee opening impeachment proceedings."
We should just "tune out", right??? {Sarcasm}
363
@Pat
@Pat: It's just "breaking china". Miller said so....not to worry about anything more sinister....like Russian influencing the election to put trump in the White House....it's not as if weapons were fired with live rounds and killed anyone....it was just "broken china"
30
@Pat So what predicate started the russia collusion investigation at the DOJ & FBI? halper? mifsud? who were they and what did they do?
some of us are actually paying attention and will not fall in to an outrage trap.
3
@Llyod
The predicate? Is that a trick question? Everyone knows it was Benghazi...Rush Limbaugh reported that years ago.
3
I guess he hasn't overlooked the fact he'll be operating in the Trump/Kushner arena of NYC, to which they will return one day. Why exclude oneself from the back-scratching and party circuit?
2
As of this writing, the NYT Picks are all looking at the finger and not the moon. A different perspective is always welcome and enlightening. The theme of the ambassador is that Trump haters are over reacting and forgetting that there is still plenty of life to live beyond this political crisis.
Not being French, I will summarize his message as, "Chill out dude."
2
Does must have had tea with Peggy Noonan of WSJ his week - seems like they both are concerned about how cranky The DC Swamp has gotten what with their power structure and self-satisfied back-patting disrupted. Seems like those in the denizen still don’t get why Trump was elected nor do they understand who elected him. They’re loss.
3
Monsieur Araud must hang with an unusual crowd when visiting other cities, such as Seattle and Chicago; certainly, on this side of the border, in a decidedly uncosmopolitan small city, one cannot go two days without the subject of Trump rearing its ugly head.
He sets everyone's nerves on crisis mode around the globe.
4
The genius of Trump was his dad. Take away Fred, take away Donald.
2
I am not as enthralled with the ambassador as Dowd. Obama too elegant for the masses? It's unfortunate that someone who is so smart and thoughtful isn't embraced by those who are essentially antii-intellectual. Usually don't read Dowd's colmn after she wrote column after column ripping Clinton apart. Charming diplomat? Not when he invites the demagogues like Steve Miller and Mnuchin.
8
Ahh, the youthful, energetic vibe of the UES.
2
Republicans are indeed “Trumpified “, which means that they have traded in their conscience, their intelligence , their sense of compassion, and their rational approach to governing for a seat at the table of the most ignorant and odious man ever to occupy the Oval Office.
Donald Trump has managed to destroy the Republican Party as we have known it . But that kind of destructive cleverness is anything but intelligent.
At this time the Republican Party has become the party of the terminally ignorant , and their leader is the most hopelessly ignorant person of all ....
9
Araud's attitude puzzles me. I can see him and his lover conducting their elegant parties in the 1930s, not deigning to discuss antisemitism at the table, just focus on the wine, please.
Being clever and witty is not fitting now. The re-emergence of hate, fascist salutes in Milan, Nazis on the march in Charlottesville, and an ignorant, evil man in charge of what was once the country of hope: every person with a bent towards decency should be reacting with agony or fury, not an "I'm above it all" commentary.
6
This guy is out of touch with this country and his own. I wonder if the “yellow” vests protesting in Paris know how their tax money is being spent by a high-living ambassador and his husband in the U.S. To quote a tired phrase, “Let them eat cake,” is exactly the message this tired old man is sending to both .Americans and the French. As for ingratiating himself with Kushner and Miller, he will find more doors slammed shut in NYC when he drops their name, unless he plans to to socialize amongst the B-Listers. If Ms. Dowd wrote this as a flattering piece, it has failed miserably.
7
Maureen quotes the ambassador’s initial reaction to Trump: “A world is collapsing before our eyes. Vertigo.”
Apparently his assessment has changed to something like “Americans; what did you expect?”
2
no skin in the game.
does a fish know water?
We’re swimming in lies every day here
2
Monsieur Araud's description of Washington, DC as a city that "feels frightened...by Trump" echos many Americans who accurately describe Washington Republicans in exactly the same way.
What is it about Trump? From the way his mere presence intimidates certain people (albeit, only bimbos), you'd think prez was a mob boss or hitman -- although he did once proclaim that he could kill someone in the streets of New York City, and people would still vote for him. (Ooo-wee!)
Well here's the truth: Trump is nothing but a fat nerdy blowhard whose incessant threats and tirades couldn't ruffle the feathers of a well-adjusted mockingbird.
Heck, I've often imagined standing before Trump as his hand reaches out to shake mine -- only to snub the boor by ignoring him.
O, but to have such an opportunity: T'would make my year!
4
San Diego, here. We talk about White House shenanigans and the lies all the time. The answer to questions about Charlottesville, about taxes, about education, about healthcare...trumpsters answer "I don't know", but I like what he's done for the country". Really? You don't know about Charlottesville?
Trumpsters don't care, but the rest of us do and we talk about it all the time.
8
@Nancie, as a "Trumpster" (btw, how do I call you, Miss, - an Obamer? a Clintonite?), I have to say that too: I LOVE what the President has done for the Country, for the small business (of which I am a part), and for the hard-working people (read AMERICANS). We feel reacher, more respected, more secure economically and criminally. ALl around me, I see more and more people confirming their desire to re-elect Him in 2020. Especially, after the neurotic LEft wing of the Democrat party drove away Amazon's 50K high paying jobs from the city. And THAT, as they say, is the hard cold fact. YOu need to get out of San Diego to the Valley, at least, and talk to average people there a bit. It s not too long of a drive.
1
Hey Aroud! What's wrong with our jeans? We invented them! No amount of gussied up design français could ever improve on them!
However, he is completely right about looking at the moon instead of the finger. But, inexcusably, he then claims the finger can't be manipulated. Wrong. The moon, being Trump's staff of scary Fascist conductors and their enablers in Congress, are playing the president faster and looser than Earl Scruggs (in American bluejeans) playing the banjo. They're the ones we should be watching, not Trump's finger.
Au revoir et bonne chance M. Araud.
1
With all due respect to frenchy, I been to Seattle and Chicago and heard los of people talking about orange dump. Questioning where he went when there.
4
If Dowd has given us an accurate and full discussion of Araund's opinions and observations concerning the politics of Washington, DC, he would appear to be nothing more than a light weight, disengaged, stuffed shirt. His analyses are superficial. How disappointing!
3
Sorry Mr. Ambassador, I live in Seattle and—trust me—there’s s lot of talk about Donald J. Trump here. This man is about as provincial as the McDonald’s he scoffs daily.
2
Good for Araud, to be sixty six in Manhattan, French, gay and free. That's what it takes to be free in the USA these days, a monied total alien not unlike Trump, with a lifestyle about as different and far away from the Red State Maga hat wearing masses lives as Trump Tower.
3
I just keep thinking France did not create one new private sector job in 10 years before Macron took over and they diss our job creator in chief. Sacre bleu !
1
“'I’m using the Chinese saying, "When the finger is showing the moon, the fool is looking at the finger and the wise man at the moon." In a sense, Trump is the finger. I do think Washington, D.C., is much too obsessed by the finger and should look at the crisis' revealed by the 2016 election."
This is a keen, perspicacious point the ambassador makes, one the Democrats would do well to hear. If they do, they will nominate Bernie Sanders and win. If they don't -- and if past is prologue, they probably won't -- we'll get Joe Biden as the nominee and four more years of the blond vulgarian.
2
So the French diplomat obviously no longer has any use for diplomacy. Such mockery of Americans and belittlement of the genuine perils we face these days. And as the man of the people he obviously is and Barack Obama is not, why doesn't he go home and try to quell the French rednecks burning Paris over a dime a gallon diesel tax? Then we could bid adieu to Mr. Araud and let him tell his fellow Frenchmen what an utter genius this President Trump is. A big mouth indeed.
2
Ms. Dowd reads M. Araud as saying that "In a sense, Trump is the finger."
Thank you, M. Araud, for the elegant way you have alluded to the fact that Trump has been giving the finger to everyone in the US and around the world. Many of us are ever so happy to reply in kind to the Digit-in-Chief.
4
Another fascinating read! Thank you Maureen Dowd.
2
Donald Trump is at most what Plato defined as a timocratic ruler. He craves approval, he craves to be honored. And his time on our political stage has verified that. Trump always goes where the applause is the loudest.
This makes for an easily manipulated government. Flattery is how you hold the attention of a timocrat. Ot need npt be sincere. It just has to be plentiful.
1
He can afford to be completely candid because, as a foreign national, he could not have voted for Trump. Unlike two NYT columnists I can think of who protest way too much.
1
"But when Trump arrived here, basically without a team, without experience, people were convinced that they would manipulate him. But no, you can’t manipulate him.”
Every man and his dog can manipulate Trump (but only in one direction -- to press on the bruise of his inferiority complex). Any slight, any challenge, any competition will provoke him into a narcissistic bully-tantrum rage -- he can't cope with anything less than full-blown sycophancy (as at that horrifying cabinet meeting, where they all said how wondrous it was to serve Trump, and Pence mirrored his every move with a bottle of water).
The people who manipulate Trump best, of course, are Putin, Kim and Xi -- and Bannon for a while. But Stephen Miller seems to be pretty good at it too.
3
If ever an American ambassador threw a party like that in Paris, s/he would be shipped back to the US in sackcloth and a crate.
But then again, we have Benjamin Franklin as a model to uphold.
Who mourns for Barron Boy Blue? With all the talk of Tyrant Trump. Who weeps for Barron Trump? To have a father who is void of love and compassion. Who was raised by his dad who valued $ over love. to grow up in a world where $ is the moral compass. It is truly sad that the sins of the father will be repeated by the son. His world must be so cold. Void of love, life , compassion, forgiveness. I say who weeps for Barron Boy Blue? Someone in his dark, cold loveless world. Must show him the light of truth,compassion and love. He certainly wont get it from his father. Who didnt get if from his father. Someone must break the circle before its too late. I weep for thee Barron boy Blue. I weep for thee.Littile Barron Boy Blue. Little Barron boy blue,
Come blow your horn,
The sheep's in the meadow,
The cow's in the corn.
But where is the Barron boy blue
Who looks after the sheep?
He's under a haystack,
Fast asleep.
2
I'm glad that foreigners are finally availing themselves of the opportunity to shun this contemptible failure of a president and a man. Frankly, I've been shocked at how many leaders kowtow to him. We saddled the world with this profoundly dangerous man. It's under no obligation to entertain, support, endorse or excuse him. Doing so is actively, not passively, dangerous.
Jeremy Corbyn also just announced that he will not meet DJT at the state dinner in the UK. Kudos to him for refusing to eat with a man who "spouts racist ideas" and "supports White Nationalism." The infamous scene in the UN when the world burst into ribald laughter could and should have gone one better. Every single member should have gotten up and walked out. Shunning sends a message laughter falls short of.
And now it's time for this country to tear a page from the international book. He is by any measure of decency and ethics "criminal, intolerable, deplorable and indefensible." But don't take my word for it; those words are the legal opinion of a FOX News commentator.
The mask has finally fallen. Oh, wait. There never was one, which is why the election and administration of this man are so confoundingly indefensible. DJT is our collective mark of shame. The immediate sting of his reprehensible actions may fade, but we'll never be able to erase the fact that we once fell so low we thought he was fit for anything, much less the highest office in the land. Would that we too could say "au revoir."
3
Yes, Trump “felt the crisis” and he is exploiting it to achieve and maintain power while doing nothing to reduce the real sources of anxiety. In fact it is in his interest to raise anxiety even as he presents himself as the only solution to the the underlying problems. It should now be obvious that he has become a major part of the “crisis” and solutions will need to come from another source.
3
This French guy ain't too smart.
1) Here in Texas, even when Trump is not spoken of, he is implied. And besides we have so many Trumps here we don't need to refer to the DC Trump.
2) Comparing Obama to Macron is ludicrous. Think of the symbolism of Obama. If you need help, remember the scene in Blazing Saddles when the ignorant, bigoted, bullying local white guys harass the blacks working on the railroad, insisting that they sing for them -- and as only Mel Brooks could imagine the song turns out to be a cool harmonious rendition of Cole Porter. Obama made a point by being. Macron is a different story.
3) Remember the French reaction to the Nazis. Don't let this Araud guy guide you into complacency. The world is not collapsing, it is just fine. It is democracy that is collapsing and needs to be helped. Not by ignoring Trump and his lackeys, but by confronting them, calling them out day after day, building up a real resistance that will stay and fight. We cannot rely on others to liberate us. Impending disasters of the climate, social inequality, and health care require that we act and act now, and not wash away our tears in a masquerade party.
Au Revoir, Araud. Now, France, send us a fighter. Another Lafayette will do. We will never forget!
842
@JustThinkin Who are these "we" who "will never forget"? The Democrat Party of the US of A? The fighting liberals of Texas? I just returned from celebrating Passover in El Paso, TX late last night. Having spent a week there with family, not ONCE the President's name was mentioned in curse, but MANY times in admiration (after all, the news that the economy grew by 3.2% - the best Obama could manage was 1.2%, btw) and the oil prices rebounded was GREAT news.
8
@Yulia Berkovitz - Absolutely wrong! The 3.2% growth was for one quarter. Obama hit above that with many of his quarters. Once, I believe, hitting over 5%.
79
@Yulia Berkovitz
The 3.2% is the first quarter, which could potentially be revised downward as so often happens. GDP under Obama reached 2.9% annually in 2010 and 2015. So far GDP for 2017, 2018 was 2.2% and 2.9% respectively. A far cry from the promised 4-5%. Promises made, promises broken.
54
not really one of your better efforts, maureen. remember, jerry lewis is a comic god in france, so maybe the french don't understand us so well. the constant analysis of trump's intelligence and understanding of politics is off-base. trump can only be diagnosed, not understood. his impulsiveness, lack of reason, inability to empathize, his chaotic and negative moods, poor attention and comprehension. he may not be the most pathological president we've had, but he is a completely pathological president. So, enjoy new york, mr. ambassador, and thank you for de Tocqueville.
2
Like many here, I will take slim, focused and well-studied over baggy, compulsive, and completely unprepared any time. It's too bad people discern this for elitism. Some people choose slim, focused and are passionate about government, leadership and the importance of a strong democracy. (I like my leaders smarter than most. It's a lot of work and not a typical job, lots at stake. Just sayin'.)
Truth is important, and the all-out war on it daily is not a "press anti- etc." Here's the thing. He and his people say one thing, then another. It's actually regularly documented. Perhaps you don't keep up, or you have misunderstood this. The press can't make it up. It is truly fantastical and strange. And frightening.
6
I thought Arnaud was smarter than that, or, at least a better student of history. He is right, of course, that the Democrats, who had become the party of the shrinking, upwardly mobile middle class hadn't paid attention to the fears of the many at risk through automation and AI of becoming obsolete. But minimizing the longterm effects of turning that fear and rage into fear of the other is how dictators rise, and exactly what happened in Germany in the late 20's and early 1930s. As far as working around the MSM goes, he has always done that when he could not directly manipulate it. It isn't a reaction.
2
Maureen, you wrote a great column because you interviewed someone with brains.
I too have been out of New York and experience relief when I realize that pretty much no one is caring about Washington, Trump, Fox News, MSNBC, or any other volcano of media hysteria.
I think it is line in as Robert Graves poem that goes "...the world is too much with us..."
It's a shame geography is not taught as a subject, because I don't think many people in large cities in the country realize that there is A LOT of acreage out there that has people unlike themselves. Thus, an Electoral College than can deliver a president with an election not being skewed by massive counts in only a concentrated representation of the country.
Hearing Obama speak you realize what we was, a college professor trying to run a country. The last one to do that was Woodrow Wilson, so it means you can get elected, but you might not really accomplish much.
And that's just it. How much do you HAVE to accomplish in a one or two year term? Sea changes span eras, not months. Ice melts slowly, but it does melt.
3
To include the excluded, the Dems are faced with a hard-to-swallow pill: that pretending to commit to refuse to take corporate money at the Federal level, then cashing in big time by the State loophole, as Big Oil Beto and Whory Cory and Chalala Kamala and the Credit Card Ka-ching King all do, sets them poised in a straight jacket forcing them to largely keep excluding the excluded, while pandering equally madly as Comcast kumquat and AstraZeneca zealot CDO Joe and Beholden Biden to their big fat donors.
To include the excluded, as the parting French ambassador is exhorting them to, they need to include and embrace Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the President for All by promoting Medicare for All, insane college debt forgiveness for all, affordable everything for all, consumer and environmental protections for all, justice for all, and last but not least, voting for all.
Alternative hopeful Pete Buttigieg comes off as the American Macron. McKinsey Pete can't fool anyone who can count their own fingers that if he doesn't repudiate what McKinsey burdens the world with, he will be anything else than a Trojan Horse for the corporate executive class to keep consolidating and expanding the capo di tutti capocalyptic inequality abyss their class of consultants and lawyers and tax advisers created with 300 to 1 pay ratio gaps, a monster web of tax cuts and constructs and corporate welfare, undermined or wholly by-passed markets, and bought politicians.
Way to go, Democrats!
7
I find it ironic and a bit schizophrenic that out of all countries, France's rep is teaching us how to be/live. By any measurable statistics: crime, societal discontent, degree of satisfaction/prospect of/for the millennial and beyond, prejudice toward minorities - France is in the gutter and moving further down fast. It is not that we do not have problems here, it is just that they are non-systemic, while France has dug itself too far down into its own grave. It better look at the mirror before criticizing. Not to mention them all speaking German or Russian now if not for us circa 1944.
6
I see the argument that Trump works around the ...so called Main Stream Media...Fake News ...with his Twitterring and speeches he makes to the Nation by phone on Fox .He does it because it's the only platform he has and it works for him. But ABC,NBC,CBS,PBS,NYT, LA Times etc. are just reporting the facts.It doesn't seem so much a relentless attack against Trump as a revealing of what he's really up to. There certainly has been plenty he's been up to. Kind of like Barrs summary of the Mueller Report. Sounded like there was nothing there....until the media published the Report for all Americans to read. Thank goodness for the Free Press and for the Main Stream Media...without them.. we would be left with State run TV like Russia,China, North Korea etc. Saying people do not talk about Trump ….may be because of the burnout we've experienced and the fact that we don't want to be reminded of the mess the country is in ..since Trump's Presidency. My neighbors and I talk about Trump's antics often.One said recently she can't believe the mess he's made of the country. Her husband who was a Trump supporter and a member of the NRA...is no longer either. Saying Jared is a smart guy is true though...I think he's smart... like a Fox ! Wait until McGahn and Mueller testify before Congress.Wait until the Deutsche Bank records become public. I'm sure even his supporters would like to get a look at his taxes. If it wasn't for the GOP and Fox News...Trump would have no support.
36
@Dave. it doesn’t seem like a relentless attack? Then what the heck are you reading or watching? They were obsessed with the Mueller report and since that didn’t work out, they are now obsessed with obstruction.
