Susan Rice is a better columnist, in my opinion, than she was a national security advisor. That is not meant as a sarcastic remark. I have largely agreed with all of her columns but I did not and do not feel that the Obama Administration, for the most part, conducted an effective and successful foreign policy, though obviously there were some successes as well as some failures and a lot of things in between. But at least it tried to be responsible, most of the time. Foreign policy is really hard even why you try to be serious and responsible. It is full of no-win situations with no good options. But now we have a President who is neither serious nor responsible. The only good thing I can say about him is that he has not made a catastrophic mistake like the invasion of Iraq - not yet, anyway. I actually don't think he will. At some level I suspect that he understands that being a war President is really, really, really hard, regardless of whether the war in question is well-advised, and he doesn't want that. So maybe his aversion to that kind of hard work and responsibility will help keep the peace by default, even if he is a crook and does work for Russia and is doing everything possible to undermine freedom and democracy in the West and everywhere else.
Yes but just wait til more negative details about Trump come out throwing Trump into a twitter rage showing the world what a corrupt lying wanna be dictator we have elected.
Hmmm...no major gaffes. Just untold, continued little ones.
The man is a boorish bore, a cowardly, pretend, bully boy whom pouts and strikes out at any and everyone who he feels wronged him.
He's Sundowning Ms. Rice. Quit pretending everything is fine.
He see's and feels the noose being tested.
Tick tock Donnie. Tick~! TOCK~!
1
Trump did much better than Obama's endless posing and posturing ever could . Obama's globalist twin brother from another mother Macron has France in flames. If the Elite and the Media love a political figure than you can rest assure that the politician is in the hip pocket of the 1 percent. The French middle class are waking up to find out that the climate change taxes are nothing more than a power grab to pay for mass migration schemes to undermine their quality of life and weaken them as a sovereign nation forever . The media in France pushed for Macron who is a pathetic puppet for the 1 percent and fawned all over him just like they did the equally underserving Obama. Its funny how the so called progressive resistance loves the trickle down economics of illegal immigration when they think it will help bring about their pipe dream fantasy of a socialist utopia , when in reality it will gut the middle class and the first world will soon resemble the third world. The 1 percent globalists will laugh all the way to the bank.
1
The Damage - as has often been the case with Donny - is that there is was no plan going in and the lies of course. Lies and boasting about a deal with China to be made etc. Donny and Melania had not even arrived back in the states and the contradictions and misinformation started. The lack of planning is stupid, 18 year olds running for class presidencies all over the USA plan more than trump.
1
No damage is now the new bar. On the Putin connection, “While we will never know what Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin discussed informally at the G-20 dinner, their exchange was comparatively abbreviated and perhaps less risky”. Based on recent Trump tweets, Putin may have said:“Donald, you where not able to shut down Mueller and they are about to blow our whole collusion out into the open. This is not good for you, but more importantly it is not good for me. You failed to get US sanctions lifted and now more severe sanctions will come, even from the EU. My personnal standing will be reduced as people will see how I manipulated you. Russians will see how much money I am taking away from them for my geo-politics, and my personnal gain.
So Donald, I know you are good at deflecting issues and you must absolutly, at all cost, deflect the Mueller report, and the only thing big enough to do that, short of war, is for you to provoke Congress into starting impeachment hearings ASAP. I know this is risky for you but you know the consequences if you don’t. Anyway, most Dems don’t wan’t to even talk about this because of the political backlash come 2020. It could even help you win again in 2020, and next term no Mueller. So Donald, soon you must start tweeting stuff that clearly shows you are obstructing justice with Manafort, Cullen, and your Justice Department/ FBI. And you must be convincing, or we may never meet again, though I will get through this. Got it !”... and he has.
This column shows exactly how far this nation has fallen in just two short years. Our dictator managed not to embarrass himself too badly at the G-20 conference, and at this point, we have to take this as a success. Oh, to be sure he lied several times daily during the conference, but nobody cares about his lies anymore. And even if we did, it is literally impossible to keep up with the numbers of them he spews daily.