1
@Dave. I run a flower shop in Brooklyn, and as such talk to dozens (hundreds?) customers daily. rarely (if ever) these conversations involve politics. They did a bit when the leftist crazies (read the Democrat Wing of the Democrat Party, to quote Howie) drove away Amazon's bid to bring 50K highly-paid jobs to the city. That's about it. People care and thus talk about their kids (oh yeah, how about all those coastal elites, all Democrats, btw, who schemed to get their over-privileged kids into top colleges?), about their aging parents, about their summer vacations. NO-ONE cares about Washington DC.
67
@Yulia Berkovitz
Of course they don't talk about Trump with you. Did it occur to you that people are reluctant to talk about Trump with Trump followers and those who routinely take sport in attacking the left and think they are perfectly justified in doing so. We express concern about Trump and the right wingers attack the left. Politicizing and equating the admissions scandal while giving Trump a pass is a good example. Do you know that everyone involved was a Democrat? Really, you really think the admissions scandal rose to the level of obstruction of justice, lying, corruption, fear mongering, racism etc etc etc of Trump, the Russian installed president. It used to be Republicans were concerned about Russia as a hostile foreign adversary because they are. What happened? Trump?
And why would anyone go into a flower shop and talk politics, especially about Trump, anyway?
33
For those who really want to rid DC of Trump, you need these outsider perspectives. Whether you agree or not is unimportant. It's what nuggets of wisdom you pick up.
Know thy enemy. It's an ancient rule in the art of war.
15
Except for Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles de Gaulle the French should always be taken with a grain of salt.
3
He’s full of it. I go to Chicago, DC, and many other cities. People discuss the malignant Trump presidency in every city.
11
@David Barrett
In a lot of those cities, they also discuss the malignant left. And not just republicans doing the talking.
2
Sad to tell you but even in NYC we no longer gossip about what’s his name... but the Halloween masks in the village are popular w politicians visages... all year long! tourists buy them for carnivals I am told... surely the French politician shares his euro views and having been on the ‘inside’ should be listened to! Although what he says about the French being private, also means Everybody cool and connected w the media Knows the scene but doesn’t gossip about it in ‘peacetime’ ...in war it’s quite another story, as we all sadly must acknowledge...
“You have a city that feels frightened and personally attacked by Trump,” he told me. “At every dinner, you have anecdotes about Donald Trump. And you leave Washington, D.C., and you can spend two days in Seattle and Chicago and nobody says the word ‘Trump.’”
The reason that everyone feels frightened and personally attacked is simple: They ARE constantly attacked by Trump and his merry band of enablers and they ARE frightened for the very future of our national fabric. With a court system more and more rigged to rubber stamp Trump's atrocities and a Senate led by McConnell who has tried to turn the clock back to 1850, people SHOULD be very afraid.
And I don't know whom Araud speaks with, but most people I know in all regions of the country DO speak about Trump a great deal. As for the press, we should be grateful that it shines a light on all the corruption and crime committed in the cause of Trump's personal greed and moral turpitude.
Well, at least Araud gets to go back to the idyllic peace and calm of Paris. It's so civilized there. No protests. No problems. Just pure Gallic charm. Le Pen and the emergence of the far-right white nationalists, the yellow vests, riots and bombings must be just fictions of an overactive press.
18
@Avatar Honestly, I'll go days without talking about Trump to my fiancee and friends. I'm deeply opposed to Trump but he's not the air I breathe. If you are talking to other people about Trump every single day then that's great for you but doesn't it get tiring?
2
@Avatar. What Trump's "atrocities"? It's that type of language that turns regular folks away from Democrat Party. The President has continued Obama's policies of immigrant detention, illegal spying, drone attacks in the Third world, to be fair. Is that the atrocities in question? If so, where were you when Obama instituted them?! Hypocrisy does not sit well with the electorate, Sir.
3
@Avatar. Except he’s not going to Paris.
1
Monsieur Araud’s hauteur is unbecoming as is his making light of Trumpian criminality and cruelty as if they are but merely entertaining parlor games for the rich and powerful. Despite his urbanity and so-called sophistication, the ambassador reveals a rather shallow grasp of the increasingly dark and dangerous reality in which we find ourselves.
18
Since France is now , at best , a third-rate international
power , French ambassadors are not really that terribly important anymore...
Sort of , I'd say , a glorified Romania... ( with apologies to Romanians... ) .
Beyond his uninteresting observations , I noticed mainly the following about M. Araud .
First , he is NOT going back to France . Why ?
Second , he is joining the Attias lobbying firm...
Yet another former public official trying to make a buck with his rolodex....
I bet he will now spend more time in Washington than he ever did before.....
Ah well - Vive la France !!
5
Ha! He will be one of them politicians, curators, and ‘ordinary’ citizens, about whom it will be said ‘he spent his years in America’ until he retired to his chateaux outside of Paris... I wonder if he got himself a rent stabilized apt in the city too...No one has to speak about religion in France, because most French are Catholics...they also don’t speak about their famous baguette because it’s part of their daily diet... common FOLKS, get real!
"The capital has too many squirrels, he says, not to mention a squirrelly president."
This from a man whose president, Macron, has not been able to deal effectively with the Yellow Vest rebellion which has gone on for months, or with a feelbe economy, rising unemployment, rising rates of anti-Semitism and an attack on Notre Dame? If he is going to use the word "squirrely," perhaps I could lend him a mirror.
2
I recently spent a month in the Chapala area of Mexico and, believe it or not, heard not a work about Trump. Bliss.
6
The gentleman comes across a charming intellectual and political lightweight, not concerned about much more than appearance and emotions. The details reported by Ms. Dowd remind me of a ostentatious Paris and NY social subset in the commercials arts I knew quite well some years ago. There might be more to these two, but the page six style Ms. Dowd returns to here does not say so.
2
Shameless as he might be, people should not underestimate Trump or his supporters, many of whom tout despicable ideas about immigrants and fellow citizens. However, if the economy keeps expanding and he can finagle the denuclearization of N. Korea, and keep the US out of new wars, he might just get a Nobel peace prize. Heck, they gave one to Obama, and that was a total farce.
2
Older civilizations than us do view Trump differently than our nation---barely out of our teens---century wise. I have had similar experiences with Europeans and Asians, who, view Trump as a punchline--one of those crazy things that happy in history, but, then, move the conversation into more substantive matters. Our nation has had experience with bad presidents, but, this is our first up close and personal experience with just plain crazy---so, I give the press some slack trying to wrap their editorial pages around our own Charles VI of France.
5
Very diplomatic, Mr. Araud.
Now what would you say if you were not moving to Trump’s neighborhood?
1
@Rita
Believe me, it's not Trump's neighborhood.
3
They never talk about DT in Chicago? Once in a while, Mr. Ambassador, read the Chicago Tribune.
9
Maybe Araud might remember Vichy France in his analysis of Trump. Trump is much more than a passing fascination or accident. His bonafides are rule by force and any means necessary. Jared Kushner is a henchman as is Steven Miller.
21
Perhaps the word Genius got lost in Translation. We often say Géniale in French meaning “great” or “smart” or even “cunning”. I doubt very much the Ambassador thinks Donald is a Genius.
3
I would have the same perspective if the French President was elected through a conspiracy with Russia and the French President was working overtime to degrade NATO and democracy in French. And let’s put some whipped cream on the cake, the French President lies constantly and find his strongest fan base among neo-fascists. I doubt the French diplomat would be so relaxed in his attitude.
8
He has an interesting diplomat’s perspective.
Was he being diplomatic or trying to escape Donald and Jared’s wraith by calling Donald a genius and Jared a smart guy and no mention of Russia?
1
What an unexpected breath of honesty. The media is antiTrump, Trump refuses to be manipulated, and the elected liberal left is overly obsessed over him to the point they are not addressing real issues. He even acknowledged that Social Democracy in Western Europe is in a coma!
3
"Oh would some power the gift give us to see ourselves as others see us". Thank you Robert Burns and Ms Dowd for sending me cringing to start my day.
I had the sense before I read a word of your piece, that I was about to encounter a mirror held up by you and your French ambassador buddy.
I dared to hear the opinion of another because I've lost some of my regard for my own opinion over the 27 months of Trump's presidency. Not that I think he'll ever be thought of as a great president but because I'm keenly aware of the powerful, almost unhinged, nature of my own dislike of the man.
If it takes Ambassador Araud to show me another way to "see ourselves", c'est la vie.
7
How Gallic, to serve one-line observations from a silver platter (amuse-tête?) to a fawning American.
But the ambassador is not wholly wrong.
The merit of this piece is the validation his perspective provides to the lived reality of many of us. (Though he should visit Chicago and Seattle if he speaks of them summarily.)
No words on Russian social engineering, in our country or his?
7
We keep hearing the Greek chorus of critics moaning about the knee-jerk anti-Trumpism of the press. The explanation has to do with journalists' being trained to ask questions like why it is necessary for a President of the United States to lie with each public utterance. Down home we used to call this sort of thing a clue.
4
What about the squirrels?
1
Very droll, very witty, very French. Love the quote “ so if you want to govern another way in this city, you are obliged to break china “. Agreed, but Trump and his regime will steal the china. It’s what they DO, it’s who they are. As for the finger and moon parable, I like it. I could offer Trump a select finger or a moon, his choice. But that would be undiplomatic, and so very not French. Best wishes, Sir.
8
“...he has not been able to widen his appeal beyond basically the people who feel comfortable in a global world...
That’s the glass being half-full...
Half-empty, it reads:
“...he has not been interested – let alone able – to widen his appeal to basically the people who feel comfortable in a local town or village...
The people who do things – vs the people who say things
The people who willingly live by rules – vs the people who willfully live beyond rules
The people who make things – vs the people who redistribute things
The people who simply commit to each other – vs the people who smugly comment to each other
And what about increasing tax rates above 75% – and decreasing nuclear energy’s share of electric production below 75%...
How’d those turn out...
2
Dowd is always interesting and I'm thinking, informative. But, then as I finished today's piece, I wondered is this the only way we can learn vignettes and tidbits we'd never be aware of otherwise? Probably any way is well outside the common grasp and so can Dowd be trusted to form the "right" picture for us? By experience we've seen she is quite worthy of that trust. What about her subject here? Can we trust his judgment by the words Dowd quotes? He thinks Trump cannot be manipulated and he's dead wrong on that point. He thinks Jared is smart, "really". Were this so, Jared would not allow himself to display such blatant ignorance of the effect of his own arrogant thinking. Dowd doesn't sway us one way or the other, this is how I see it. A thing like Trump might easily become a kingfish in France, too.
Where is Araud going? Consulting, advising, lobbying. Best not to break any China of whom you will be earning big American dollars from.
2
As a Dual French/American citizen, I became American in 2005, I can tell you that the US has absolutely no lessons to receive from a Macronite. Where is that guy going next? A communication firm in NYC? Really? He's not going to work for Greenpeace or tackle Climate Change, but run after more money? Because he was picked up by Macron himself as an ambassador, he belongs to the same clique of parasites against whom France, with the face of the yellow jackets, are mad at. Araud went to l'Ena (École nationale d'administration) where Macron went and where most of the parasitic low life forms, who have been plaguing the successive governments of France in the past several decades, are coming from. L'Ena is practically a sect and its members are "raised" believing they are a special cast better than any other life form on planet earth. They are not trained to make France better. They are trained to use France at promoting themselves and at using the system at their advantage. I'm very disappointed that the NYT is giving any attention to Araud.
2
@Philippe Orlando We all know inbreeding brings intellectual disability, think back European monarchies, and that is probably why western democracies are in trouble. In France, it is l'Ena's "elite". In the US, it is the same old Ivy league schools for the privileged few! These people live in a bubble very far from reality and many lack common sense! Furthermore, most could not care less about the average folk! Here, this is why we ended up with the thing that inhabits the White House. In France, it may explain why the country never seems to get its economy in order.
@Viking 1The economic problems of France come from different reasons. Way too long to talk about this here.
Just a thought - I wonder if Pence enjoyed his parties?
1
A person can have such views when they know they are protected from the worst of 45s policies. When you're not vulnerable, you can be blase about him, Miller, Kushner, etal. East 73rd sounds like a perfect neighborhood for this self-satisfied nabob.
11
So now, the conservatives will boycott "French fries" again?
An interesting look at Trump from an ‘outsider’.
Even more interesting are most of the comments. Whoever thought up the term Trump Derangement Syndrome must have just read comments similar to these.
2
"Trump is the finger" - Well, he got that part right. But Trump doesn't point to the moon. He point to himself. And only himself.
1
Whether Macron fired him (why isn’t he returning to Paris?) or Araud quit, his rather blasé attitude toward Western democracy indicates it’s probably time for a different ambassador. In NYC, he can continue partying with the Kushners who are doing everything they can to upend the very society Araud has been enjoying, observing, and critiquing—with obvious misjudgments—lo these many years.
18
@Cmary
Spot on!
1
Trump can't be manipulated? Tell that to Putin, Kim Jong-Un and anyone that can shake a dollar in his face.
2
The ambassador says " ...you leave Washington, D.C., and you can spend two days in Seattle and Chicago and nobody says the word ‘Trump."
Mr. Araud is certainly no Tocqueville: DC may not be a microcosm of the country, but the 2018 midterms showed the populous can tell the moon from the finger.
I think we're now witnessing the opposite of what likely occurred in 2016: rather than the economically distressed cohort gaining insufficient attention, the degree of anti-Trump sentiment is now in full under-the-radar mode. Most interviews are with Trump stalwarts and the drive for impeachment is in slo-mo at best.
I live in rural NC and the Trump disgrace, especially subsequent to Mueller, is topic #1.
12
Jared Kushner a “really smart guy.” That tells me everything I need to know about Monsieur Araud. Mon Dieu, I suppose he also thinks that Trump is a “really stable genius.”
Adieu, to you. I may wear “awful jeans” on the streets of DC, but at least I have the good judgment and sense to know Kushner is a grifter and a fraud.
30
Ironically, Araud is exactly the kind of 'immigrant' Trump is enthusiastic about. While he has nothing but contempt for Trump, he's White, male, well educated, multi-lingual, affluent and full of 'merit'. So make yourself at home Mr. Ambassador and I hope your next job involves hyping the Democratic nominee.
I’m sure the yellow-vest protesters would love to hear about the Ambassador’s parties, reclining on the tree, what a lovely way to spend tax payer money.
Tone deaf.
15
Could be a decade of American history lost to media jabber and headlines about a president and his dumb twitter remarks. If there is real crises God help us.
1
Araud found Americans under Trump to be amusing, enjoyed himself by holding soirees where he could observe the species, including such foul as Stephen Miller. Good on him.
Here's your chapeau, Jerry. Don't forget to shut the door behind you.
4
The media contributed a lot to making Trump and Moonves gave the formula for it (maybe bad for America but good for us (the media and ratings).
All Trump all the time is always good publicity for as we know there is no such thing as bad publicity. Then all Russia, Russia, Russia is an insult to people's intelligence (as if the Russkies could outspend the Adelsons, Kochs, Mercers and all the other big donors and outsmart all American spin doctors with a pitiful sum spend on social media).
So yes the so-called "resistance" is often sham resistance (when eulogizing war mongers McCain or Bush 1) and when not fighting tooth and nail against the fraud of fraud depriving African Americans of their right to vote).
Now this ambassador who says smart things will copy the Clintons and Obamas: making piles of money in the private sector after a stint in public service. Attias is the guy Sarkozy's first wife fled to when she left him. Yet his warning about the bubbling resentment of the many is right. If the media go all Russia, Trump, Russia, Trump but approve of his criminal policies against Iran and Venezuela (not nice régimes) and forget about economic equality, health care for all the the environment then the ignoramus in chief who has the genius of a conman will stand a chance.
Russiagate was a conspiracy theory pushed by the Clinton Dems which is turning into a huge gift to the cruel clown and further destroying faith in quality media.
Please keep hating working America's favorite president, Maureen. The progressive mind-meld needs to be complete so the shock on that Wednesday in November of 2020 can be the most ever.
Oh, no one despises real people like the fakers and graspers of false status, and no group so steadily assigns itself imagined status as the opinioneers of a functionally corrupted media.
''Tomorow always has been better than today.''
-- radio great Paul Harvey
2
Wonder which Democrats he spoke to about economically shaky voters and the genius of Trump. C’est la vie.
Yet another self-serving politician publicly criticizing Trump through an "exit interview" as he heads out the door to a more lucrative career as author or possibly PR flack. He must have been taking notes from Corker and Flake.
An ambassador who would take on the duty of graciously hosting feculents such as Mnuchin, Conway, and Miller must be a true patriot to his country.
1
How nice for you, M.Araud, to be above it all! And to have enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the no-good, the bad, and the ugly of our capital city.
I’m sure you will find a perfect niche in New York. Better yet, I’m sure Paris would welcome you back.
Don’t t let la porte hit you on the way out.
2
Gerard Araud is a snow flake. If i saw him coming up my front side walk i would run out the back door. Nonsense is his middle name.
1
"Blunt" is another word for being full of oneself. Pompous is another word which describes this man.
3
Prefers NYC existentially.
Reads NY Post for page 6 gossip and trivia..
Doesn't regard Trump as uncouth nor monstrous.
Lost count of whatever republic reigns at home now.
Really enjoys those White Castle sliders when tail gates.
More OKLAHOMA!, less Marquis de Sade.
Wears his keds to be fashionable.
Letterman ditto head.
Parks limo on sidewalk for diplomatic immunity.
Wears baseball cap backwards to fit in.
1
Come on, people. Trump won because of Comey's "new emails" just days before the election (empty), of Russia's fake postings on social media, of the Koch Brothers, big oil, pharma, agra, and tobacco money, and of the stupidity of the so-called "christian" right that demonizes abortion above all reason. Trump was running to boost his TV show ratings.
He was always a thug, a womanizer, a crook and a failure. He did not and does not deserve any kind of attention but it comes with the campaign and the job. He is embarrassing and the GOP is distorted (further) under his influence.
McConnell is shrewd, conniving and hates Trump. He tolerates him because Trump is easy to manipulate and McC gets his way as king of congress.
The American public has been being sold a bill of goods by mean-spirited old white men for most of its history. As Reagan was manipulated by GHW Bush, and W. Bush by Cheney, Trump is manipulated by McConnell, Miller, and the rest. FOX is educating citizens in being blind and baffled 24/7. It's working.
The Ambassador seems interested in living a rich life focused on not much of anything. Is he any different than the people he is leaving behind in DC?
2
Charmed life, like Marie Antoinette at Versailles while the Yellow Vests are burning down Paris.
With Macron throwing a parade for Trump down the Champs Elysées and Araud throwing decadent parties for the Mnuchins in DC, Araud personifies everything that is wrong with the Moon King diplomacy of Macronie: fawning at the feet of the despised while hissing at them behind their backs.
East 73rd Street, huh? I don't suppose it's Second Avenue. Prince Jared will never venture that far east.
1
Two days in in Seattle and Chicago and nobody says the word Trump, hello, up here in the great white north, even my grandkids talk about Trump, they too are in disbelief.
Oh well. Someone has to be a Kushner fan.
1
Well, Swirrelsford will give a warm welcome to Ambassador Araud, where he is correct in saying that the name Trump is no longer mentioned. We are on the Qui Vive, however, but going about our community business.