So to sum up, giving Trump every benefit of the doubt as Ms. Rice has, what exactly do we have here? An unhinged, racist, mentally unfit tyrant leading one of the world's most powerful nations. A tyrant who has not been challenged by anyone. A tyrant who has single handedly turned our nation into a laughing stock at best, and an international pariah at worst. Both Putin and Russian media now mock Trump openly, despite - or perhaps because of - his continued groveling before Vlad.
In two short years, this is what can happen to a nation, when a dictator remains unchallenged. Before November 2016 we had a functioning democracy - far from perfect, of course, but functioning. We were well respected in the world, and world leaders understood that Mr. Obama was a man of integrity. All this is gone now.
Let's fast forward two more years, or four more years, or six more years, and continue to look at this slow motion train wreck. By then, we'll be looking back at 2018 and wondering how we could have been so passive, so silent, as one man destroyed our country.
1
The reason president trump is holding back a bit is so that he can blame the incoming Democratic Congress for everything that he sends off the rails in the new year. Why blow up the G20 now when he has nothing to gain from it?
That it's come to this. That the US scores a major win when the current White House occupant doesn't inflict even more damage to the country in an international forum.
1
As one British commenter said in this section many months ago, even if everything gets set right in America again in 2020, the world will always know that at any time, we are just one election away from a collapse into mental illness on the international stage. In that sense, the damage can never be repaired. Maybe more profoundly, *we Americans* will always know that contrary to what we thought, the U.S. teeters always on the edge of descent into voluntary fascist political mental illness. This will be just as true after Trump is gone.
1
The only way to prevent this is a return to government by laws rather than by executive orders which can be overturned by the following president. Unfortunately, this would entail a level of bipartisan compromise that doesn't appear anywhere on the horizon.
1
One can only hope that trump continues to be a bystander until the end of our sentence, I mean his term.
you spoke too soon. his overenthusiastic claims for the alleged chinese deal have boomeranged into another market collapse.
The fact that I am to be somehow overjoyed that the leader of my country did not blow up the world order offers a sad commentary as to our expectations for the rest of Trump's tenure as President.
3
Those who keep score of "national honor" and "global leadership" will not like Donald Trump's administration. Those who keep score of "peace" and "prosperity" will.
Susan Rice is the former. I, and a lot of voters, am the latter. Give me peace and prosperity. You can have your national honor and global leadership.
1
With Trump occupying the Oval Office, the bar for what constitutes acceptable behavior at these events is now so low that it's at ground level. There was the rather bizarre scene where he shook the President of Argentina's hand and then wandered offstage, rather than remaining as he was supposed to while the other world leaders joined them, but that was just one more example of how increasingly strange he's behaving and not likely to cause an international incident.
3
Restraint was the order of the day apparently. He seemed lost though. No friends. His best buds ignoring him. Wandering around with the hang dog look as if he is asking himself "what the hell am I doing here?"
Rudely walking away from the Argentine President on the stage and telling staff person "get me out of here" seems to tell all that he is not comfortable in his job anymore.
So, we and the entire world community, are insulted again even though he did not open his big mouth. Thank you Susan for the thoughtful column.
19
@Harold
When it comes to the G20 in particular, it has been very clear right from the outset that Trump only relates to authoritarian leaders like those of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all the other countries are totally at odds with his sense of values(whatever they are) and how he perceives the world around him where it is always a zero sum game, winners and losers, nothing else matters.
Weak smiles and handshakes while the majority that attend are stating, by their obviously body language towards Trump, "here's your hat, what's your hurry"?
3
Another news flash: While Macron was at the G20 his citizens we giving him a strong "Non" on his attempt to tax carbon emissions. And this is in the supposedly enlightened Europe. Taking action on climate change sounds wonderful to the elites, but not so much to the common people who will have to pay more for energy, and see lower economic growth.
I'm betting that none of the signers of the Paris accords on climate change come anywhere close to [non-binding] commitments they made.
14
@J. Waddell: The Paris riots had much more to do with Macrons attempting to turn France into another America, where workers have little value, fewer rights and the advantages and wealth all go top the top. Just as in America where the French saw only bad choices in their election, we are both stuck with liars who presented themselves as either populists(Trump) or pseudo progressive/populists ( Macron), the difference is The French take to the streets when their liar in chief delivers for the 1% rather than on the promises he made to the people, we turn the channel and order in Chinese.
7
Trump was barely present.
Trump didn’t bash allies, sidle up to vicious autocrats, or make it known he was against some post war institution, and since he has no positive agenda to speak of, he was blessedly invisible.
The biggest thing was accepting a temporary truce in the trade war, which is literally a nothing, neither a peace nor a victory nor a move forward, just not doing anything to hurt America for 90 days.
Best we can expect from that man.
55
There was more than a hint in Argentina that Trump has lost the ability to shock anyone with anything he says and does -- and as a result the POTUS stuff has started to bore him. As for the Chinese "tap on the brakes," I'll believe it when I see soybean prices bouncing back. They've got a ways to go.
65
Thank you Ms. Rice. You served your country well and I wish you were still in our service. We need you back in the public sector. So much work to be done, so much to repair. Thank you for this editorial and your words of wisdom. We hope to see you again soon on the world stage.
96
Exactly what facet of the Libyan offensive debacle ushering in regime change, chaos and increased jihadist threat, do you consider “serving the country well”? Pray do tell.
5
Speaking as a Canadian it was a disaster. The new Nafta agreement required us to feign a great deal of humility so our economy could function as we tried to escape the web that entangles us in your soon to fail economy. Now it is all for naught as any agreement signed by your fearless leader is only as good as His word.
8
THIS is the America I live in? The bar is so low for trump that it requires a ditch digger. He didn't completely fall on his face. Because he hardly said anything. So how much did the US spend for him to go to Argentina and do no damage to the country?
He is the worst president we've ever had. (Low) Bar None.
9
Hi really did not have to say or do anything. Putin and MBS said it all for him, in gestures and body language.
5
That by not making a total fool of himself trump is considered as having a successful G20. Wandering off the stage was a blessing for the republicans only if his mic wasn't hot at the time.
4
I hope he is not trying to please Democrats .
Nor did he blame what is going on in France on a video...
2
"since every grade can’t be an F lest it become meaningless..." An F is an F. Grade inflation makes grades more meaningless than does honesty.
1
Thanks for a little humor - very dark humor - Ms. Rice. It's almost unbelievable that we have to worry about our supposed president acting as you describe.
The most telling thing at the conference was the high-five between Putin and the Saudi "prince". They clearly think the The Con Don's travails with dear, wonderful Investigator Mueller is a hoot.
They had better think again. OUR President is supposed to reflect the kind of United States of America WE THE PEOPLE want. WE do not want the International Mafia's plans for OUR America or the world. WE will not sit idly by while the try to destroy them.
Without OUR oil/gas money Saudi Arabia and the rest of the middle east is simply desert. WE THE PEOPLE control consumer dollars, investment dollars and taxpayer dollars and WE will elect lawmakers who help us use OUR power to maintain a prosperous, relatively peaceful world for ALL human beings.
3
It has reached the point that when the "president" or another member of his "administration" doesn't bite the head off a live chicken on global television he's considered "presidential".
8
Trump's behavior in Argentina was very similar to an employee who has decided to quit. They kind of check out from their assignments and start just going through the motions. For Trump it is probably too soon for this to happen (still too much money he can make by going golfing at his resorts) and he will no doubt boost his ego with a few more rallies. But as Mueller tightens the boundaries of Trump's play pen, I'm hoping that Trump will tire of this reality show and resign.
6
@KO Interesting take. There was something definitely off about him during the trip. As if he blew a fuse or several. People speculated he's freaked over Mueller. Sometimes I think they have him medicated. Whatever the reason he has my permission to just go away.
1
I would submit to Susan Rice that the damage that "The Tweetster" has done happened a long time ago, hence, when it comes to the countries of the G20, he could not do much more than he has already.
With Trump as President, like it or not, America has essentially turned into a pariah in which at any event American leadership attends, they are tolerated and not taken very seriously and the body language confirms it.