A staunch Republican neighbor would agree that there is too much press coverage on this president, and that it is unnecessary to report his latest sneeze.
If we were to meet which is not going to happen, I would give Mr. Araud all my HergeTintin books published by La Maison Casterman in 1956, according to a copy of 'L'Affaire Tournesol'. He might also enjoy 'Tintin in the New World', by Frederic Tuten.
When it comes to cold fish with sharp gills, this voter sees more similarities in the make-up of Jared and Macron. President Obama is taller and has more compassion.
It was a shock to hear of Notre Dame, and some Parisian acquaintances were traumatized on the eve of April 15, too stunned to weep, but grieved.
'A world is collapsing before our eyes. Vertigo', is an understandable reaction, one that might have inspired Racine.
Wishing the French Ambassador and his love a warm stay on East 73rd Street, where a burglar once visited my rented parents' carriage-house and asked the German Ambassador to give him ten dollars and salute Hitler three times. This is 'when we were very young'.
It took a series of interviews, with the ex-Ambassador of France to USA and NYT sends Maureen Dowd, to come up with this article?
Why is he moving to Manhattan and not back to France?
So he hates/admires Trump, but at least he is honest enough to tell her what he thinks about the US Media and points out that outside Washington/NYC (leave Hollywood alone) there is USA.
They see the Left and they see Trump. - lets wait for 2020
You can't manipulate trump? Kim Jung-Un may disagree with that.
2
If the Ambassador thinks Jared is bright, he should plan to take English lessons in NYC as his language skills must need improvement.
Comparing Macron and Obama? Wait, Macron hasn’t yet been re-elected (though I unfortunately can’t see any decent candidate against him, but this is beside the point.)
1
Stop. Just STOP analyzing this president with the concept as "genius" in reading the voters as being shaky about economic security. He did no such thing. Could we finally just get straight and admit the President cannot strategize on a level of complex considerations! OR anything approaching sustained planning. He can look around his immediate environment of a meeting or some such assembly and with his "gut" see how far he can go to get maximum attention. That's IT. We have all been propping up the idea there is someone "there" as President because it is terrifying that there isn't . Everything has been planned and executed by others around him. Somehow Trump attracts a certain type of anti-social person with intimidating bluster. It's really simple. And add to that the collective national shame of his being elected which we are reluctant to confront.
11
Curiously, I really enjoyed this assessment... That does not mean that I agree with all being said, but it is a glimpse of a world, closer than I will ever see...
Trump is somehow, or someone is, intuitive enough to know the dissatisfaction of the American electorate, and to be able to profit on that, all the while convincing us that it is someone else's fault...
I also wonder about the Putin/Trump dance... seems to me to be too easily contrived... like some stage play for which we have not seen the final act...
Their is, no doubt, crafty politics at work here...
1
Sorry, but Mr. Araud is wrong. The question of the 2020 election is not “What does it mean to be on the left in America? The question is “What does it mean to be an American.” Right now, we simply don’t know. Maybe we’ll figure it out in 2020.
4
It is very easy to be amused by the problems of a country one visits, or to pretend to be amused by the insanity of its “leadership,” because one can always retreat to the safety and familiarity of one’s home country. Monsieur Araud has that luxury, and I don’t appreciate his rubbing my face in it, not with the help of Ms. Dowd, now with such carefree levity.
4
He sounds perfectly pretentious. I think he should be put on the next plane back to Paris.
And somebody please make sure to take away those diplomatic parking permits.
7
Considering that the largest news audience is watching Fox news, it’s incorrect to say the news media is completely against Trump. Maybe the erstwhile French ambassador never watched the homophobic channel.
1
An entertaining article and an interesting man. So why is my skin crawling?
3
I'm wondering what makes this interview newsworthy. Simply put, this is just another nobody straddling both sides of issues looking to land a cushy job because of it. His comments regarding no one speaking the word Trump in certain cities makes one wonder who he talks to. Then the column goes on to state two or three incompetent evil toady trump officials he invited to Christmas parties. A waste of paper this column turns out to be.
6
President Obama wasn’t too slim or elegant to relate to the man on the street, but here in Trump Country he was considered too uppity for the post he had risen to. Trump instinctively understood this and thus birtherism was born.
4
Do note it was Hillary’s sidekick Sidney Blumenthal who founded ‘birtherism’ in her run against Obama. How soon we forget?
So Trump had no choice but to take up birtherism because Sid got to it first. Gotcha.
3
@RS
'just pointing out your incorrect attribution of the genesis of 'birtherism'...
1
The reason the French ambassador finds that we in Chicago do not talk about Trump is not that we have more important things to discuss but that we have been struck dumb by two years of this loathsome President and the toadying administration around him.
4
Perhaps the legitimate press, being on the whole a rational group of people, got tired of Trump's nonstop boasting, bullying and lying.
4
Maureen, wrong, wrong, and wrong, both you and the French Ambassador have it wrong. I live in Chicago, and the word on the street, on the lake shore, and in the suburbs is that your friend Trump is a dog, with no moral compass or integrity and a wimpy growling bully enthralled with Putin, and in love with North Korea’s dictator.
7
Mon Dieu! Did Araud spend all those years in Washington from Reagan to Trump?
No wonder he seemed a bit giddy with delight at moving on--I felt similarly about 2 days before I retired from 40 years of university teaching.
I can't help but wonder if he weren't being just another Frenchman having a little fun by being provocative and provoking Maureen and her American readers by not disdaining the vulgar Mr. Trump. The giveaway was when he called Jared Kushner "a smart guy, really." Très drôle!
I grew up in Washington, D.C. My father was an executive at several printing companies--an industry that he said would never be lacking for business in that city!
He was originally from Maine, and chuckled about how seriously so many egotistical, ambitious careerists, gossipy social climbers, retired military brass, and second tier government under secretaries took themselves.
As he used to say: "So much pretension, so little talent."
I wonder what, if anything, Araud will miss about D.C. Cherry blossoms maybe, which keep blooming in abundance each spring as Republican and Democratic administrations jockey and replace each other like Dr. Seuss's Star Belly Sneetches.
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs2604/Summer2000/projects/Sneetches.txt
1
Breath of fresh air, this fellow.
1
@Wolf- au contraire! The air is stale and he's moving too close to where I live. 73rd street? a rental?..... mon dieu!
3
We are talking about Trump in Chicago, Mr Araud. And we aren’t saying particularly nice things. I think you live in a bubble of your own making. Noblesse oblige.
6
If Araud thinks trump cannot be manipulated than he hasn't been paying attention - Hannity, Coulter, Putin, Kim Jong-Un just to name a few obvious sources.
8
To many, trump is the embodiment of racism, sexism, tribalism. But one label held so dear by his base, giving excuse to overlook all the rest, has always been: Donald T: Champion of the working class.
Really?
I hope the revealing moment came when, in a recent rally, he repeatedly referred to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as "a bartender" with contempt, with disgust he felt for that lowly profession, the working-class origin Ocasio-Cortez belonged to. Despite being a congresswoman, she can never escape her low-life origin and will be forever held in scorn. That repeated reference had only one meaning, "Once a low-life working class, always a low-life". This put-down was met with enthusiasm from the crowd, the purportedly angry, disenfranchised, and hurt working class against the arrogant, snobbish, rich liberal elites! Really? Do you really want me to believe any more this victim sensationalism? It would have been more honest if Trump simply had said, “A Mexican, a Mexican, dared challenge me”. To have him bash the working class while receiving cheers from that crowd was just surreal. Were there bartenders, cooks, waitresses in the crowd? Or their family? Were they oblivious when trump squeezed “a bartender” through his teeth? I cannot imagine even the most snobbish liberal elite who would dare do what trump did, let alone receive roaring cheers. What explains this slavish following of a man who despises the very class they belong to, if not racism?
11
Excellent comment, @american expat!
2
Leave it to the French to have their pulse on the wrist of the entire world, diagnose the ills, and be right every time. Trés bien.
2
Re:the prescient French...not really - seems like they don’t have the pulse of their own people, ie yellow jackets, etc
So Mo found the one human being who is not horrified by The Donald?
2
"...people were convinced that they would manipulate him. But no, you can’t manipulate him.”
Seriously? The same guy who was going to sign a budget deal until he got spanked by Coulter and Limbaugh. Offer him a sweet condo deal and he'd sell out anyone, country included.
The problem is he's too easily manipulated.
5
... or could say he listens to what others have to say - ya can’t have it both ways.
@Cathy
It's a tad more nuanced than that. He should listen to what his veteran senior advisors tell him, read his daily briefings from agency heads, which he doesn't, and then synthesize all he's heard and thought deeply about and then take a position. Not be persuaded by crackpots like Coulter, Hannity and Limbaugh at the last minute. He's a compromised president.
1
“The capital has too many squirrels, he says, not to mention a squirrelly president.“
What’s with the squirrels? The United Kingdom has a worse squirrel problem( grey squirrels from the US of course )
Where’s Rocky when we need him?
1
Good bye Mr. Ambassador. Thanks for sharing your views about Trump, the media and the squirrels in Washington. Ms. Dowd try spending some time with the proletariat, you know, some working stiffs, and have a chat about the deep divide in our country over a nice bowl of chilli. Don't hesitate to pick up the tab.
2
"In an era when the president scorns parties and dinners around town, Araud played the host, with his love, Pascal Blondeau, a photographer, designing the set. They had a masquerade ball and glamorous Christmas parties featuring a tree hanging upside down one year and a tree festooned with plush polar bears and pearls another. Last Christmas, Blondeau, dressed as an elfin lumberjack, reclined on a tree placed on its side.
"Steven Mnuchin and Louise Linton came to parties, along with Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross and, in what may be their last joint appearance, Kellyanne and George Conway. Araud even wooed immigration tyrant Stephen Miller to the chateau with good French wine."
Wiow, Whatta guy!
Tom Wolfe would have mercilessly satirized such a scene.
Down, in her "Statesmanship as great dinner party" insouciance, finds it charming.
By the way, Mr. Ambassador, and Ms. Dowd, the reason some of us are "hyperventilating" about Trump is that, along with the Republicans, who give new meaning to the word craven sociopaths, he is trying to tear apart the social safety net for those who can't afford to go to dinner parties in Georgetown -- or Manhattan -- every week.
And to let an invidious comparison of Macron with Obama slip by, is worth of somebody who has made a career out of gushing over the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger while interminably lobbing spite bombs at Hillary Clinton.
2
There was a time long ago that squirrels were still talking to us, not anymore. They could even tell you what time it is. They also knew that the hands of time moved in the other direction, and how important it was for us to keep up, but then there not talking anymore.
Newspapers and Twitter and cell phones all give some of us the thrill of attempts at conversation. Humans sometimes think one or more of themselves are Big Deals. We are each capriciously able to survive human pro-(or re)creation and beginning of cellular growth up to the point we realize we are personally finite and simply going to die. Atomic bombs and slippery steps are both fully capable of ending our lives. To pass our time, we try at times to understand if there is something going on that is a larger concept involved. Perhaps there is, but realistically, it is none of our business. Our vanity allows us to pursue greater glories and our foolishness allows us to let babies and children and everyone else die randomly. Ten billion of us may be alive at some point in time. I wish at least two of them not to be the last. Go Mo!
An upside down Christmas tree and Stephen Miller. The essence of decadence.
14
I appreciate mr Araud’s perspectives, it can be helpful listening to the observations of an outsider who has tried so elegantly to entertain the insiders. Trumps tries desperately to convince us that all he touches is golden. The reporting of the national press tries to help us connect the dots, but the greatest dangers are the lies Trump propagates regarding his support for the forgotten working men and women. Trumps greatest achievement is the ongoing CON that his policies are for anyone but the rich. Trump has always had a plan, but it is only for the 1%. We see it, no matter where we live in America.
22
@Susan MURPH
Did you avoid reading the article?
I'd like to address some of the comments here which refer to Trump as a "Russian puppet."
Trump's administration has taken a very hard line against Russia for its interference in our elections. Expulsion of Russian diplomats; sanctions; and most recently reports of a cyber offensive against the Internet Research Agency during the 2018 midterms to impede IRA efforts to interfere. Certainly there is a lot more that is not publicized.
At the same time Trump, personally, chooses to not publicly demonize the demons who run the Kremlin.
Having worked for the once-venerable State Department for a little more than 4 decades prior to retiring recently, I think I have some insight into this seeming discrepancy.
Russia, and in particular the Kremlin, for all its seeming "openness," remains mostly a black box. US experts simply do not know with any degree of certainty what is going on there.
Putin may *appear* to be in control. We just do not know how strong is his grip on internal politics.
I suspect that Mr. Trump, terrified of nuclear war and aware of just how opaque Moscow is, has, at the urging of his senior advisors, decided that its best to let his administration's actions do the talking, and NOT personally attack Putin (the mastermind behind Russian interference).
To do so might well weaken Putin and open up in the Kremlin a Pandora's box that will have unintended consequences, such as political instability and moves that bring us closer to armed conflict.
4
@Frank J Haydn
For someone who claims to have worked in the State Department even for a short time, your comments seem oddly naive and simplistic. Your claim that Trump's eerie relationship with Putin is driven by his terror of nuclear war is laughable.
As is your observation that Putin only *appears* to be in control of that unhealthy relationship. The silliest claim of the lot is that Trump's refusal to hold Putin personally responsible for election interference is part of some carefully thought through global strategy.
Where do you get this stuff!
1
I think the Democrats should use him on the campaign trail. I hear French diplomats telling Americans what’s wrong with their country plays very well in the middle in the country.
6
I have begun to think that some of the best writing in the Times is by Maureen Dowd. I particularly liked her recent piece on Laurie Metcalf. First in response to other articles in today's paper, I love AOC and Katie Porter from California. The future of the Democratic party is with them, and four of the women who are currently in the Democratic primary. I keep coming back to the
campaign of JFK in 1960 and the role of his brother Bobby in American politics for 1967-68. The one Democratic leader that I currently respect is Nancy Pelosi who, whatever else you want to say, is a pro. We need change in our country. Our community needs to think about how that can be effectively attained.
Going forward, it now seems very likely that Trump will be re-elected. He produced for the people who voted for him, and for Wall Street (look at the S&P 500) and conservatives who want
a reactionary judicial system. According to the NYTimes analysis, people in red states held an economic advantage over people in blue states.
What do we need: a JFK candidate who will specifically repudiate the Bill Clinton years (incarceration of African-Americans), the Obama years (political incompetence, wall street deals), and the
Hillary Clinton debacle, pus the upcoming Joe Biden debacle (treatment of Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas). Democratic candidates need to start fresh with support for the American dream of how we can make the country good for everyone. My personal bet is on Kamala Harris.
4
I read al 76 Comments as of 9:12 PST on Saturday,
April 27th.
Again and again people decry Trump being called a "Genius".
Trump is a "Genius" of the Con-Game as some
Commentators have pointed out.
He out-smarted his Republican Primary opponents
and defeated the "Most Prepared Presidential Candidate
of All Time"
and surprised the Nay-Sayers, Pundits and Pollsters.
I did not vote for him, I wanted Bernie but the
Democratic Establishment made that impossible.
As for Trump destroying Democracy...
Everyone has a right to hire a lawyer and fight back
against intrusions into their lives by the Government -
Innocent or Guilty.
I don't see where Trump has sought to violate my
Constitutional Rights or yours.
And please remember, we are a Constitutional
Union of Republican States
not a Democracy.
That said:
If the evidence is there -
hold impeachment hearings.
But make sure you don't let the weasel escape
your trap or you will never catch him again.
2
@John Brown
How did the Democratic establishment get more votes for Hillary than Bernie? Face the fact that unlike Obama, Bernie simply was unable to mount an effective campaign in the primaries. She got more votes than he did and thats why she won.
His current campaign style hasn’t changed (no surprise when someone old can’t change). We hear no plan from him but calls for “a revolution in this country”, “the benefits
Of our economy go to the top 1%” and other bumper-sticker sloganeering. He reacts to questions slowly and awkwardly, and with vague disdain and mistrust of his interlocutor.
He needs to go away, as does Biden and let better choices emerge. The empty charisma of Biden, Bernie and Beto are not what is needed.
@John Brown
Thank you! Finally, some sensibility to the perceived hell we have been living since 2017; at least in my daily grumbling.
@John C
The Democrats admitted that
the Democratic National Committee
worked against Bernie in the primaries -
not allowed.
The Super Delegates were already pledged
to Hillary.
She had more money and was better known
and yet Bernie put up a good fight.
Bernie may not win, but he has the right to run
and speak for those who have been left behind
by the Democratic and Republican elites
who care not a whit for the powerless
in this country.
I've spent quite a bit of time in France, Mr. Arnaud. It's no utopia.
2
His analysis of the Republican chameleons and Democrats adrift is spot on. But hearing that they all attend the Hunger Games parties - mon dieu.
2
In recent years, the Republican Party may have been rhetorically connected to budgetary restraint, but in reality it has not been so connected for decades. The GOP spin machine depicts adherence to fiscal responsibility while it actually and persistently does lethal violence to the national debt whenever it is in power.
Pass the Kool-Aid, please.
9
I don't understand the point of this column at all unless it's for Mr. Araud to point out how he himself is above the fray. He talks about the "man in the street," but throws over the top parties with those in DC in attendance. And what's with the "too slim and too elegant" remarks. I thought the French appreciated those traits. Like I said, I don't get the point of this at all.
8
Interesting that WSJ’s Peggy Noonan just wrote a similar article decrying the end of the old school diplomat corps in D.C.
This is why Trump won. We the people are sick of the D.C. Boom Town elitist swamp. The richest counties in America are all near D.C. Centralized wealth and power in D.C. is a bad thing.
Let’s diffuse the power in D.C. Move the bureaucracies to small towns and cities all over the country. That’s a good start.
7
DC, Virginia & Maryland are sooo RICH (and entitled!) - filled with lobbyists with pockets of dollars and very comfy well compensated bureaucrats- that these three areas NEVER felt the 2009 recession at all - nothing - they were in a bubble at the expense of the rest of the country. Think about it - ‘bubbled’ elites versus the rest of America- now you have one more good reason why Trump’s candidacy & administration is so appealing to so many and also why the Bubble remains clueless & enraged,
1
The counter strategy for trump is for the media to ignore his every blowhard tweet and to campaign for good, strong, effective leaders. Enough with the breathless coverage of mayor pete, too please. Let's hear more about Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.
6
If Monsieur Araud is coming to NYC to escape Trump's name and the fixation on him by the folks in Washington, he's coming to the wrong place. We have hated him for years with his crooked real estate "deals," his penchant for naming buildings after himself (in garish gold letters), his stiffing of contractors, and his serial bankruptcies (for which we all pay). It's impossible for me to sit down with anyone and not fulminate against Trump. I think the people most shocked by the election in 2016 were New Yorkers, who have known for decades, what a sleazy man he is. If by smart, you mean he gets away with things, sure, but the man can't string two sentences together and feigns confidence with his bluster. Unlike most of us who have to earn our ways through life, he succeeded in real estate because of the cowardice of bankers and he is succeeding in Washington because of the duplicity of Republicans. But welcome to NY, Monsieur.
18
Speak for yourself.....there are many New Yorkers, including myself who are cheering the President daily. We’re here, we just don’t talk about....moreover, you’d be surprised who turns up as a supporter - just talked to my upstairs neighbor of 35 years, swore she was a liberal - turns out, not to be. You never know.
It's an interesting piece Ms Dowd writes, to hear the perspectives of the French Ambassador. He clearly sees Trump's rise to power as a failing of Democrats to appreciate the social and economic distortions within our country. However, I think he's wrong about the Press being anti-Trump. Rather, they have been his greatest asset.... a tool to amplify his fascist messages 24/7 and thereby appeal to the rascist undercurrents in our society. Just consider the slanted coverage of the 2016 election... then there's the State TV Fox news. Here we are debating Trump... Need we say more?
6
Any thinking American can see that the French ambassador is correct—the press is rabidly anti-Trump, especially in DC. Anyone who denies that is kidding themselves. Listen, if Trump said ‘biased news’ instead of ‘fake news,’ he’d be on solid ground. That’s what Trump means anyway, i.e. the news is so biased, it’s fake. He does have a point.
5
Not sure where the Ambassador dines in Seattle and Chicago, but it’s pretty hard to go anywhere in this country without hearing people argue about Trump. If a Napoleon returns to France, lets see what Mr. Araud has to say about media over-engagement.
6
I see lots of grumpy anti-Trump folks responding to this fellow, and I can't think why. He's showing us evidence of what we have known all along: European leaders see Trump as a sad and somewhat scary clown, even if they cannot say so publicly.
This is the kind of 'foreign intervention' I think we should accept with a thankful nod.
4
Funny. I live on the Sea Coast Maine and we discuss the name Trump constantly. I never would of thought Chicago or Seattle were more provincial than Southern Maine.
5
Obviously Ms Dowd did not ask the ambassador what he thinks of the Trump
administration’s mean-spirited decision not to give diplomatic recognition to the partners of gay diplomats.
3
Wrong, completely wrong. The Trump Administration has ‘gay’ Ambassador Grendel holding down the fort for the USA in Germany.
In 2016 no one in New York would speak out in support of Trump — to do so made no sense, he was an uneducated man and misogynist.
So we New Yorkers figured he was a goner. Until, our jaws dropping, he won.
Some of us later realized that the Left has capitalized on a few issues to get people into office, just as the Right has done.
And that is the sentiment that pro-Trumpers will think and feel about when they justify their voting in 2020 for the misogynist, racist Donald. They know there are other elements on the other side of the scales, and they will want this part of themselves to be heard.
I am way left. I am a doctor who wanted medical care for all since medical school. If I violate a traffic law in upstate NY, I will be stopped, ticketed, and and fined. So people are allowed to cross our borders into our country and just live here, and get a pass ? I don’t understand this.
So if they are allowed to do that, why am I not allowed to drive home sober after working at the hospital and saving lives without cops following me home with risk of a ticket (never ticketed).
Should I vote for Donald Trump in 2020 ? After all, my name is Donald also.
Do we all obey our laws or just some of us ?
2
Today Trump said some generals think General Lee was one of the greatest generals ever, and that he understands why people would be upset when his statue was taken down.
Later, at a rally, he said that after a woman gives birth, she and her doctor wraps the baby up and cares for it, and then executes it. The crowd was pretty upset to hear this. Who knows who is going to want to do something about it. All on a day when a racist shot up a synagogue, doing something that he felt had to be taken care of.
So we're too uptight about Trump?
This is the last thing I need to read tonight.
5
We have had these crisis before in our history. Presidents who are are a danger to our democracy and/or people who will support ego maniac demagogues like Trump.
The greatest example was Lincoln, who came at the right time and saved democracy from these types.
The lure of the demagogue is very strong from the first one Alcibiades in classical Greece to one of the last Trump here.
They almost always ruin their country usually economically in the end and are a danger to our democracy.
The way to deal with them is:
1-Condemn them when they do something extremely harmful like rabble rousing, clear bigotry, being a de facto spy etc. etc.
2-Pay attention to legit issues that the demagogue took advantage of like immigration, trade and blue collar job loss. Come up with a consensus policy that a majority of Americans can agree with.
3-Just like the corner drunk or mental ill person or bigot, in all other cases ignore the demagogue. They live for attention.
2
Wow, what a relief! I was afraid, from the title, that the columnist of acerbic wit, was throwing in the towel, but it was Mr. Araud, defender of Chartres and maybe Senlis, and best of luck to you on East 73rd Street, and maybe weeping outside the next Gothic masterpiece to fall, now that fragilty has been outed, much as I , a God-fearing atheist, would have done, there on the banks of the Seine. God- (or the person of your choice) speed. )
This man sounds like a narcissist much like Trump. So glad he can hang Christmas trees upside down and decorate them with pearls and polar bears. Glad he is on his way out.
5
@Jody W...then there are the les miserables...
Yes, and "au revoir" to naivete and "bonjour tristesse". Where I live everyone is suffering from PTSD, Persistent Trump Stress Disorder, and now post-Mueller the very palpable and terrifying threat that a Trump autocracy is on the verge of toppling our democracy. It may be easy for a Macron diplomat to scuttle off from the Bastille that is Washington to the very heart of darkness to cash in with the one percent, but I'd much prefer "Allons enfants de la Patrie" and "Tremblez, tyrans!"
2
So conventional, E. 73rd street.
1
"...The press, to be frank, is so anti-Trump..." Certainly not FOX (with Trump's evil twin Murdoch at the helm).
""“I do think the genius — and I’m using the word genius — of Donald Trump is to have felt the crisis,”... This matches what a Republican friend (yes, I do have one, but only one) said, which is that Trump will e re-elected because he does such great sound bites. I guess Trump's "genius" is product branding and sound bites. If Trump is a genius, then I am Napoleon Bonaparte, who was a genius, but it did not end well for Napoleon.
Of course, M. Araud can be amused and detached because if things get too bad in the United States, he can always return to France.
1
Even his tie is elegant!
1
Well so much for the French. My mother was first generation French so this is not French bashing as I am proud of my heritage. But this gentleman appears to be no de Tocqueville. These so called insights appear to be those of another sycophant ambassador trying hard not to upset the apple cart. Be careful in NYC sir we are not so loving of tact, gay or otherwise.
3
Araud raises a few interesting points - including the press' pre occupation with Trump (but no, Kushner is a smarmy opportunist "a few Facebook ads"?.. give me a break)... anyway - just returned from Southern France - Trump is in the news everyday across the pond too & virtually every person we spoke with thought Senior Trump is flat out crazy - terrifying - a joke - and sadly destroying everything good America has stood for.... no kidding
4
You had me till... Araud also goes against the grain on Jared Kushner, calling him “a smart guy, really.” And that was the second-to-last paragraph.
Jared Kushner and his wife are actually worse than Trump because unlike our president, they are not borderline psychotic. They are just greedy, evil, money-mongers.
Their "Middle-East Plan" is nothing but giving the Saudis and their buddy, the Prince, nuclear power. And for this, they and several others will be compensated even beyond their dreams. I'm sorry, weren't 17 of the 19 hijackers, Saudi? Trump I laugh at. Jared and Ivanka make me ill.
6
To understand Trump you only have to remember two things. One...he has no conscience. Two...he has no compassion.
6
This light and breezy-clean treatment by both Dowd and the French Ambassador is a perverse mismatch for the most morally and environmentally dirty president our country has ever endured.
9
I don't need Mr. Ambassador to outline our problems. Problem #1 Biden comes out attacking Trump on moral and patriotic grounds. Jesus how dumb can he be. There are not many voters who don't know how moronically and morally bankrupt Trump is. Tell them something they don't know. At all the forums with voters and state legislators that I have attended folks are talking kitchen table politics- health care; jobs; care for the aging and vets;the environment. They are not talking about how bad Trump is. They are talking about how people used to be able to go to the shore and the mountains with a blue collar job now they are afraid if they get sick and are living pay check to pay check. Get real Joe!
5
The media and the DC establishment (Araud included) are obsessed with what Trump says, the folks in flyover country care about what Trump actually does - What he has done is create a booming economy with the lowest rate ever for blacks, Hispanics and women - He has NATO countries paying their fair share and he defeated the ISIS caliphate - The media needs to focus on results not style
1
Yes, Trump has shown that the Republican party is no longer interventionist, free trade and budgetary restraint.
They are post-ideological. They have been exposed as an all-white bunch of no nothings.
3
We love the French as a whole, but some of them are a little like relatives coming to visit. They rapidly wear out their welcome. After a week, you don't want them around. Araud sounds like one of those.
Obama and Macron are "hyper-rational"...?
definition of rational:
"based on or in accordance with reason or logic".
So they are very logical. They like facts. They probably like science and solutions to big problems, as well. Mon Dieu!
Worshipping emotions based on innuendo and lies is better? Trump is a "genius" because he harnesses lies to appeal to emotions? That's not a genius. That is a con man - a clever criminal mind, a crook - in Nixonian terms.
Farewell Mr. Ambassador. Enjoy your new life. Perhaps your replacement will take his responsibilities more seriously and make some very rational noise about the authoritarian madness sweeping the world.
6
An interesting perspective from one who is unaffected by trump. While it is one matter to quote Miller blithely crowing about "breaking china" now in power, what if the plan of Miller is to do more than just "break china"?
9
Despite the many anti-Araud Comments here, I believe the French ambassador does provide some outside-the-border insight. The DC press does hype Trump, a phenomenon that then ratchets up the national angst through constant media coverage of a narcissist gone wild. Whether "genius" fits Trump or not is irrelevant, the psychopath has definitely figured out how to capture the public imagination and manipulate it down to the core. I'm already having nightmares about his re-election.
Both Democrats and Republicans remain at a loss in terms of broad commitment to America, as though each is a pro-football team battling for a prize ring on the finger instead of broad civic well-being. The scorecard in the U.S., as with much of Europe, has humanism, let along social democracy, losing by the day.
But speaking of loss, I left him at his guest lists -- personally I would have dropped Steves Mnuchin and and Miller, the Tweedle Dees and Dums of the pre-fascist jet set. Any chaos they would have generated would be bereft of a hint of humor or irony.
23
I wish Maureen had led with the next-to-last paragraph...it would have saved me from reading the rest of this piece. Jared Kushner is a "smart guy?" What about 666 Fifth Avenue? And Trump is a "genius" for sensing the average person's economic uncertainty? That's like Trump saying that "no one knew health care was so complicated." Everyone knew that middle-class voters were anxious. But Trump's solution was to make the rich richer.
59
I don't consider putting one's finger up to see which way the wind is blowing to be "genius" in any way, so I disagree with Mr. Araud on that one, for sure. You know what sort of people are really good at doing that and then using it to their advantage? Grifters.
Grifters do the con by preying on the greed and/or fear of their prey. It worked beautifully in this country because we've become a nation of people with very poor critical thinking skills.
I do agree that the media should stop hyperventilating. I wish they'd all, including Ms. Dowd, laugh Trump off just as Joe Biden did when Trump called him a dim bulb. That is the correct response. Going all "Well, I Never!" and getting in a huff about his inanities only fuels him.
Once Trump is gone he will be promptly forgotten because Americans have the attention span of gnats. I'm very much looking forward to rarely, if ever, hearing about him again. That day can't come soon enough.
69
@CF I wish I could agree with you about Trump disappearing after his term. But that wont happen because remember he is good at manipulating the media. And, don't forget his followers who he needs to feed that ego.
Hopefully, being out of office will neutralize him.
1
@CF "...because we've become a nation of people with very poor critical thinking skills." We didn't just "become". This is the result of a generation of Republicans attacking American education.
1
Araud's observations are the sort of thing that you would see in an Embassy reporting cable. I was especially struck by his comments about Barack Obama's "slimness" and how the "man on the street" could not relate. To call this astute would be understatement.
Lots of complaints in the comment section today lamenting Araud's failure to criticize to demonize Mr. Trump.
I dare say that such preoccupation is going to be the prescription for the democrats loss in 2020.
16
I love this. Araud is a cool breeze wafting in an opened window into a hot, humid, stuffy house. Honest observations. Honest life. Merci!
31
@fish out of Water The French are so polite (in public).
Maybe Kushner and company have private scenes.
1
Another cultured, clever and ambitious elite who spends time "building his brand" rather than working at the herculean task of defending democracy in the west. Amusing yes, inspiring no. Informative - not at all.
97
@Bill Wilson
What on earth are you talking about? Is your hatred of Trump so potent that you refuse to acknowledge a reasoned and rational analysis?
Araud's analysis of Trump is precisely the sort of thing that has been missing from the pages of US newspapers and "social media."
This should be required reading for those who oppose Trump.
Enough with the emotion.
Look at the phenomenon that, like it or not, is Trump, and figure out a counter-strategy. It can be done.
64
Gérard Araud is ever the diplomat with an au revoir which could only be described as straddling a barbed-wire fence. Describing someone as having 'genius' for interpreting American dissatisfaction with the falling standards impacting them is to diminish the meaning of the word. And as for calling Jared Kushner - 'a smart guy really' - ignores the petty and vindictive nature of the man (like his evisceration of Chris Christie for daring to put Kushner Snr in jail) or the abject stupidity of purchasing an actual newspaper in an era of digital change or his astonishingly dumb overpayment and purchase of 666 5th. Ave.
Appealing and engaging as he might be, I won't be looking to Monsieur Araud for insight into modern thinking and personnel appraisal.
I guess an invite to his next soirée is not headed for my mailbox.
525
@Tom
You make the mistake of conflating political smarts with wisdom. They are no where near the same thing.
16
@Tom
Straddling a barbed-wire fence? I hope, that is not for fun.
2
@Lois When it comes to jared, I think "wise guy" is a more fitting adjective than "wise"
16
He certainly does bemused and smug quite well.
Did he accomplish anything of note during his long and, it seems, luxurious tenure before heading to NYC to cash in?
99
Does the ambassador believe that being smart or intelligent or bright condones or justifies or excuses corruption?
It that the way they do it in France?
43
@TOBY
Diplomats do not issue moral judgments. They simply observe and analyze.
8
@Frank J Haydn
Of course, just as diplomats of the 1930s did with Germany. So unprincipled, so self-servingly "observant and analytical," and so avoidant of moral choices in their opportunism.
I could guess at a probable stance during Vichy for Arau... so refreshing in his moral vacuity, isn't he?
4
I live in Seattle. People in Seattle say the word Trump every day, several times a day. They say it with disgust, horror and incomprehension.
225
@Ben
I live in Florida and no one in my neighborhood ever says Trump's name to each other. People keep their politics and their thoughts to themselves. However, I can tell you that we all share the same disgust and disappointment every day. Disappointed that Love isn't winning over Hate. Greed, Hate and ignorance is what the word Trump means to me.
9
@Ben
They should put the TDS vaccine directly in the water supply.
1
@Ben
So do I, and I am not even American.
2
Araud underestimates the danger of Trump in suggesting the media and people pay too much attention to him. As if the problem is us, not Trump and the Russian Republican Party.
Democrats and other patriotic citizens have good reason to be concerned. It's our democratic republic in jeopardy. Araud can afford to be flippant and dismissive, he can leave what's left of America whenever he chooses. But patriotic Americans choose not to run away. We will work to restore the America we have always cherished. That means ridding Congress of Russian Republicans (all Republicans) and ridding the White House of an officious and dangerous Russian puppet.
48
If the “deep state” is government employees doing their jobs lawfully when faced with a corrupt president - then yes, please, more deep state, thank you.
80
Is the media anti-Trump or pro-decency? Maybe a little of both?
36
The French understand the power of "la marque", or brand. People will pay double, not for the quality but to feel they are quality by belonging to exclusivity. Trump never needs market to his naysayers because his yaysayers pay double, gladly. Seattle and Chicago aren't slaves to la marque the way our lessers in Trumpifornia are. We welcome him to New York, especially if the Trump Brand loses a bit of it's dazzle among the Trump diehards of Bensonhurst and Staten Island. We know where you live!
5
Sorry but the sane-stream press is only fighting back, Trump is a calling them and all of us who are not right wing nuts the enemy of the people. Fox and all their extended friends are calling real news fake news. We live in a time when the truth is under assault and we’re all concerned and talking about it not just those in DC. This guy lives in the real Washington bubble of the real elites who just happen to be all of the Trump people. And the deep state is Republican red paid for by the Koch brothers all the other monied interests who are manipulating 40% of this country.
32
It would have been interesting to learn why he is not going back to France.
47
“He said that he pointed out to Democrats in the whiny wake of that election that their own statistics should have shown them that many Americans felt economically shaky.”
Perhaps monsieur Araud should have a chat with monsieur Macron.
7
He seems to me to have a very typically French attitude to the president...one I incidentally share as a Francophone. Trump is terrible, but he isn't the end of the world. We have survived worse.
3
@Benjo, sorry to sound hair on fire. Maybe it is the end of the world. It is existential-annoying word but appropriate. Eight years of pretending climate change wasn't happening while W was president and 8 more of mild attention with Obama and now 4 years, hopefully only four, with attempts to even go backwards with djt. All for what? Letting the Koch brothers extract the last blood-stained dollar?
19
What courteous French politesse to use such terms for Trump as 'whimsical, unpredictable, uninformed.' Sounds almost charming.
Whimsical? More realistic terms are unstable, volatile, impulsive. untrustworthy.
Uninformed? Clueless, ignorant, oblivious. Deliberately dumb.
Unpredictable? Constantly capricious, fickle, fluctuating, irresponsible.
This is the abnormality that our American political culture has produced and what civilized democracies abroad are wary of. The world can hardly wait for the 2020 election.
Social democracy is in a coma in Europe? But France and EU have universal health care ---for 1 thing---that the US still can't achieve. Also well financed education and low cost college tuition. That's painted here as too radical in a country where the norm is to turn our elections over to corporate mega donors for financing.
Seems France with all its problems still has limits on private money in politics and uses more public financing of elections.
The French will march in the streets for their rights as citizens sooner than Americans will. If the French govt tried to change to a high profit US style health care system, leaving out millions, the population would all be out in the streets---no matter if wearing any yellow vests.
We the People in America have been too passive and propagandized. We just wait, and hope---oh, please Democratic candidates, could we maybe now have HC for all as a right--- in the 21st Century?
35
@Meredith
Amen and well said.
2
Fascinating to read what a professional globalist makes of Trump. Especially the analogy between the finger and the moon.
13
Goodness he is refreshingly honest, with his biting wit and spin on analysis. Reminds me of Christopher Hitchens.
4
Wow, I never realised Trump was so awful. Thank you, plus riche Monsieur, for revealing the truth about him finally ...(sarcasm)
8
What sort of aristocracy gives the French ambassador both the smug aloofness towards America to deem Obama too thin and elegant for us, (but we did elect him, twice), and the cosmopolitan entitlement to choose New York, but not France, for his retirement?
Too sexy for his French-cuffed shirt.
A man of the world without a country to call home.
23
I would agree that the best strategy here, is to ignore the circus all together, the focus must be in our very own yellow jackets.