I gather at this stage, others are waiting for the time that an "adult" eventually assumes The Office of The Presidency.
5
Re: " and, just two weeks ago, Vice President Pence left the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference without any agreement."
The implication is that the US was at fault.
In the interested of fair and balanced reporting, I post below the analysis of the meeting by The Economist:
Beginning of quote
"At APEC Chinese officials, in a bout of tantrum diplomacy, stymied attempts to produce a joint statement. Their main objection was American-backed phrasing, that called for members to fight protectionism and unfair trade practices. Chinese diplomats invaded the Papua New Guinean foreign minister’s office to get the line taken out.
When their filibuster of the final APEC session ended in the summit’s failure, the Chinese delegation broke into applause."
End of quote
The Economist sharply criticized the "boorishness" of the Chinese delegation . A country that increasingly throws it's weight around , militarily and economically, to the consternation of its South Eastern Neighbours.
7
Thank you Ambassador Rice for your clarity, leadership and your description of the thought process and emotions so very many of us are experiencing. Whew!
5
Perhaps we can attribute Trump's restraint at the the G-20 to George H.W. Bush. The late President's death was a gentle and timely final act, consistent with his temperament and character.
For once, not even Trump could disrupt, defy, or call into question norms of respect for civil behavior and international comity.
1
If foreign leaders view Trump in the same way he is viewed by most Americans, they know to ignore whatever he says and wait for the diplomats to talk. They know he is as dumb as a rock, as honest and kind to others as an alligator and as volatile as an earthquake. And they must view Americans as being just as stupid for electing Trump as Trump is for thinking he can
continue to con the world in the bright glare of publicity about his competence.
23
TLDR... :) but loved the headline.
Just too exhausted from the relentless litany of inane, insane, terrifying acts by this ... character.
8
Low bar ...
8
When Trump goes to a venue with his equals and betters, he becomes the annoying little nephew running around the party, knocking over furniture. He becomes irrelevant and pathetic until he goes back home to terrorize his own family once again.
11
DO5,
Love it~!
Nice analogy.
1
Yes, it is newsworthy when President Trump simply doesn’t screw things up.
Sigh.
20
"we dodged another blow to our national honor,"
Ms. Rice, you give the President too much credit. Any honor our country had left us early in 2017. Our European and Asian Allies gave up on us, Canada and Mexico detest us, and China, Russia, and North Korea laugh at us, and the rest of the world just ignores us.
But thank you for trying to put a positive spin on the G-20.
11
"less is more when it comes" to anything Trump, except maybe prison.
2
Maybe there were reporters in tow to write & distribute nonsense? It was productive for the US and successful for President Trump. Just don't wait for any of the other Obama sycophants to admit it.
1
I'm getting tired of all this winning.
8
How low has The United States fallen: The president behaving like a normal adult makes the front page. SAD!
4
World class photo and cutline. Kudos.
1
Interesting analysis from the government official who blamed Ambassador Steven's death on a video!
Was that a gaffe? A direct mislead? Or just plain old bad intelligence from Clapper and Brennan?
4
Benghazi!
Four soldiers died in Niger on Trump’s watch. Niger??
But, but... Benghazi!!
5
The only way to explain Trump's restraint, given he has no scruples of any sort, and a deep ignorance that makes him firmly believe he knows more than 'the generals', is his concern that his malfeasance in assaulting the presidency is finally being unravelled by Mueller's persistence in exposing this fraudster to the truth...and the long arm of Ms Justice. Can anybody see any other way out of this corrupt imbroglio than Trump's impeachment ASAP?
3
It's a safe bet there was an inside joke among the non-U.S. heads of state that went something like: "have you heard the one where Trump said we all tell him he's made the US respected in the world again....?"
4
Trump famously said "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any votes" . That has now been replaced by "Trump could be caught on videotape handing American military secrets to Russia and still not have any Republican votes for impeachment".