6
Kushner is quite an intelligent guy...smart enough to use his position as SILOTUS to personally profit and get away with it.
22
I pity those poor souls who can never laugh at themselves...but Trump doesn't deserve my (or anyone's) pity...only the scorn of a diplomatic community who simply can't be diplomatic in the face of such an ego.
His failure to attend the WH correspondents dinner is certainly the correspondents gain. Bravo for them.
Their comments need not be as diplomatic as Gerard Araud to get the point across of the fragility of Trump's ego.
6
by the way the ambassador is incorrect: you can spend two days in Seattle and Chicago and hear trump's name mentioned often,
with pain and sadness, and fear for our humanity and democracy.
Jared Kushner : 'smart, really".... sure - the genius of 666, " a couple of Facebook ads" and his brilliant "Middle East policy".
34
It is obvious that the ambassador and I travel in different circles but for him to say that no one outside of DC talks about trump is ludicrous.
I live and travel out west and certainly see that worries about this president, and what it is perceived he is doing to this country, are leading topics of conversation among the people that I know.
43
Araud gives our Trump “obsession” the French shrug and parties with Kushner who gives an American shrug to Russian theft of our presidential elections. A little too much shrugging for my taste, although I found the quote about Obama and Macron sharing the too-thin-and-elegant-to-understand-economic plight description to be interesting and possibly astute. Except that Obama’s careful stewardship of the American economy after the crash of 2008 resulted in its current health, and Trump’s anti-worker tax cuts for the rich show he’s not for the little guy after all. And, elegant physique or not, Macron remains the only hopeful leader currently on the Western front. So, for all of Araud’s elegant partying and shrugging, we Americans are here left holding the bag as the French ambassador goes off to enjoy the good life in New York City. Let’s hope America’s good life and democracy can be restored when Trump is inelegantly booted back to NYC.
33
Hopefully New York will be a stop over and he will quickly proceed to Paris and the yellow vests. He and Pascal could dress in those for the next Christmas party.
31
This guy sounds as elitist and out of touch as those he criticizes. If Trump the answer to the downtrodden left behind, then why does he have so much support among corporate elites?
27
Sadly, the ambassador is underestimating the irreparable damage Trump has inflicted on this country and the clear and present danger he is to our democracy.
33
@Ran...The Ambassador and Trump's supporters at his MAGA RALLIES ...the GOP....and Fox Nation...are all underestimating the damage Trump's Presidency has inflicted on the Nation. There will be a lot of work to do to straighten this mess out....when it's over...hopefully sooner rather than later !! My cousin lives in France and is always complaining about the government.When you see the Yellow Vest Protests the weekend following the Fire at Notre Dame...it really gives you something to think about. They are destroying their own city !!
2
"He also blasted politicians and the media for hyperventilating about Trump."
What the media do is hyperventilate to the point of obsessing about the minutiae, quoting every tweet and following him to every rally - forget about them covering the actual harm he does to America and Americans, by omission and commission.
What the politicians do about things that really matter - corruption and treachery- is forget their spines by staying silent (Republicans) or being too politically calculating instead of principled (most Democrats).
The Dems' clear duty is to impeach trump in the face of high crimes and misdemeanors, as required by the constitution. They must not be put off by the existence of a Republican majority in the Senate; it may look rock-solid at the moment, but a thorough airing in the House during impeachment could suddenly change GOP senators' calculations on whether their reelection would be less threatened by voting to convict or failing to do so.
21:15 EDT, 4/27
14
@mancuroc...Judge Napolitano on Fox gave a talk on the many ways Trump Obstructed Justice. The Democrats know that as of now the GOP will not Impeach. If Mueller and McGahn testify and the Deustche Bank records are revealed to us ..then the GOP will likely be in the position to be compelled to agree with the Democrats on Impeachment. Who the GOP candidate will be if that happens will be interesting. Pence perhaps? Why they have stood behind Trump for so long is beyond me...though many voters in Rebublican Districts support Trump so they want to keep their jobs. The GOP have done a great disservice to the country !!
2
Sorry, but I believe the ambassador is giving trump more credit than he deserves. Just as with Reagan & GW, the unelected 1% pulling the strings & determined to dismantle our democracy have crowned another clown king. As long as they allow him to play with his Twitter & keep the buckets of chicken coming all is good with the world.
And Jared smart? Those elite always do confuse moneyed with intelligent, don't they?
29
“I do think the genius — and I’m using the word genius — of Donald Trump is to have felt the crisis,” he said. That was Gérard Araud, the French Ambassador to the USA.
I have to disagree with this assessment because I think it was largely luck and statistics that played a role in helping put the "genius" in the WH.
1. A mere 100,000 people or so in three different states caused this result.
2.The undemocratic and archaic Electoral College caused this result.
3. HRC stumbled by not campaigning in Michigan and some other Midwestern states (in the mistaken notion that it was hers for the asking) and caused this result.
4. A segment of the American population that held racist and misogynistic views, once held in check, got unleashed and caused this result.
5. Another segment of apathetic progressive and independent voters stayed back because the polls strongly suggested that HRC would win; this also caused the result.
Take your pick or, as they say, take all five that together constituted the perfect storm. They caused the result. It was not because of 45's "genius."
27
@chickenlover Interesting that you do not blame the usual suspects: Comey, WikiLeaks and/or the Russians ...
Hallelujah!
@chickenlover
6. The Republican control of voting machines and the results thereof. Exit polls in close races frequently favor Democrats, but the election is won by republicans by a slight margin.
The most egregious example is the 2004 presidential election where the results in Ohio were switched at the last moment to give reelection to W. Bush's IT guy, Mike Connell did the programming and died mysteriously just before his scheduled testimony on the subject in 2008. Nice GOPeople. (Thanks, Socrates!)
1
As to the idea that no one outside of DC talks about Trump: I work in a very conservative, very wealthy enclave, La Jolla, CA. Everyone here talks about Trump, every single day. The folks on the Left despise him, and the folks on the right love him. It’s strange. It’s part of that sadly mercurial “thing” that Trump has.
7
@Suzanne
That " thing" that Trump has is a single minded self interest.
What he wants is all that matters.
7
Another oh-so-clever European diplomat, like Boris Johnson, shooting from the mouth. Had he spent a bit less time at masquerades and such, and a bit more in Chicago and Seattle, he might have heard people speak of Trump, alarmed at the threat he poses to our democracy. But then why bother, he would only have subjected himself to more hyperventilation.
23
Thank heavens this breezy, almost careless, eye-on-retirement and quite smug ambassador is not representative of the French people. I look forward to a replacement who truly lives out "liberté, égalité, fraternité" without the cheesy bon mots regarding Donald Trump.
21
It takes a foreigner to see the forest for the trees and Araud is the epitome of the intelligent, detached but sympathetic analyst that most governments dream of hiring. I hope we hear more of him in his semi-retirement.
3
Does anyone else find it ironic that Araud devoted much of his commentary to Trump, even while remarking that Donald takes too much of everyone’s attention?
20
The French also hailed Jerry Lewis as a genius. That makes them 0 for 2.
33
The idea that Trump - a trust fun baby who's filed for bankruptcy at least 4 times, regularly stiffs contractors and sets up fraudulent charities - was elected because rural people were anxious about what rural elites were doing to them has always been absurd on its face. The data indicates that on average, Trump supporters were better off financially than Clinton voters. Dowd and her subject seem to have overlooked the fact that percentage-wise, it's people of color, who went solidly for Clinton, who face the greatest financial challenges in America.
The GOP had 17 candidates to choose from in their 2016 primary season, and they decisively chose the guy who came to the attention of the political world by promoting a bizarre theory that our first black President was likely an illegal alien.
Trump won because of his racism, not because of his illusory economic plans.
24
@RGreen
Yep. That's the dirty little secret that is not so secret about Trump and many Americans.
It's 2019. To think our POTUS is the thinly veiled racist and misogynist that he is is appalling. To think 35% of Americans love him for those prejudices is equally appalling.
Araud is an amusing champagne cocktail with Brie on a cracker. No more, no less.
3
I was, as my husband labeled me, a "professional New Yorker," when we met and it was not a compliment. Even though I have lived away from NY since 1967, more than half of my life, its magnetic pull is always with me. Back in the day, I went to civil rights events (ran into one of my cousins at a rally in DC), and while I can't do much in the way of standing any more, I sign a bazillion petitions and talk with many Tucsonans --even those who are native born-- about Trump except for those who can't even mention him without getting sick. He definitely is all of those bad things that have described him, but if I were to use the one adjective that perhaps encompasses the rest, it is soulless. So, former Ambassador Arnaud, excusez moi, your superficial description about this country reflects your ignorance.
23
Washington has been trying to become such a small world. Thank G-d for Ambassadors. It would have been interesting if U.N. headquarters was built in Washington. On the other hand, I think NYC is the more up to date Washington - this might be good or bad, but it is. I liked the older NYC but have learned to love the new NYC that is for I learned I loved the old NYC as well. I only hope the new NYC's people (all people) will continue to realize a city is not crowned but made and that is a daily process.
1
The press is so anti-Trump because they are journalists and pointing out lies, cons and racism (among other thing) is their job. This is who they are and should be. Of course people (we are in Seattle) say his name because everything he does is so shocking and frightening. I have never said these words about any other president Democrat or Republican.
19
Trump is a train wreck and a disaster all rolled into one, but I guess that’s the point. The press has always had a codependent relationship, with Trump, and Maureen proudly carries on that tradition. Besides, where would they be with the ‘professorial’ Obama and the ‘shrill’ Hillary? That’s boring stuff and Trump delivers Tweet after Tweet. Good times ;-)
10
In my experience, the French are sometimes long on advice and opinion, and short on reality. This might explain why the yellow vests must take to the streets in order to be heard, and why the French ambassador is moving to NY rather than to Paris.
18
@kglen I forgot to add that it might also explain why the ambassador talks about Trump's "genius"...mon dieu!
3
" 'The press, to be frank. is so anti-Trump....' "
Well, of course they are, what with their annoying insistence in reporting based on facts, truth and general objective reality.
One can understand why Trump would want to circumvent and demean the valid press, his natural enemy.
32
This is rather de mode, even facile, which prompts the question, "What were his credentials?" (I haven't looked.). So the excess of bushy-tailed rodents troubles him? Perhaps he seems to wish to appear eccentric, rather than, shall we say, gay. Trump is absolutist to be sure, but no king. I saw the interview with the CBS matron at Trump Tower, replete with the background of faux Louis IV "chaises" which spoke of a man trying to achieve a level of culture, but not a king. Trump is a household word, period. Comic books are a poor substitute for genuine learning, even though much of what is learned is attributable to the eye. D.C. with the space lobby is far too preoccupied with the moon, just to point that out. "Economically shaky", true. Trump's emotive response could be more easily likened to the sight of rats in Parisian parks. Very "outre". Republicans have always been reprobate, one needs only to check out the military budgets under them. The man refuses to call faux populism what it is. True the Democrats are in trouble. He is, however, spot-on about Macron and Obama. Some people seek to serve, others to self-serve, ergo so much for the Ambassador's social life. If "The deep state is real..." then it most assuredly is "in the sense of plotting." Perhaps he has not read "9/11 Synthetic Terror Made in USA". He seems to confuse crass opportunism with intelligence. He may fit right in in NYC. I guess it's been awhile since he's been in Paris.
3
The ambassador thinks that ordinary Americans don't think about Trump. Not true, this Ohioan thinks about him all the time. He is often the subject of conversation with friends. Even more worrisome - the hijacking of our democracy by a rogue Republican party, hellbent on circumventing the will of the people in order to hang on to power. Their actions are nothing short of outrageous.
19
So very superficial and shallowly clever.
You'd think that someone with some perspective as might be useful and necessary in diplomacy would know the threat of fascism and the end of Constitutional democracy when he saw it! And the threats to humanity in climate change and the state of nuclear agreements and proliferation when he saw it.
Liberty, fraternity, equality?
No, just gossip about parties, squirrels, and careerism of global elite. That is, if MD is to be taken at her word. More whistling while Rome burns. That is, this planet, our children's existential future, and the very real consequences of this profound lack of real wisdom and civil society under threat.
21
What other country in the world has a national election decided by an arcane system like the electoral college rather than actual votes cast, Monsieur? Besides, the legitimacy of Trump's win will forever be debated based on nefarious involvement of an enemy foreign government in the Presidential election to influence votes for Donald Trump and an ever eager Trump campaign to meet with and encourage that same government to harm Trump's opponent, Mrs. Clinton
Next time Araud visits my hometown, Chicago, I will be more than happy to introduce him to many residents who are just as obsessed with and disgusted by the fraud of Donald Trump as Democrats in DC. Disgust for Donald runs very deep in the windy city.
15
Ooh, I am sorry. Seattle and its people talk about trump all the time. I don't know one that keeps quiet about the absurdity of don trump.
12
I have friends and family all over the western states and, believe me, they are all talking about Trump.
11
The press is anti-Trump because Trump is awful, not much good can be said about him. In the US the press has always been critical of Presidents, it does not see its role as singing praises but rather as uncovering the underside of any administration. In the case of Trump there is so much to uncover that it tends to displace everything else and feels like a sick obsession. Pundits have tried to ignore him and many wish to write about something else but Trump will not let them. He does or says something outrageous every week and to ignore it feels like giving it a stamp of approval. The finger pointing at the moon is so grotesque that one cannot help but stare at it instead.
6
Ms. Dowd, Surely you know that since 1789 France has had 17 constitutions and America has had 1. We are the oldest functioning constitution in the world. Must be doing something right! What do you think?
11
This is all pretty silly.
1. No, the press is not "anti-Trump". Rather it is committed to defense of honesty and integrity in government and opposed to tyranny. *That* is why DT tries to bypass it.
2. It was not the permanent bureaucracy that planned to "manipulate" DT. It was the GOP. On some things (judges, taxes), it has succeeded. And the ambassador would do well to count the cost.
3. Jared? Smart? Maybe, maybe not . . . But remotely qualified to have the responsibilities that he has?
12
Araud must travel in a bubble.
In Seattle, conversations about Trump are everywhere one goes -- markets, restaurants, gyms, parks, stores, taxis, on the ferry, throughout the entire day. And the remarks are far from positive. People are, among other things, worried, disgusted, horrified and expressing their disbelief that such a despicable creature exists. And the majority of aware citizens are exceedingly fired up about voting to get rid of him.
11
If squirrels are hanging around the White House, it’s possibly because the president is a bit nutty. There may be a genius to the president, but if so it’s a mad genius of the kind that has grandiose yet ultimately unworkable plans to drain swamps and winds up filling them with sewage.
Europe has been through its own brand of political insanity, but America is unfamiliar with this kind of chaos. There’s clearly a difference between a takeover by a leader with a malevolent intellect compared to one with a malevolent lack of intellect. What we have now is a president who body-surfed into office on a wave of resentment, having appealed to the base instincts of incipient racists, resentful anti-intellectuals and people who depended on Obamacare, and yet wanted it repealed.
These were people who felt they were out on a limb and thought the solution was to cut it off.
If Americans felt the economy was shaky, they probably forgot that the previous Republican president had driven the country into virtual bankruptcy, with rapacious investors, foreclosed homes and a war debt that left us in a hole deeper than the Mariana Trench.
Barack Obama pulled us out of the hole, despite our current president spreading lies about his religion and his citizenship.
Now the grifter in chief is having his way with us. As Europeans might say, all we can do is close our eyes and think of England.
22
I wonder if those separated from their children --some lost by ICE, still not reunited-- only occasionally mention Trump. I wonder if those family members now separated from their relatives, supporters of the US living in the US, in the banned Muslim countries, suffer from Trump "hysteria."
8
It is hard to tell what Mr. Arnaud’s angel is. It is obvious he is not invested in the United States as he muses at our dysfunction as a form of perverse entertainment. Trump greatest gift is being able to con the uneducated white working class American males to defend and protect him, perhaps Mr. Arnaud is not immune to Trump’s gift of persuasion.
6
With respect to Mssr. Araud's reference to the Chinese proverb, I suppose your assessment of Donald Trump will largely depend on whether you feel he is "the finger" or "the moon". Judging from the tone of the article and the accompanying comments from Times readers, it seems to me that are still many, mostly on the Left, who cannot seem to differentiate Donald Trump from his message.
It's akin to seeing what you want to see in a Rorshach inkblot, except that in this case, our inkblot in this case is the Chinese proverb. It seems that most are wrongly looking at 'the moon'...and seeing Donald Trump.
Those who understand Trump know that he is only 'the finger', metaphorically.
1
I'm from Columbus, OH, and we talk about Trump and his abuses of power all the time. And we are quite worried about the threats to institutions, norms, and the Constitution as a whole. Trump is behaving like a dictator, and it is right and proper for the press to point that out.
16
Gérard Araud is right. Trump is a genius. Trump understands what America is all about and what the average American wants. And what the what the average American wants his own of piece of the pay, a piece he cuts for himself. The average American doesn't want to become a victim client of the government. He does not want to talked down to and considered deplorable.
2
“Exactly the same thing is happening to conservative parties across the Western democracies.”
This seriously begs the question, is this a natural development, or one that the Putin of Oz constructed through social media and who knows what other methods? For sure, the migrant crisis in Europe and other places as well, was facilitated by his program, if pogrom like policies.
5
A Frenchman in America, on his way from gossipy, inbred Washington D.C. to “peaceful” NYC. If a Frenchman thinks we’re too excitable, that’s saying something! I think it’s true that the American form of Government is too rigid and unbending and we need to be more open to change - as our lack of gun control laws and resulting violence or “moral” position on gay rights. That being said, some of us have an idea of what a Democracy should be that is not unbending - and it ain’t Trump. All of us, all over the country, are extremely tired of Trump and maybe aren’t talking much for that reason, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t disgusted to the core the way Trump has trivialized Democracy here. If the French think he’s not that bad, nothing to get excited about, they can have him! I think his continued presence there and tearing apart of their government would lead to a worse uprising than they are now experiencing.
9
I asked my Southern granddaughter today, if all the kids in her school were still "for" Trump. "Yes, they are all for him!" she says. She was bullied in class when she expressed in a mock classroom election she wouldn't vote for him. I told her that thankfully, some people elsewhere feel differently and see him for what he is...a worthless void.
5
A real Alexis de Tocqueville- note please - no one says the name Trump here in the Midwest because it’s an embarrassment.
10
The ambassador will have untold millions of Americans wanting to know where - exactly - he circulates in Chicago and Seattle, to observe:
"You leave Washington, D.C., and you can spend two days in Seattle and Chicago and nobody says the word ‘Trump.’”
One can imagine scads of tourists headed to those meccas this summer for 'detachment'; one can equally imagine Clear & Present Danger 45* screaming into his (unsecured) cell phone at Faux Noise Machina and Sinclair Broadcasting for them to further penetrate the Chicago and Seattle TeeVee markets.
8
@R. Law - Since it took 16+ hours for this comment to post, it appears we'll be forced to time-stamp our submissions in order that the frame-of-reference is memorialized, and fast-moving events don't stale-date said submissions.