Whatever evidence and proof of criminal acts that Mueller could come up with, it is certain that such evidence and proof could not be as a powerful indication of wrongdoing as the evidence in the public record that Bret Kavanaugh was lying in the senate hearings relating to his confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice. Once Ford’s account included three people she said were there AND his calendar had them all at Tim Gaudette’s house on July 1, 1982, AND Ford’s description of the interior of Gaudette’s house in Rockville, MD exactly matches that of the actual house, which still exists: the only way that Kavanaugh was not lying is either: Ford somehow obtained access to his 1982 diary/calendar, or Ford has a time machine or Ford stalked Kavanaugh in 1982 and planned to do this, if and when he was nominated to the Supreme Court..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4216597-dividend-yields-approach-25-percent-2x-leveraged-etns-compensate-risks
1
What an embarrassing headline! But thank god for small mercies! This is the new standard for our president - do no harm because you rarely ever do good when you represent our great nation abroad.
I am out of the country right now and kept turning to CNN International with trepidation during the G20 - praying that our “too smart by half” president had not said, done or tweeted something to embarrass our country.
Ms. Rice is absolutely right when she concludes “that less is more when it comes to this president’s travels abroad.” But now with the Democrats taking control of the House, they should make sure that Trump does as little damage at home as well. They should enforce a revised MAGA (Make America Getby Again) policy until this reckless presidency is over!
2
Susan Rice praised President Trump with a back handed compliment for his G-20 performance. He didn't damage our international relationships but withdrew and ceded our global leadership. However he did the right thing canceling the Putin meeting, delaying the Chinese trade war, flattered Chancellor Merckel and graciously praised 41.
I would say well done.
As Obama's hatchet woman on National Security she contributed to the WTO, Iran Nuclear deal, TPP, Catch and Release, Fast and Furious, Paris Accord, Santuaries Cities and the initial Apology Tour.
With President Trump pulling out of TPP, WTO, Iranian Nuclear Treaty, Paris Accord, Fast and Furious and working to eliminate Santuary Cities she had to be devastated to see Obama's Legacy disappear. So she is far from a neutral observer.
WTO has been credited for China's ascendancy to #2 in the world...with U.S. losing ground. The NAFTA renegotiation resulted in USMCA which will greatly help our farmers among others. You know how destructive Fast and Furious and Santuary Cities were.
The Paris Accord is more debateable.
So considering all this she did a nice job!
2
@DocPhd
"Greatly help our farmers"?
You might want to check with the soybean farmers in the mid-west and particularly the state of Wisconsin where it was recently announced because of Trump's insane and needless tariffs, several dozen of the family farms in the state have filed form bankruptcy.
1
It is a sad commentary of our President when the press finds it necessary to celebrate as good news that there is no bad news todsy concerning our national leader.
in other words, Trump did little damage today and let's rejoice.
1
The G-20 - A Swiss View
The role allocation at the G-20 meeting is : Trump is campaigning for tariffs and isolationism. On the other side wearing the coat moral superiority, the rest of the G-19, who champion free trade and multilateralism
As catchy as the depiction may be, the reality is more complex: it is true that the G-20 nations solemnly solemnly swore to oppose protectionism at their first meeting ten years ago. Alone, they never did.
Numbers for the breach of trust are difficult to get. However, according to the Global Trade Alert Report, G-20 governments have resorted to protectionist measures in 9041 cases over the past decade. On average, a G-20 member damages the economic interests of other states every ten hours. However, such acts are rarely acknowledged publicly.
It is striking that the number of protectionist measures has been increasing sharply since 2012, since a time when Barack Obama was still living in the White House and that it was a good thing in the United States to commit publicly to free trade.
The narrative, according to which an openness-driven world trade system worked well until Trump came to power and brought protectionism back to the world stage, thus ignores the facts. The system already was in a miserable condition. However, this circumstance was skilfully concealed and c the G-20 meeting committed with much pomp to open markets and fair trade.
https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/g-20-gipfel-heuchelei-ist-ein-treuer-gast-ld.1441082
6
He has embraced the callow cowardice of disinterested avoidance. Which is apparently better than anything else, at all.
2
You already have my vote for US Senate in 2020...