2
"“The press, to be frank, is so anti-Trump...."
Not anti-trump enough in 2016, not investigative enough in 2016 or trump would not be president today.
10
Monsieur Araud comes across as a lightweight, clueless society bon vivant. I'm sure he'll do well in NYC. Will probably hang out with the same crowd Ivanka and Jared do. He thinks people outside of DC don't talk about Trump? Maybe he and his boyfriend should rent an RV and travel through the States for a while to see what's really going on in this country. But, mon dieu! that would be so declasse and unbefitting of a former star of the French diplomatic corps.
10
A good ambassador needs quick wit and a certain amount of cynicism to survive in any political setting where sent to represent his/her country. Gérard Araud was just doing his job and probably very well since he actually survived Washington for many years. Remember when French fries were abominable words?
97
TRUMP himself may not always be talked about everywhere. But TRUMPISM is dividing our nation, and is the dominate issue of our time.
17
This op-ed has no point whatsoever.
After all what can you expect from diplomat, being diplomatic for sure.
I wouldn't rejoice that much about the state of economy, it always fluctuates, but many people can't even feel the benefits.
The wage stagnation stubbornly persist and people at the top to busy reaping the benefits to notice how the not so fortunate feel.
As of French diplomat being blasé about the state of our democracy is not surprising, considering he is free to move anywhere he choses.
20
@faivel1: You think this is a faithful and complete account of the diplomat's thinking? This is MoDo writing, for heaven's sake! Let's all learn to view the message in the light the messenger usually sheds on everything else .
2
Mr Arnaud uses Trumpish name calling to describe former President Obama and President Macron. They are "too slim" and "too elegant" he says. Does Mr Arnaud, as reported by Ms Dowd, think glamorous parties with "plush polar bears and pearls" are too elegant for the man in the street? Does he think he demonstrates a common touch relating to the "man in the street" when he is pouring French wine at elegant parties for Mr. Miller, the architect of an immigration policy that includes separating small children from their parents and placing children in cages is a demonstration of the common touch?
40
@Rosemary Galette Hoi polloi mixed with woke social justice virtue signalling is a dangerous combination.
1
The point of the article is the last sentence of the sixth paragraph. The media obsesses over Trump when it should be for
focused on the crisis created by the 2016 election. It start when the Obama admin released information about Russian meddling. There was no coverage of this because the media obsessed over the Billy Bush tape. Maureen wrote an editorial last week raging over Trump’s behavior exposed in the Mueller report. But not one word did she write about the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election. And during the six and one half years in between nothing changed.
Over 126 million Americans were subject to Russian propaganda, over 1.7 million tweets that were quoted by the media and retweeted by politicians, media, and others. This is the point Araud is making. And hear me loud and clear - if nothing changes don’t be disappointed if we get the same result - four more years. How scary is that.
23
Anyone who has a Facebook page and more than a few friends will take issue that only Washington is obsessed with Trump. It is all some people post about. The nation, and that includes fly over country, it seems is in a persistent state of division over the Trump presidency.
9
@johnlaw
What's persistent is the pearl-clutching over Trump's vulgarity. That's ubiquitous at least in the outpost of flyover country where I live. That's the sidewalk-line of division.
And blaming the press for "anti-Trump hysteria" is not looking at the finger, instead of the crisis?
Before Trump riled them up, in most Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin towns, there was little finger-pointing at illegal immigrants for "snatching away" the precious few manufacturing jobs or farmers' jobs Americans needed, until Trump told them it was the Mexicans' fault. Not year long wage freezes, while those at the top enriched themselves, nor a race to the bottom because of big agro, not outsourcing of factory jobs, no, it was illegal immigrants' fault. That and that alone was Trump's "genius." To recognize and stoke the mean spiritedness of white people of a certain age and education level, their hatred of diversity and inclusion, their envy of and resentment against a president who projected dignity and erudition, and another one like him waiting in the wings. I suppose someone who invites Stephen Miller and Mnuchin to his parties enjoys impish provocation, just like all the old men I watch on French TV talk shows for five minutes, before switching the channel. Something I don't do when Emanuel Macron speaks.
112
@BettyK If you work in, say, construction, because your factory went away, and you show up to work and find all positions have been snapped up by immigrants working for less, you probably would blame immigrants.
Ditto for working at a hotel.
6
@BettyK
I can't imagine inviting Stephen Miller and Mnuchin to party; it is even harder to imagine either one of them enjoying themselves. Miller has been reported by fellow H.S. students as having dropped paper trash in the hallways to "give the janitors something to do". Mnuchin was known as the "Foreclosure King" during the time when mortgages were handed out to the unemployed with no credit histories. Brokers made a quick commission. Banks bundled bad mortgages and sold them as derivatives. Banks foreclosed on the homes; people were living in their cars; the homes remained empty. The neighborhoods remain a wasteland of weeds. Perhaps these derelict places could be renovated, hooked up to utilities and garbage pickup service. Why not house the homeless, rather than ignore them in their hopeless poverty? Why not give some of them the second chance they need? Debit cards can be issued for food, transportation, clothing, etc. Perhaps rail and bus services can move some to places where there are jobs. We spend money on a lot of stuff, aka pork. Empty military bases in every Congressional District, for example. Who benefits from that, other than some well heeled congress people and lobbyists?
8
@BettyK
Ascribing all this bile to Trump *is* looking at the finger. The US political scene has long had ambitious and opportunistic xenophobes and I worked with many (including ones of color) here in Minnesota. When I lived in Californai the same "white people of a certain age and education level" liked Pat Buchanan. Let's not forget that Trump-----Trump!----garnered a larger share of the Hispanic vote than Mitt Romney.
Politicians like Bill and Hillary Clinton, not to mention Emmanuel Macron, make it all too easy for a subsequent to sell immigration as an internal form of outsourcing. It's too bad we in the US don't have our own gilets jaunes. They know the real enemies of workers don't limit themselves to one party or tendency and that many project dignity and erudition while they promote those trade agreements that are a sine qua non of the race to the bottom.
53
But Mr. Araud’s reference to Trump’s genius must be acknowledged! Like other populist politicians who were in power, he swaggers with pure id and delights some of us for some unknown period of time. This response is as strangely human as falling from a height to your death to get a photo: it’s an emotional seduction the rationalists have no weapons to oppose. We keep discounting this because it sickens us, but that won’t make it leave town.
I can only hope time will bring the truth into enough hearts that we change the government— governments all over the world.
18
@Maine introvert
The truth was that a guy who could beat Trump with a moral form of a similar political lens was buried under a deluge of lies and slurs about his views, experience, abilities and most important, his supporters by people that just *had* to have Lisa Simpson in the office and didn't heed warnings of how much resonance Nelson Muntz was having. We might make a similar mistake again, it seems
3
@Douglas Presler
You people are ridiculous. Move on. He lost. It's over and he's going to lose again. He's a crazy old man who has no idea how to do anything he says without tearing apart the country.
He doesn't belong in higher office.
3
Not quite sure what the theme of this piece is.
It is interesting to learn more about Macron and I always enjoy hearing someone else's honest take on Trump and Company.
However, the fact remains that no matter how innocuous Trump may appear to be to Macron, in the real world Trump is so dangerous to our nation and the rest of the world as to defy description.
People are plenty worried about his abuse of power and the fact that he is uncontrollable as an office holder and psychologically out of control as a man.
So let's not trivialize what Washingtonians are scared of. There is every good reason to be scared because our nation is under siege by a tyrant that no one in Congress wants to lay a glove on.
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@Alabama
I loathe Trump, too, but GW Bush was a far, far, worse presence in the Oval Office. I mean, c'mon, do you really think you've written your comment from a FEMA camp for dissidents? What's it like there? Do tell.
1
@Alabama: You might have qualified, in the name of truth, by writing "in the swamp Washingtonians!" We have a healthy economy,a silver tongued orator at the helm, a defender of the citizenry and opponent of illegal immigration, and 61-3 million of us support Pres. Trump. So to what information r u privy to in saying that he is a "tyrant and out of control as a man?"Do u know our vox populi personally, or ever interviewed him?Repeating the "idees recues"of the left convinces no one except the most unsophisticated of readers.If u had been in my English class at Brandeis High back In the day--I was dean as well as teacher of bilingual social studies and ap adviser,I would not have been able to squeeze u out even a gentleman's C for such a flabby comment, no offense where none intended. Suggest a class in expository writing!
I like plain spoken people even when I do not agree with them.
His opinions are interesting, but not very informed. There are a significant number of Americans- even in Seattle and Chicago- who are viscerally opposed to Trump and many who support him blindly.
I wish him well, but think he may be surprised at the 2020 election results.
36
@David Gregory. You mean what here, exactly, with your comment ? “ but think he may be surprised at the 2020 election results”
1
@David Gregory As may you.
This may sound petty, but I can't even imagine what purpose Araud would have in remarking on, and possibly complimenting, Jared Kushner's "intelligence." If that matters to Araud, I have to suspect that certain important things -- like Trump's constant sniper shots at our Democracy -- matter less.
86
Maybe he’s just got a crush on a Kushner - It can’t possibly be his “intelligence” alone that makes him sing his praises.
3
@Frez:
Maybe it actually is his opinion without any subtext.
2
@Frez
Jared and Ivanka would have lost their heads during the French Revolutions. We don't need those extremes; however, we do need to remove these two parasites from the public trough, together with the corrupt, witless Trump.
3
People can be humble, humorous, and honest. Amazing.
12
"humble" has really not been a characteristic of G. Araud!
2
In a variety of interesting observations about American politics and Trump - if the two can be separated - Mr. Arnaud observes that once you get out in the provinces, nobody talks about Trump.
He may be right (for the wrong reason). The assumption is that in Washington, everyone is obsessed with politics. Isn't that strange? Out n the sticks, people are going just about their business - happy as clams - eating their quotidian bread, taking the kids to school, canning a few peaches.
It's exactly because average Americans feel that politics can not touch them - while the marrow is being eaten out of the bones of their democracy by Trump and the Forty Thieves - that Trump exists, survives, and proceeds.
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@Queequeg First, we're not a democracy, we are a Republic. The distinction may be lost on some but it is real and important. Second, people are talking about Trump in flyover country - Araud's assertion that they are not is and uninformed but not unexpected. After all, he's a career diplomat in Washington DC. But you are correct on one point. Out here 'in the sticks' where the bitter clingers make their lives, we talk about Trump but we don't obsess about him. Rather, we mostly just stare in disbelief at what a totally dysfunctional mess Washington DC is.
97
We are both democracy and republic. The distinction (and difference) are lost on many, if not most, yourself included.
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@Once From Rome
The idea that the US is a solely republic and not a democracy is a trope popular among conservatives because they believe it improves the brand image of their preferred party.
In reality, the the US is a "democratic republic" that combines elements of majority rule (democracy) with elements of constitutional protections (republic).
The nation's founders were quite comfortable using both terms when debating and writing the details of the constitution that we now live under. It is a false dichotomy.
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The media focus on Trump being the problem for two years now has served as a distraction from our real crisis which are the errant politics that have created this mess we are in, this is the real issue facing the nation, and the reason we have a President Trump in the political picture begin with. And no the country will not go back to business as usual in a post Trump Washington either. If anything the exposure of this crisis will only broaden until it has completely run its course. We are living in just such a time of political transformation, a finalization of a political process that has outlived its relevance. The media is painting these changes as a grim proceeding, something to be feared, when in reality this revolution is our salvation from a past that never did have much of a future.
21
Similarities? Maybe. Except Macron was elected by a majority popular vote. Trump was not. And Macron did not have Putin and Russia helping him.
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@Joe Gilkey
It does have a future as long as we can keep Washington DC working for us, Joe. They are not right now because the voters blame the politicians for a system that rewards said politicians for answering to the rich and not the rest. In Seattle, things are better and the homeless are at least getting some attention (even though I am unsure how much help they deserve when they choose to stay disabled by not treating their mental illness including substance abuse). There is also a $15 minimum wage, free preschool education for all, and I bet even more support of the average citizen. It is not Washington that is the problem when half the people believe in Creation and not Evolution, meaning that voters ignore facts and live on feelings and fantasy just like trump. Voters need to take some responsibility and make some changes for the better, not just changes to chaos.
15
@Craig Witherell
How do you know, based on what evidence, that Putin and Russia didn't help Macron's election? The Russians are everywhere attacking the electoral process in the "democratic" nations, according to intelligence officials and investigative NYT and Washington Post reporting.
A career diplomat from France weighing-in on Trump with negative feedback is absolutely no surprise whatsoever. I'm not terribly concerned about what the French think of Trump given how poorly France governs themselves. Interesting too that upon exiting Washington DC Mr. Araud is not returning to his native France but rather is moving to NY City. He can't be too worried about Trump.
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@Once From Rome
Perhaps, since he is moving to NYC, he realizes that if he is to be welcome here he has no choice but to bash Trump; anything less and he will be persona non-grata.
5
@Once From Rome
In the US, we govern ourselves worse than France.
Our US budget will not support Medicare soon, and Trump is already alluding to it being "Socialist" as he cuts taxes to the rich again (adding to cuts by Reagan and Bush). Good luck to all but the rich in Pennsylvania, hard times are coming for all but the rich and you folks have voted those changes in. You may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but if you had any brains at all you would follow the money.
6
@Once From Rome
Interestingly. He doesn’t even sound that negative on Trump despite what the headline says. And frankly, it is not as if he knows Trump personally. Most people know him by the caricature that gets painted in NYT and WaPo.
3
The ambassador says that Macron "has been largely elected by the included against the excluded". Macron was elected directly from the people in two rounds and got over 66% of the vote against a Trump-like right wing opponent.
The good ambassador seems to forget how Trump was elected here. Also he seems to be confused about who is "included" and "excluded". The "included" were the majority here and in France.
57
Trump lost the popular vote, so he was not elected by the majority. A swing of only 30000 votes in 3 states gave him the Electoral College, but he lost the popular vote by millions.
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@Scientist
And since the electoral college has been with us since our founding, Hillary's loss is indicative of the fact that she certainly should not have been in charge of the country when she could not figure out something as obvious as where to campaign.
17
@Scientist
More like 70,000 votes.
1
Mr. Araud talks about the press being very anti-Trump, but I wonder if he recognizes that it is because there is so much about Trump...what he says, what he does and what he IS... to be legitimately critical of.
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@Debra Petersen
Not in the minds of most Iowans, who voted Trump. I am not blaming you, because you were obviously not one of them, but the others mistook a Reality TV showman for a businessman, ignoring his multiple bankruptcy history as evidence of Trump's mediocre intellect. And they mistook the Republican party as one that cared about anybody but the rich. Just as they mistake the Christian faith and the Prince of Peace as being OK with Assault Rifles, with more military spending, and with cutting programs to help the poor (all of the poor without judgement). They apparently have not read the New Testament. How can you stand to live there?
5
@Debra Petersen
I wonder if you realize that there is so much about Trump's agenda and accomplishments that the press never reports to you.
Are you aware, for example, that are enjoying the prosperity of the world's fastest growing economy, that wages are growing here, and that the fastest wages growth is among the poor, or that the unemployment rate for our minorities--including blacks, hispanics, asians and woman is the lowest in our history?
The main reason the Left focuses on Trump's personality is that it does not want you focused on his great accomplishments, about which most of you remain abysmally and happily ignorant.
1
"You leave Washington, D.C., and you can spend two days in Seattle and Chicago and nobody says the word ‘Trump.’” Really? Perhaps in the rarefied world that the former French Ambassador inhabits but in the REAL America people DO think about and mention that person's name. I wish it weren't so and yet in some ways I'm glad for it. People must not allow themselves the comfort of isolation while our country is being lead to ruin by a charlatan. Moreover, it might seem refreshing to some that a senior diplomat might speak so "candidly" but such diplomats might serve better by not waiting until their out the door before saying what they REALLY think and feel. Finally, does anyone really care what the French Ambassador thinks? How many electoral votes does HE control?
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@ManhattanWilliam
I'm a bit confused. What does this diplomat mean when he says when you leave DC no one mentions Trump? Is that good or bad? He doesn't really say,leaving it up to the listener to place his own meaning upon it.
Very diplomatic, I'd say.
@ManhattanWilliam
Charlatan is a frequent description used by the left.
Could you elaborate on that?
Is the booming economy a charlatan economy?
Is the President's support for free speech on campus a "charlatan" support?
Is the President's attempt to stem the crisis at the border which even prominent democrats can no longer deny a "charlatan" attempt?
Enlighten us.
1
He sees similarities between Macron and Barack Obama. “I think they are hyper-rational and it can be seen as patronizing by a lot of people,”
Exactly right, and Democrats in general are so cerebral they are paralyzed. To connect with voters, Dems need a simple message. Get the IRS out of the pocket of the 99 percent. Call it stimulus. Tax the 1 percent.
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@RC Get the IRS out of the pocket of the 99%? The IRS is barely in those pockets now. The top 1% of earners have never paid a greater share of total federal personal income tax than they do today.
15
@RC: It is also patronizing to a lot of people to simplify your messages to them to the format of an easy to digest slogan.
9
@Once From Rome : In the US, the top 1% controls 38.6% of the wealth, with an average net worth of $9 mil per household.
The average US household annual income in 2017 was $61,372. If that household comprises 2 adults and 1 or 2 children, virtually every penny goes toward necessities -- no disposable income.
There is no reason for that 61K household, with no disposable income, to pay the same percentage in federal tax as the 9mil-net-worth family pays -- for one thing, the 9mil household has benefited massively from the current system and therefore has an obligation to repay the system a commensurate sum.
Every reputable political scientist, economist, and sociologist knows that a progressive tax rate is essential for a stable society. However, if you think that inhumane policies that foment revolution are good way to go, then keep shoveling the propaganda.
107
"Trump is to have felt the crisis" There is utterly no merit to anything Trump felt or does, and he certainly does not discern anything in America, except how he can use fear to manipulate people. There is no upside to Trump, and unless and until we see this, we will keep making the same mistakes that got Trump elected.
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@timothy holmes
You are mistaken.
Trump is the Canary in the Coal Mine.
A warning on how the underclass feel
and the resentment they have toward
the elites who treat them like serfs.
Perhaps it is time for a true American Revolution.
3
What a fun guy-he enjoys Trump”s chums as long as he can entertain them with lavish decorations and fine French wine! The French are accustomed to chaotic politics , Americans are not.Araud is evidentially not going back toFrance where he would have to view the “ yellow vests” trashing Paris with vandalism on the Champs -Elysees.Araud is way too sanguine about our dismay about the loss of democratic values during the Trump,administration.The French love to give gratuitous advice-I know because I lived there for two years as a young mother and was totally overwhelmed with too many suggestions.
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“Like Democrats in 2016, Emmanuel Macron underestimated the resentment bubbling under the surface, he said...”
Macron defeated Marine Le Pen, who was far right and deeply anti-immigrant. He wasn’t ignorant. Macron simply did not go the way of using scapegoats and encouraging nationalism.
What a shame that those leaders like Macron and President Obama, to whom he is likened in this column, are dismissed as unfeeling, detached and elitist because they resist the empty rhetoric and emotional manipulation that brought forth Trump, Brexit, and Europe’s other xenophobic movements.