That is – providing they let folks from my neck of the woods submit retroactive absentee ballots in your neck of the woods...
Nothing Collins could say or do could change my mind...
Only person who could – Kavanaugh...
Just waiting to see how he comes down, on the side of the right to choose...
Though, at that point, I could submit retroactive absentee ballots for both you and Collins...
It looks like some states allow that...
As far as...
“...Despite the United States looking petty and isolated as the global outlier on climate change...
Occasionally, other reasonable articles appear in the NYT...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/climate/coal-global-warming.html
Though Kavanaugh appears to be on the side of the devils, in that one too...
https://georgesoutdoornews.bangordailynews.com/2018/08/30/environmental-issues/judge-kavanaugh-is-a-threat-to-maines-clean-waters/
“...Kavanaugh argued in favor of a company dumping coal mining waste into streams. In this case, EPA revoked a permit because the mountain top coal mining company had destroyed more than 6 miles of streams. But Kavanaugh argued against protecting the streams because EPA had failed to consider the costs to the coal company...
.....
Should you prevail, please make our cast-iron woodburning stove industry great again – make those fossil-fuel Faustians feel some real heat...
1
"our national honor"? That ship sailed decades ago.
2
Well, that's no fun. At least he's not using the FBI and FISA to spy at will on American citizens, Ms Rice--talk about trashing American institutions for political gain.
4
ISIS has been neutered, NK has ceased it's testing of long range missles, NAFTA has been renegotiated with a fairer stances for the US,
our allies have been asked to step up and be equal contributors, yet Ms. Rice doubts our resolve as a nation. Under Obama we were the punchline of a global joke. Iran was able to achieve its nuclear asperstiins, NK developed a long range missile program, the US Embassy in Benghazi was overrun and American lives lost, etc.....
2
I suspect he is too obsessed tweeting and ranting about Mueller to have multi-tasked enough to have also disparaged, demeaned, or tried to destroy anyone or anything at the G20.
Read this guy's tweets. The nation is being run like a syndicated racket.
Also why is the feckless, ridiculous Ivanka with him (on tax dime) at G20, posing as a global leader?
She was having high level meetings regarding "American workers." Yes. It's true.
Huh ?
The woman owns sweat shops in China (how 'bout them 18 trademarks she just got?)
Like the Donald, Ivanka also apparently did not inherit an "irony" gene.
What a buck of fakers this whole corrupt family is.
8
@ the entire tone of this article:
...unless you consider it a weakness, the sight of an American President sitting in a corner by himself pouting like a 4-year-old.
2
I guess you'd call that a very low bar ....
4
this headline could have been a broken watch is right 2 times a day. no damage done well thats cause the damage done for 2 years is such a large pile that we may not recover.
this whole thing smacks of the constant refrain he might be turning presidential uttered during the campaign.
the man is a useless twit in the promotion of America. no damage NO DAMAGE he is damage himself. hope we get through this.
4
Fascinating. Last week, the Op-Ed page featured an essay by the insufferably arrogant Ben Rhodes attacking Trump’s foreign policy. This week, the page features the hapless Susan Rice, the second leg of the triumvirate of incompetence that was President Obama’s “national security” team. At the rate, the third leg of that crooked stool, Samantha Power, will come out to do, what? Bash Trump for his hardline stance against China? Putin, Xi and especially the Mullahs probably miss the days of distraction and foolishness, when the scariest thing the US would do to its adversaries was to make them have John Kerry over for dinner.
4
News Flash - Trump is President of The United States of America, duly elected by millions of Americans. We love what he has done for The U.S. Economy (which may or not have been destroyed by your team) and wish him well. We wish G-20 well - hopefully Trump will be able to get some of the cash they'll be divvying up for pollution control.
3
Could it be that Trump received loudly and clearly Putin’s mental telepathy? That he lay low with all these investigations going on that could shut down the money laundromat?
2
I think Trump will behave, now that the midterms are over, until the summer of 2020. His base is already satiated.
This, from a person who directly contributed to making just about every foreign policy situation the Obama adminstration touched, even worse than it already was....