198
Sounds like a very astute, smart complex guy. Nice to see a politician who is not afraid to admit he can change his mind. And yeah, out here in LA we don't really talk so much about Trump because we have lives. Can't wait to see what Ambassador Araud's next life will be in NYC (where they also seem to be a bit too obsessed with the our Prez).
17
@Internationalist Seriously, you can’t wait to see what happens to this funny but arrogant and now irrelevant French guy? Things must be boring in LA. He’s a dime a dozen here. Nobody cares about DC outside of DC. We don’t need him to tell us that.
4
@Internationalist -- That is so *cute* -- "because we have lives."
You have "lives" because millions of others across decades have fought fight for policies that make life not just livable but pleasant for you: no child labor; public schools; a 40-hr workweek; paid OT; workplace protection; the right to unionize; clean air and water; the right to sue employers and municipalities that infringe on your rights; etc. etc. etc.
Maybe get up off your smug, complacent butt and fight for the democracy that lets you enjoy your life but that is under assault by the GOP.
3
Mr. Araud points to peoples' economic fears as the reason Trump was elected. Listening to people in the small town in the middle of America where I live, I can tell you that Trump was elected because he was white and a man. Much of the country is stuck in 1950 and they still aren't ready for a woman or a man of color to be president. They are scared to death of change.
323
@Linda Trump wasn’t elected because he’s a white male. He was elected because of our antiquated Electoral College. Hillary received 2.8 MILLION more votes than Trump. Women do a disservice to our country by continuing to blame “white males” for our woes. The reason we have Trump in the White House isn’t white male privilege. It’s because of the Electoral College, the living legacy of our country’s early reliance on slavery. If you feel the need to blame someone for our current mess, blame the early white slave owners. I’m a white male, so don’t take my word for it. Just ask any person of color in this country. I voted for Obama and while I voted for Hillary, I would have voted for Romney if he were running against Hillary. So please wake up and stop blaming white males for everything that’s wrong with our country. Trump knows how to divide our country, and women who blame men are playing in to his hand.
11
@Linda
Linda how many rallies did Hillary hold in Pen, Wis, Idi, the rust belt. She did not campaign enough in those states. To bring back an old saying " she let George do it "
4
Araud is wrong. There is no "deep state." American governance is based on the rule of law. Bureaucrats are obliged to follow laws and regulations. The Trump administration thinks the bureaucracy should obey his commands, but bureaucrats don't follow commands, they follow laws. And the Trump administration as well as today's GOP don't know how to write legislation that is in conformity with our Constitution. So they wail in frustration at their own inadequacies in basic governance.
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@Ladyrantsalot
The first rule of the Deep State is to never admit there is a Deep State.
I'm kidding of course. But yes, the Deep State has existed since at least the 1970's. Back then it was called "The National Security State." It's the same thing. The name 'Deep State' is more catchy though.
“ ‘The press, to be frank, is so anti-Trump that I do understand that the natural reaction of Trump is to go over the head of the press,” he said.” The press is not so much anti-Trump as anti-nuance. It gave Trump a largely free ride and went after Hillary during the election because expected Hillary to win and it sees its mission as hoisting the dirty laundry of the most powerful or most likely to become powerful, rather than to paint a three dimensional portrait of said person. Trump is an incredibly unqualified and destructive president, but he is also an incredibly gifted communicator, especially because he is unencumbered by the need to ever tell the truth. The press plays into his hands when it views him through a default negative lens. I just saw an example of this on CNN when, after Trump made an appropriate statement in the wake of the evil shooting at the synagogue in California, CNN’s Don Lemon went on a tirade about Trump’s past anti-Semitic and, when accused by a guest of contributing to divisiveness, all but yelled at the guest. Lemon’s basic point was correct. But it shed little light because of the heat with which it was delivered, The TV media in general swings wildly between letting some White House spokesperson spew propaganda uninterrupted to shouting down pro-Trump guest, as Lemon almost did. The most effective interviewers keep their cool and hammer their interviewees with endless facts and endless nuance, not endless heat.
39
@Mike Collins. The press gave Trump a Free Ride? That’s a new one. I struggle with him mightily, but I find it odd that mainstream media has nothing good to say about his administration, while the economy remains quite strong, (which is the primary determinant of incumbents getting re-elected) ...
8
@Chuck: If the economy is so strong, why are the roads in my affluent county full of potholes, why are Americans paying through the nose for healthcare, why can’t they support their families on one salary, not to mention a minimum wage salary, why do I see more and more homeless on the subways and in the streets of New York, why are there still so many homes foreclosed? I think the “strong” economy (if one can believe the numbers this administration puts out...) only benefits the very rich, not the working Americans.
158
@Anna
exactly i'm sick and tired of hearing about how great the economy is . i'm a 71 year old man working retail for $12 an hour with no benefits hanging on by the skin of my teeth
and in my spare time i worry about the future of this planet
12
We love France - I lived and worked there two years; my husband and I met in Paris. We've been back several times. Sometimes to express our feelings about some particular approach by someone such as the Ambassador, we affectionately and jokingly say - il est tres, tres francais, n'est ce pas. Vive la difference.
19
Just as a minor correction, Trump did not discover that there were Americans who felt left behind. He told the most comfortable people, with the most advantages, in the history of the world, that they were miserable and sold them on the idea that he would take them back in time, an impossibility.
He told them they were besieged by people who wished them ill, for instance the social justice warriors who are responsible for the public assistance which flows most liberally to the counties which voted most heavily for him. Or that the enemy were the people who invented the music, film, and other media which they used and enjoyed. He told them that their religion was being assaulted by people who only wanted privacy.
This has been the tool of the Republican party forever. To discover pockets of resentment, be it homophobes or gun owners, and then ferment and exploit that resentment. Trump is the pinnacle of that long siege against reality.
As for Seattle and our conversation, we don't speak of the excretions of the body, either, at the dinner table.
366
@Eric -- Two minor corrections to your otherwise excellent post:
1. Some of the voters he courted *have* been left behind economically; it's not OK to be blithe about their financial stress, in part bc the only way to persuade such voters to vote rationally is to understand their concerns. Fwiw, I was raised middle-class but was plunged into poverty by medical debt and kept there by the Great Recession; it has ruined every part of my life, and I feel that stress every day.
Btw, I'm not talking about the hardcore Trump supporters -- the racist whites -- but about the portion of the on-the-fence ones who actually believed that he had some economic plan to help them.
2. Foment (stir up), not ferment.
14
@Eric
Thanks for the condescension directed at the 60 million-plus Trump voters. Yeah, they're just deplorable rubes, bitter clingers who would be out of place in the Emerald City.
I understand that you don't discuss excreta at dinner in Seattle--rather it's all over the streets of your city, from the homeless that your social justice warriors are unable to deal with.
2
Excellent!
1
The French ambassador's assessments may be blunt but they are not necessarily astute.
The ambassador is probably one of a small number of people, including Trump, who thinks Trump is a genius. Trump won not because he is a genius, but because of our electoral college system of electing presidents, Russian intervention, Comey's intervention at the last minute and ineptitude of the Clinton Campaign.
As for Jared Kushner being “a smart guy, really,” that's a stretch, to say the least. ThinkProgress began a story on Kushner thus: "The 41-story skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was supposed to be Jared Kushner’s signature investment. A 27-year-old Kushner bought the property in 2007 for a record $1.8 billion — the most ever paid for an office tower. The move was supposed to catapult the family real estate firm, previously known for mid-priced apartments in New Jersey, into the big leagues. It has been an unmitigated disaster."
Really smart.
396
@RK - Sorry, RK, but Mr. Araud nailed what happened in 2016. We had enough members of the distressed middle class who were worried about their future that they were willing to hold their noses and vote for Trump. This group acted as the swing vote in the Trump's razor-thin victory, and they made up the difference between the 40% of Americans that continues to approve of Trump and his 48% vote.
Now, was Trump a genius? Probably not, but he looked like one when the Democrats (I am one) failed to appeal to this group and instead wasted their energy and money pointing out how awful Trump was, rather than how they would help us.
80
@Jerry Schulz you nailed it, Jerry. Leaving aside Trump's crude racism and xenophobia for a moment, a large part of his appeal laid in his de facto promise to burn down a system that was leaving far too many working people behind (of course, once in office he worked to exacerbate such a system, but that's another story).
I fear that many, many Democrats simply don't get this. In fact, looking at the Democratic field of presidential candidates, it seems to me that a large portion of them don't get this either - they're essentially pushing the same tepid liberalism that didn't exactly inspire the masses in 2016. Our present moment calls for bold actions - with a couple of exceptions, I'm not certain that Democrats understand this.
65
@RK : I agree with your post but want to note one thing: Araud didn't say that Trump *is* a genius. He said, "I do think the genius — and I’m using the word genius — of Donald Trump is to have felt the crisis."
Someone with a mediocre intellect, like Trump, can have *a* genius -- a knack -- for intuiting something essential about a situation. That said, I think Araud is wrong -- I think the staggering self-centered Trump perceived and perceives virtually nothing beyond his own needs and desires.
Bannon, however, is smart and devious, and he knew what a certain segment of white America felt and how to tap into it.
25
"“I do think the genius — and I’m using the word genius — of Donald Trump is to have felt the crisis,” he said. {Araud}
Isn't trump more conman than genius? The two are not mutually exclusive but during election 2016 trump was masterful at executing his con of the beleaguered workers who felt left behind. Much of a conman's "genius" is being able to read his marks well and trump was brazenly persuasive in convincing a large bloc of voters that he would help them. He never intended to.
260
@Mary Ann Donahue - outstanding comment.
7
@common sense advocate
I agree with you.
What astounds me is that those Trump seeks to take benefits away that they rely on are still eager to support him.
Why?
5
@common sense advocate ~
Thank you!!
3
For a man who's spent 40 years as a diplomat, the ambassador comes across like a fallen souffle: a lot of air, but not much substance.
He sounds very superficial, and I find it interesting that he has no desire to go back to France, the country he has represented in the USA.
903
@L, I would like to know who was picking up the bills for all the parties Araud hosted for the Washington crowd? Trump has indeed partied a lot, all through his playboy days. Now older, and suddenly fiscally conservative, he is not seen in galas and parties around town. The kind of social butterflies like Araud, inhabit and entertain. If it is any consolation, Trump has probably saved DC bunch of expensive entertainment bills.
5
@petey tonei
Trump is “now fiscally conservative"? When did that happen?
The last I heard the big tax break went to the 1% and the big corporations for a huge price tag of 1 1/2 trillion dollars. Trump couldn’t spell fiscal if his life depended on it.
30
@BHVBum, very true, let me rephrase, Trump's "fiscally" conservative when it comes to spending on "social services", just like the deficit hawks, wink wink....where have they disappeared? suddenly we don't hear about deficit..
8
“At every dinner, you have anecdotes about Donald Trump. And you leave Washington, D.C., and you can spend two days in Seattle and Chicago and nobody says the word ‘Trump.’”
I can guarantee that Gérard Araud is going to be hearing a lot about Trump once he moves to Manhattan. That strikes me as entirely appropriate. Trump is president of the United States, for god's sake, and is debasing the presidency with his thuggery and flouting of presidential norms and the rule of law. de Tocqueville famously wrote, "What most astonishes me in the United States, is not so much the marvelous grandeur of some undertakings, as the innumerable multitude of small ones." Araud should understand that resistance to Trump isn't one of the small ones.
150
The Ambassador as Maureen writes so glibly complains that there are too many squirrels in DC: "The capital has too many squirrels, he says, not to mention a squirrelly president." If she and he had any sensitivities about Washington DC's real problems, they might have emphasized that there are too many homeless camped out within blocks of the WH, the State Dept, The Supreme Court and the Capitol. Too many squirrels? How superficial, cruel and lame. And the President is not a "squirrel". Squirrels don't cause harm to homo sapiens. This President does.
215
We don't say the name of Swindler Donald here because it is an obscenity. I think this is the diplomat that compared Donald the Mad to Louis XVI, pretty accurate from my point of view.
I am just waiting for another disgusting tweet from the Liar in Chief, calling the ambassador "Big Mouth," now that is real GOP diplomacy, I am sure all the others will come begging to be heard by the insulter in residence, It has become a badge of honor among the worlds professional polite.
We might well still be a member of the Commonwealth, if it were not for France, which welcomed the First American, Ben Franklin,and a few other supporters of Liberty and Equality. Nice having you Mr. Araud, you will enjoy NY, they have some culture there, unlike Washington where the culture seems to be insulting and constructing fantasies.
36
This skimmed lightly over a guy who clearly has a lot more of interest to say.
De Tocqueville with such a treatment would not be much help.
21
@Mark Thomason
well, it is a column--not a book nor a lengthy magazine piece.
3
Trump's Republican enablers got their tax cuts. They are getting their Supreme Court picks and federal judge appointments. They seem to believe that whatever else Trump does is a mere sideshow, so they let him get away with it.
Should we be trusting them?
With climate change? The environment? Infrastructure? Public education? Health care? Iran? North Korea? Russia? China? NATO? America's overall stature in the world?
We are on a precipice.
What it means to be "on the left" in America is to work tirelessly to take democracy back from those who would take it for themselves.
584
@Blue Moon
"What it means to be "on the left" in America is to work tirelessly to take democracy back from those who would take it for themselves."
I think you mean 'take the government back,' not 'take democracy back.' By definition, democracy is spread to all and shared by all. It doesn't belong to one group as opposed to another, to be taken and taken back.
If you want to take the government back for the left to hold by themselves, go ahead and try, but count on resistance, defiance, and hostility.
Uh, I don't think he's quite prepared for what to expect in Trump's hometown. We cannot stand the grifter and his name comes up in nearly every conversation. We do wear better fitting suits than in D.C., however.
401
@Tony Gamino...
He is also going to find out that New Yorkers know how to deal with those who ruin, denigrate and malign the reputation of New York City.
18
Gallic Flail. As Sartre said, when you ask for advice, consider the bias of the advice-giver. This man is a social butterfly who can't acknowledge that his species of sardonic dilletantes who admire Trump's "genius" at using people, and who are amused and taken in by Kushner and Miller is a big part of the problem.
946
@Eero, What i think you have to look at here is the end result, Trump took the presidency, up until this point in time, that is the end result. There have been only 44 other people who have done this in the 227 years since his election, genius? Depends on your definition of genius but i found this one 'an exceptionally intelligent person or one with exceptional skill in a particular area of activity'. I think you could apply part of that to Trump, he certainly has the exceptional skill of conning people, that's what he is and that is what he does. I wouldn't celebrate this trait myself but there again I'm not a vindictive narcissist, at least i hope not, so i think Gearard's advice may be very pertinent. Take your eyes off the clown and concentrate on his tricks, then maybe you will see why and how the rabbit is being pulled from the hat.
106
“The press, to be frank, is so anti-Trump that I do understand that the natural reaction of Trump is to go over the head of the press....”
Actually, Trump stopped giving press conferences even as a candidate, and long before the election. His last one in 2016 was on July 27. This wasn't because the press was behaving in an anti-Trump way, but because it was doing its job pointing out his unprecedented, constantly flowing lies. The press was being anti-lying, not anti-Trump. It's not the press's fault that those were, and are, in the case of Trump the same thing.
1825
@Greg Weis I agree with you but I would also add one more thing: the press should stop doing Q&As in front of the helicopter. If they did this, perhaps we could get Sarah to hold daily press briefings and the liar-in-chief himself at a real press conference. They can still get their story, even if they don’t behave like a slavish dog waiting to get a treat as the dope heads to the helicopter. When Donald Benedict realizes there is no press outside as he leaves the White House, he’ll be horrified that he’s not getting screen time, which is his prime motivator.
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@Rm
Exactly!
The WH press corps should stop these shouting matches on the lawn or in the White House in the Cabinet room or in the Oval Office with foreign dignitaries.
Let him say whatever he wants to say, then leave. Don't give him the attention he craves.
And cable TV should stop cutting away to these spontaneous encounters and stop replaying whatever lies he tells, over and over and over.
110
@Greg Weis It's much easier for Trump to lie through tweets than chance being called out for them in front of real, live people. In this day and age I guess that qualifies as genius? Sad.
46
Araud is right in at least one respect: I don't live in Washington but nearly every day, I feel "frightened and personally attacked by Trump.”
Mr. Trump's constant attacks on immigrants, people of color, of religions different from his own (if he actually has one), the press and others make me more than a little uncomfortable.
Every time I think he's hit bottom, he comes down to a lower level within a week or two.
Worst of all are Trump's attacks on our Constitution and the rule of law, such as stonewalling Congressional subpoenas.
I don't blame Mr. Araud a bit for not missing Washington and this administration.
101
"you can spend two days in Seattle and Chicago and nobody says the word ‘Trump.’”
That may well be because folks out in the countryside have learned discretion when talking to strangers about Trump. I can tell you that he is a constant subject in conversations among friends. Even in Kentucky.
773
@coachjim
Agreed. At dinner parties we wait to see if "the conversation" comes up with friends in Paris. It doesn't matter if they are Americans or French. They know every detail and, yes, it always comes up. Shock, horror, and amusement. We are in France after all.
Trump is effecting the world and maybe there's more at stake than being "too slim" or "too elegant".
56
@coachjim Excuse me, but Seattle and Chicago are not "the countryside." And as far as Trump goes, despite what Monsieur Araud may think, Trump is always on our minds, because the Tangerine Toddler spends much of his time getting in our face and much of what he does poses a palpable threat to our friends, family and neighbors, to our way of life, and to our future.
I shudder at the thought that my daughter may live in a world shaped by a malevolent man like Donald Trump and by his Trumpublican enablers.
73
@coachjim Living in Seattle for 4 years and I haven't a clue about the basis for comment about trump not being discussed here. He is almost uninformed despised and a constant source of extreme disappointment.
60
I'm sorry, but any Trump criticism by MD is suspect because of her relentless unjustified attacks on Mrs. Clinton in 2016.
She is implicated in Trump being elected.
1062
@David Henry
Indeed between MD and Russian Facebook accounts the world could be a much different place. We would already be at war with Iran. Trump would never do that would do that.
14
@David Henry -- Those attacks were not unjustified. The problem was not speaking the truth, it was the truth about the one chosen to run by Democrats.
42
@Mark Thomason
The problem was not speaking the truth about all candidates and allowing Trump to hide.
114
Its just a big lie that I hate to see repeated over and over again. Democrats have not forgotten the “white and poor” people. In the contrary, all programs that benefit them today are based on Democratic policies. Trump has connected to a particular segment of societies by stoking resentments and then did everything to undercut them like trying to ax social programs. Medicaid and its expansion has provided poor rural states with the best opportunity to improve health and the workforce. And Trump only by a hair failed to repeal Obamacare.
272
@Oliver Herfort Yes, Dems are better at giving opportunities and help to the poor, however, that is like saying Mussolini was better than Hitler regarding religious freedom. Since the late 70's, the D party has aligned itself with the wealthy donor class at the expense of the poor, working and middle class. When a candidate takes money from corporate donors via bundling of max donations and super PACs, they must return the, "favor". You don't think the rich and powerful donate millions of dollars and expect nothing in return, do you? That is why I will only support D candidates that refuse to take corporate/PAC money in the primary.