6
Sorry, but I have learned over the years to believe absolutely nothing written or uttered by Susan Rice. Notably, she was the same woman who once served as our former UN ambassador and national security advisor under America’s first constitutional scholar president.
To post anything more about Ms. Rice’s character would only lead to unhelpful ad hominems about her and the competency of the previous administration associated with her performance.
4
@Packard. Sorry, but how does one serve as a *former* UN ambassador?
1
Deservedly and appropriately left-handed, with relish.
3
You gave him a passing grade by doing the bare minimum of not embarrassing himself and the nation on the world stage. Susan E. Rice must be grading on a very steep curve.
2
With all due respect, the president of the largest economy in the world (still) actually does damage by being vapidly disengaged at international summits. If we are not engaging or leading we are on the receiving end of policies and we are letting others shape the narrative about how countries should be behaving. ("Extra-territorial assassinations are OK.") Petuntantly playing in his own corner, Trump is morally, economically and politcally isolating our country. That's not "GREAT AGAIN!", it's dangerous.
4
All kidding aside- Trump doesn’t look well, physically or mentally. He has to have gained 20 lbs in the last few months. As for his psychological state? The anxiety of waiting for the Mueller Report must be grueling.
4
No angry tweets, no non sequitors no putdowns? His phone must have died on him.
1
I am starting to see why Trump was reportedly so upset when he won the election. He had so many irons in the fire, ways to make millions and millions and rake the Clintons and Obama over the coals in the process, and the enormity of the office of President would just get in the way.
All that diplomacy and speechifying to people he didn't care about and who were poor or spoke a different language. That Trump Tower in Moscow alone would have been enough to help him feel like a king.
The Trump Brand meant something, in the time of surly excess and arrogance, but today...
Hugh Massengill
5
No major gaffes? What about witness tampering by tweet?
5
Yes. Early in this 'presidency' having him go abroad felt almost like sending an unrulily child to sleep-way camp - a respite. However, as time has worn on it has become clear that all foreign trips accomplish is to put his selfish, immature, unpredictable, naïve behavior even more in the hot spotlight of the world press. Too bad we can't send him to Camp David sans smart phone so that the rest of us can get the occasional mental health break.
24
DJT looks to me as if he had weight loss or other surgery in Europe over the Veterans Day events, or maybe even another form of health incident .. explains that hand-holding because he needs support, his incredibly light schedule and his desire to "get me out of here." Something is going on beyond the usual craven conduct ...
9
@D. Lebedeff
I worked in nursing home all through high school, and I am not a geriatric physician but...
Nasty personality and malignant narcissism aside, he shows every indicator of dementia:
- very limited vocabulary
- trndrncybyonrepeatbthevssme rirds or phrases over and over
- very easily agitated
- inability to remember details
- erratic shifts in positions on matters that involve him
-failure to relate or engage with other people on an adult level
I believe he needs adult supervision
2
I’m glad Ms. Rice didn’t attempt to attribute Trump’s reserved demeanor to lofty intentions. He was depressed, clear and simple. The behavior that worked for him all of his life is persona non gratis and he doesn’t have the emotional tools to deal with that loss of self. When things don’t go his way, he often now retreats instead of coming out with guns blazing. I suspect he may not be feeling physically well a lot of the time now, too. All of those Diet Cokes and fries have to catch up with him at some point. It was quite psychologically fascinating to see him constantly holding hands with Melania again in Argentina, almost as if she were his only lifeline. They struck me not as a couple in love, but as a mother and her sad child.
63
It's wonderful that we're praising our president for not insulting anybody or embarrassing us at the G-20. We're so nice! What a country!
But the demise of George Bush does leave us down a quart in the Former-President category. I say let's top it up again as soon as possible!
49
trump has quieted down because he knows he will soon be DOA politically.
35
How low can this nation go with this Fake President in office? In this dreadful era of Trumpian diminished expectations, we should be grateful for every day that he has not caused a thermonuclear conflagration. In fact, the citizenry should have government-issued wall calendars upon which all of us could inscribe on the “good” days: “Hooray, no mushroom clouds observed out the window “. Plenty of devastating and accelerated natural disasters, however.
38
News flash:
Advised by the tough talking Susan Rice, President Obama dazzled the world with inspirational talk of rolling back rising seas, and then he got swamped:
On the foreign affairs front, Obama allowed Putin to tear off a piece of Ukraine, he fiddled while "JV team" ISIS conquered Syria and the destabilized Iraq; he encouraged the Twitter Revolution and Arab Spring, and then sat on this hands as thousands of young people were slaughtered. Inspirational, yes, and weak.
President Obama failed to stop rampant Chinese theft of intellectual property, and failed to put in place safeguards against Chinese and Russian hacking. Why were the Russians allowed to hack our 2016 election?
President Obama bemoaned fast-growing income inequality, but his economic program was the ultimate trickle down -- rewarding wealthy banks and corporations with big write-downs and quantitative easing. Equity celebrated, while he and Holder let the fraudsters go scot free.
President Obama presided over a corrupt multi-billion "green energy" program that rewarded Al Gore and his buddies, while failing to even try to stop the loss America's industrial base (including solar) to China.
Trump is crude, I would not want him to represent us as a diplomat. Unlike the teflon-coated Susan Rice, who was sent out by Hilary Clinton to lie about perhaps our biggest foreign policy failure, Benghazi, the media makes sure everything sticks to him.
Some things are worse than gaffes.
18
Wait, Obama and not Trump had the trickle down economic policy after bemoaning income inequality? Obama pushed the ACA and preserved middle class tax relief, while Trump’s entire plan is enriching corporations and the very richest with a tax cut that is creating the largest deficit ever.
68
@Jorge
Some in government still have nightmares about her tenure at the NSC, where we led the world on papers and meetings, but not on decisions.
1
@Jorge: unfortunately,
when it comes to damage done to the US,
and internationally, go back farther than obama.
his predecessors, including nixon and reagan
- may they all rest in peace! - did a whole lot worse.
while the US republican party does the rest.
6
Trump is so obsessed with the Mueller investigation, and obsessed with tweeting about it, that he can't get any work done. This is a good thing.
113
Until we know the details of Mr. Trump's agreement with China all we can really know is that there was no damage done publicly. What is it the best deal maker ever gave to the Chinese?
20
You know how George W. Bush was often praised for exceeding oratory expectations. I feel like this moment echoes George W. Bush. When you set the bar low enough, the gum on the sidewalk seems impressive.
49
The only reason for his restraint was because President Bush died and Trump already knew that the gentlemanly grace of President Bush was going to underscore Trump’s own lack of fitness for the office.
43
A far better outcome than we had reason to hope for!
Trump has exceeded his disastrous, stock market crashing norm.
Yay!
15
@Details US markets were still slightly positive on the year before today in contrast to the -20% declines in many Asian markets. Ditto the 12% - 15% corrections in Europe. Who's winning the trade wars?
4
Nobody is winning the trade wars. You’re arguing only that the US is losing less than others. Trump didn’t campaign on hurting the US but hurting other countries more.
13
Amazing. Who would have anticipated such a benign outcome?
8
Trump’s lying and jiving
The Chinese are thriving
The battle of wits is one-sided
The Chinese are planning
Trump hatred is fanning,
The Science he lacks is derided.
Future History recounting
Disaster was mounting
Republicans off to one side
Allowing pollution
Healthcare diminution,
Too gross, and too clear cut to hide.
So count it a blessing
G20 not messing
Take a deep breath and try to relax
His accomplishments boasting'
On fetid tweets coasting
And no pseudo earth shaking pacts.
47
He may have hit the brakes with Xi, but the way they stared at each other across the table - oh if looks could kill
1
@qiaohan
Really? I thought DT looked ridiculous, practicing his scowl. The story from White House insiders is that he rehearses in the mirror, trying to look like Winston Churchill in a bad mood, because Trump thinks it makes him look tough.
Real tough guys don't have to do such things.
5
It was Trump's most successful international outing; by staying out of the way and doing nothing, he achieved more than he ever has.
94