3
@Oliver Herfort The Dems offend the whites and poors by constantly insulting them, Christianity and the US in general. Their tax plans frighten the middle class; there is no program to tax the super rich adequately, so they will be gunning for, and destroying, the middle class.
1
@Oliver Herfort
The working class and the middle class do not want handouts, they want jobs that pay well enough to not need handouts. Democrat and Republican politicians sold their jobs overseas. People aren't blind, they know the score.
1
Not impressed by the Mr. Ambassador, if only for quoting approvingly of Miller and insisting on Trump's "genius".
208
“When the finger is showing the moon, the fool is looking at the finger and the wise man at the moon.”
My version of this old saw is truer and wiser:
The difference between a dog and a man when you are pointing to something is that a man will look at what you are pointing to, while a dog will look at what is in your hand.
Democrats should be imitating the dog.
This is no time for them to be concerning themselves with peripheral issues, e.g., Trump’s business dealings, his tweets, the Wall, the Southern border, immigration policy, the rash of firings at Homeland Security, his tax returns, his appointments to the Federal Reserve Board, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
Trump's single, unrelenting, stomach-churning fear now is his impeachment. Everything else he is pointing us to is merely diversion.
Impeachment is what Democrats must be focusing on now to the exclusion of everything else with powerful magnifying glasses, electron microscopes and lasers.
During his impeachment, everything else can be attended to or set aside for consideration later.
Without it, nothing can.
68
@A. Stanton So he gets impeached, then not convicted, and declares "I won," again. Then what?
2
@phil
I believe you're correct about Trump not being convicted. I've heard and read numerous comments to the effect that there would be enough information coming to light in an impeachment proceeding that even the Senate would turn against him. If the evidence of the past two years of tweets, talks, actions and asininities, not to mention the evidence detailed in the Special Counsel's report has not done it, what could be bad enough to make them flip now? Maybe if he shot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue? The thing that scares me about Trump's comment on not losing any votes if he did it is that he could well be correct.
3
@phil
Then you win the election.
1
This ''diplomat'' seems to have the whimsy about him of many diplomats from around the world that have to deal with this administration and President - that is they are either getting out of the game, or are just biding time until after the 2020 election. (and grown ups are back in office)
He is completely right about 2 things though, and those are that many places around the country do NOT want to talk about this President, and the 4th estate is the one that continuously fans the flames is their quest to make politics a blood sport of false equivalencies.
Pity.
18
@FunkyIrishman
Time for the equivalency olympics then!
My rant is:
Two wrongs still won’t make a right...therefore equivalencies are almost always false. I’ve banned them from my arguments across the political divide with my republican friends.
1
OK, did Mr. Araud have an explanation for the 2018 election if people were economically "shaky" in 2016?
And what will they feel, sir, when Trump repeals the ACA and guts the social safety net?
The answer? They will still feel their defining motivating force: white nationalism.
This guy missed the boat as surely as did the MSM in 2016.
58
But do you really feel anyone is simply born a white nationalist? You’re right about Trump not ultimately helping his base (let alone the rest of us). But the question Artaud puts back on the table is this: what’s the source of the antagonism which Trump (or his handlers) were able to exploit? If we don’t dare to engage that question, there will be more Trumps.
6
@Paul Does "white nationalism" explain that critical margin of Rust Belt voters who opted twice for Obama -- yes, Obama! -- and switched to Trump?
Keep characterizing "white nationalism" as the "defining motivating force," and you might just create a self-fulfilling prophecy -- when all these people are truly seeking is refuge from both the bigots and the scolds.
Araud has a rather cavalier attitude for such a long-standing diplomat. Time to say au revoir if he doesn’t care what is at stake in the free world including NATO, EU, and our other partnerships. Adieu partier. Time for the serious folks to come forward.
497
@Ichabod Aikem My thoughts exactly. Can France send a real professional our way?
26
@Ichabod Aikem Exactly right. When the going gets tough, the Arauds of the world skip town with some clever-sounding quips. Anybody can be a cushy-job ambassador during easy times. By skipping out now, Araud shows us his mettle...which is to say, he has none.
18
Methinks Araud is a bit naive and superficial in thinking that just because those in Chicago or Seattle don't say the word Trump doesn't mean that they don't think about Trump 24/7/365 based on how far he has destroyed this democracy in such a short time.
They do. They just do it a bit more 'diplomatically.' de Tocqueville he's not.
162
I’m in Chicago and, trust me, the talk of Trump is ongoing and irreverent.
7
One can only hope that the 2020 presidential election will prove to be Trump's Waterloo. Although in France, Macron's party of the Center has had its growing pains (yellow vest protests led by extremists of the far left and right), the fragile center has held thus far. The same cannot be said for Italy, Poland, Hungry, or even the UK where the vital middle is fraying at its core. This weakening of the center left and center right is also prevalent in the United States as evidenced by the rise of far right in the form of the Trump base and its left wing equivalent led by Bernie Sanders and the newly elected firebrands in the House of Representatives. Perhaps, an experienced candidate like Joe Biden is our best hope to bring our nation back to normalcy at least in the short term.
24
@tippicanoe Been there, done that....it concentrated even more wealth to the top at the expense of the poor, working and middle class. I'm done with neoliberalism and neoconservatism. The desire for real change was why people (naively) took a chance and voted for Trump over centrist, HRC. Going back will only bring more despots to the field as we move forward. It's time for real change. No more big money deciding who wins elections. No more big money writing the legislation brought forth by those bought "representatives".
10
@Sue Salvesen
Thank You.
Highly Accurate
and True
and Well Said.
1
@tippicanoe There is no equivalency between Trump's hard right base and Bernie's center left; yes I did say center left. Trump's base wants a scorched earth whites only society, while Bernie's want health care for all. No equivalency, no comparison. Period.
4
Love the column, and the Ambassador. ( Although I don’t share his opinion about Jared being bright.)
27
@Jean Or about Trump being a "genius"
2
Ironically, it was the French who were occupied by a hostile power from 1940-44, and who recognized Marine Le Pen as Putin's collaboratrice at the last presidential election.
Since neither the U.S. nor Britain had undergone such an occupation, the British ignorantly voted for Brexit and Americans voted for Trump--both thanks to Russian influence online.
71
“The happiness of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; she is destined to become the safe and venerable asylum of virtue, of honesty, of tolerance, and quality and of peaceful liberty.”
― Marquis De Lafayette
That quote was made in the first half of the 1800's. It holds true to this day. Gérard Araud has strong opinions but he is wrong about The American President. Trump is a danger not only to the U.S., but to all mankind,
Marquis De Lafayette is right, America is connected to the happiness of all mankind, and we need to replace Trump in 2020, and return the country to it's rightful place as a beacon of light to all.
302
@cherrylog754
A huge stretch of imagination to suggest that America has been a "beacon of light" since shortly after World War II.
The evidence of where US policies, military industrial complex, and rapacious corporate interests laid waste across the globe is there for all to see.
And its deleterious influence continues, from wars, to climate change, to destruction and overtake of natural resources.
A beacon of snatch, smash and grab. Light, not so much.
16
@cherrylog754
I disagree. American Exceptionalism is the vanity that will destroy us. A little humility and a lot of hard work will keep us strong.
“You had a Republican Party that was really free trade, interventionist in foreign policy, connected to budgetary restraint,” he said. “And suddenly you have a Republican Party that is shifting to protectionism, nationalism, defense of the identity. Exactly the same thing is happening to conservative parties across the Western democracies. Social democracy is in a coma in Europe, so I do think the elections in 2020 will be totally fascinating in America because the Democratic Party will be obliged to answer the question, ‘What does it mean to be on the left in America?’”
For me, the question, beginning with the primaries is, rather, "What does it mean to be a responsible citizen of our republic and our planet." Donald Trump is not the answer. A massive primary turnout can be a great step in providing an answer we can be proud of passing on to our children.
72
“You had a Republican Party that was really free trade,"
Yes they were (and still are) while the union wing of the Democratic Party had bumper stickers that said: "Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign!" and "Buy American."
The Democratic Party milked this wing for all the votes it could.
At one time over 95% of the vehicles sold in this country were assembled here. That was in the glory days of the 1950s. Now that figure is about 50% or so if you include transplants that are located in right to work states and are not unionized.
So we have the Democratic Party advocating free trade and Trump playing the same base the Democratic Party pandered to some years ago.
Who'd have thought Walmart's business strategy would be in forefront of Democratic Party progressivism?
Quick, do you drive a vehicle assembled by union labor in the US? You don't have to answer that.
8
@Jp
I don’t agree with you. America was among the first in automobiles. With a large population of workers flush with sufficient money due in part to healthy unions the American auto industry sat on its laurels and ignored intelligent re-investment and especially its foreign competition. Would you buy a Chevy with faulty, cheap ignition locks that the company wouldn’t replace and wouldn’t settle lawsuits over? Americans deserve better and we know where we can get. Many if not most foreign models are produced here or in Canada. So, what is your point?
25
Nice that the ambassador can float above the chaos, make his detached quips, and socialize with administration figures. Maybe he should spend time with some asylum seekers or those whose health care is under threat for a different perspective.
1382
@EBS
You’re not suggesting that he go back where he came from, are you?
6
@EBS
ditto for Dowd. Seems every column is a name dropper of the rich and famous.
30
MoDo .. "sun king?"
Welcome to "Page Six" and NYC TV news. Schumer and Bloomberg do *not* think they're "sun kings?" Give me a break, madam.
IMHO, if the (D) spent 50% of their time, actually *producing results* with *law-abiding taxpayers* -- they'd be higher in the polls. Res ipsa.
He sees similarities between Macron and Barack Obama. “I think they are hyper-rational and it can be seen as patronizing by a lot of people,” he said. “In a sense, even, they despise passions.” Smiling, he said both men are “too slim” and “too elegant” to relate to the man on the street.
Patronizing was when Trump proudly pronounced "We're smarter than them. We went to a better college than them. And we have more money than them."
I'll take a rational government employee (Obama was a senator) over an irrational multibillionaire any time.
1126
I think you ignored the point. Macron and Obama are intellectually brilliant men. The educated admire them. The less educated find them arrogant. Trump is much less brilliant but feels perhaps more real and less patronising. He's easy to understand even if what he is saying is false, for the educated.
The educated forgot to help the less educated and now they are suffering the consequences.
7
@M.E. Nemeroff, please make that "pseudo-multibillionaire."
12
@Martin -- Bingo. And the Democrats still don't get it, or at least they refuse to acknowledge it. Going into 2020, what is their plan to woo the less educated who felt left behind and ignored? Those people might have a few things in common with Democrats, such as disgust with the current state of healthcare, but they are skeptical that Medicare Care for All can or will be implemented in a fair and cost effective manner. And they fail to see how taxing the rich more is going to help them, and they don't give a darn about the plight of asylum seekers, who they consider to just be illegal immigrants with a scam excuse. The best thing that Democrats have going for them in 2020 is Trump's lack of integrity, but attacking him only goes so far.
6
Away from the noise and strangeness of D.C. to the calm of New York City? I think this is a man that enjoys the hustle and bustle. Even in NewYork City he is still too close to the Don for me.
33
@richard wiesner
I am sorry, but the Donald will never return to NYC.
To live in NYC, the upper east side is nice plus you
have Eric Kayser and a nice French cafe not too far from east 73rd!
1
@richard wiesner Don Cuomo or The Donald?
1
Oh, if it were only D.C. where anxiety reigns. Unfortunately, all fear the impending destruction of our democracy when a President declares in the open that he is above the law, while republicans and democrats in Congress prove him correct.
If we could just flee to distant shores, but alas, we must remain and defeat this pernicious threat.
290
Many of Araud's views are untrue. Republicans abandoned fiscal restraint decades ago. There is no "Deep State." Of course Washingtonians talk about Trump more than people in Seattle. Politics is what Washington is about.
He is like Trump in that he enjoys riling people up to get their attention.
590
Well observed.
13
The best article on Araud I have yet read. The quotes are insightful particularly the one about included versus excluded.
The Democratic party wound up with a candidate seen as a doyenne of an elite establishment that did not include them while the genuine change candidate had been excluded by a rigged process that was supposed to be democratic. One lesson is that the donor class can be influential in Democratic party politics but it cannot rule it.
And the ambassador shrewdly observes that the old Republican party is gone. If the Trump Republican party is heavily defeated in 2020, what will come after it? Probably not more drones from the billionaires.
28
@Paul A Myers
It's worthwhile to recall that the current Republican Party is one of the two surviving factions when the Whig Party splintered in the 1850's. One splinter became resolute abolitionists with Fremont and the other half (based largely in the South) became the 'Know Nothing' Party pleading that it would be so, so unfair to white people to abolish slavery.
So, we know who leads the Know Nothing faction in 2020. Wonder where the Fremont player is . . .
3
@Paul A Myers
"And the ambassador shrewdly observes that the old Republican party is gone."
I am not sure that "shrewdly" is the accurate term here. Almost anyone with a brain who has followed politics for the last ten years can tell you that the Republican party is gone. What's his next shrewd observation - the sky is blue?
9
@Paul A Myers
Well, if it’s doyenne versus dotard (you can look it up) I know who I voted for.
3
I take heart in the adage that people and nations will generally do the right thing... once all of the alternatives have been exhausted.
I see Trump and the GOP embrace of the Old Confederacy as accelerating the exhausting of the alternatives, so we can get to doing the right things.
And I hope that younger generations are awakening to the dangers that the Trump GOP represents to everything in their future.
328
Trump is money. If the broadcast media had given up Trump for Lent, we would all be a little saner, and the networks commentators would be in group therapy.
107
@coastal I agree...When the solution to our problem becomes as insane as the problem, we are in deep trouble..Our print media has stayed relatively sane..All of cable news is out of control and literally as scary as Trump....Right or left, I have never seen a bigger collection of real idiots,as mouthy and lazy as Trump, as I see on EVERY cable news channel.
Seen anyone on the ground in California to check on fire victims? Or down in Puerto Rico checking on how they are doing?
Nope...Mouth flapping about Trump 24/7....One adores him, in the land of fantasy telling, while the other two have more talking heads pontificating to us "peasants" daily.....Simply revolting that so many idiots get paid to talk about a basic old con man.
He works them like a carnie grifter with the shell game and they fall for it every single time......And he is not that smart, so that speaks volumes about their collective intellectual limitations, right or left......
3
"“I do think the genius — and I’m using the word genius — of Donald Trump is to have felt the crisis,” he said."
Yeah, but what does Araud think about said crisis now? What has Trump done for those left behind--no answer needed because there is none.
Araud seems a bit of a gadfly, eager to provoke but really proving nothing. Of course he's ambassador at a time when there's really no crisis in American-French relations, so he had the best of both worlds: the ability to play fly on the political wall with no skin in the game, followed by a nice new life and chance for reinvention in NYC.
We citizens don't have such luxuries. Republican policies and attacks on democracy itself are wearing down those of us who oppose Trump faster than hard rain on New England snow in early spring.
He gets to be gallically blunt without any consequences. Nice for him, not so nice for those he leaves behind.
1394
@ChristineMcM
Mr. Araud was ambassador for 40 years. That's hardly a gadfly.
He's earned his exit from DC. Lovely architecture and repeat visits to the same museums is not enough in what can be a very dull, one-note and oft anti-urbane, stifling Groundhog Day culture. Plenty of folks cycle in and then cycle right back out of DC, whether they are in govt. public service or private industry. He and his husband will enjoy NYC. They both earned it.
83
@Maggie:”In this Pearl Harbor day, we should remember that the US refused to side with France and the UK to confront the fascist powers in the 30s."
He said this in 2017. While he took this tweet down after much criticism,
He’s had a history of making undiplomatic statements representing a country[France] that basically invented modern diplomacy.
61
@Maggie: you do understand the definition of a gadfly, right? It's an "annoying person, especially one who provokes others into action by criticism." Longevity of service doesn't mean the long-serving person isn't annoying or provocative for the sake of being provocative, I'm sure the French Ambassador has earned his right to relocate to NYC for the next phase of his life. But from Maureen's interview with him, he sounds very much like someone well practiced in the art of offering unsolicited opinions, which is hardly the essence of diplomacy.
137
If only so-called journalists had such a fresh, balanced and insightful perspective on Washington. Especially in the current political hysteria.
On to Manhattan. Good choice, Ambassador Arnaud.
27
@Carol Colitti Levine The "hysteria" is based om a burning Rome while the economy is "booming" looking three months into the future.
5
It’s difficult to tell how much Gérard Araud was able to be useful to his foreign ministry back home in describing the situation in Washington.
In another interview I read dealing more with policy-based issues, Araud would often say, “ I don’t know” when asked about how the mercurial Trump would act in a given situation.
In this and other interviews, I’m struck by how undiplomatic his language is even as he leaves Washington for New York.
I’m reminded of another French Ambassador, Jean -David Levitte who served in Washington during the Iraq War when Washington had “ freedom fries” and many in the media were writing angry screeds against France for not supporting the Iraq War.
Arguably 2003-06 was more difficult to be the French Ambassador to Washington than it was for Araud. Levitte went on a tour of America to honor U.S. WWII vets with the Legion of Honor medals and consistently pointed out the historic bonds with America. He calmly defused the crisis in relations.
After reading several interviews with Araud, I was left to wonder, did Macron and the foreign ministry pull him out of Washington?
98
@JT FLORIDA
Replying "I don't know" to how the "mercurial" Trump would respond to a future situation sounds like the only correct answer to me.
63
@Maura3: I disagree. Good ambassadors will assess the situation like Ambassador LEVITTE did during the worst relations between the U.S.and France in more than a century.
The reporters Araud criticizes for being so anti-Trump are truthful and he doesn’t seem to realize what a threat Trump is to American democratic values.
It was his job to find out. Maybe he should have invited more reporters to his parties.
220
@JT FLORIDA Well, I guess he found the miserable Stephen Miller more interesting, you know, the immigrant hater. Araud doesn't sound like someone who gets it, why we are all so frightened of this would-be king. Better he hang out in NY, where he can get lost in the crowds. However, he is going to find even more t-rump haters there; they have a long history with the conman.
8
I always learn something from your editorials. This one was especially educational. Thanks!
12
@JT Adams
you can enjoy it, but it's a column, not an editorial.
5
This ''diplomat'' seems to have the whimsy about him of many diplomats from around the world that have to deal with this administration and President - that is they are either getting out of the game, or are just biding time until after the 2020 election. (and Democrats are back in office)
He is completely right about 2 things though, and those are that many places around the country do NOT want to talk about this President, and the media is the one that continuously fans the flames is their quest to make politics a match of false equivalencies.
Pity.
89
@FunkyIrishman
But who did the "diplomat" talk to in Chicago?
There's plenty of talk in Chicago amongst Republicans (yes, there are plenty of Republicans in Chicago).
Araud might understand Washington, but he doesn't know or understand Chicago, or what people are talking about in our city.
11