#T-rump tarnishes US reputation globally

[malenipshadows]

 *** U.S. President Donald Trump, who attacked his French counterpart in a series of tweets on Tuesday, should have shown "common decency" instead since the country was mourning the anniversary of deadly attacks in Paris, a French government spokesman said.    In five posts sent on the same day France marked the anniversary of the 2015 attacks that killed 130 people, Trump blasted the key U.S. ally over its near defeat to Germany in two world wars, its wine industry and President Emmanuel Macron's approval ratings.***

[feelingbluepolitics]

**********************************

*** Highest recommendation. ***

"[t]rump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which he once dismissed as a hoax, has been fiercely criticised at home as woefully inadequate to the point of irresponsibility.

"Yet also thanks largely to [t]rump, a parallel disaster is unfolding across the world: the ruination of America’s reputation as a safe, trustworthy, competent international leader and partner.

"Call it the [t]rump double-whammy. Diplomatically speaking, the US is on life support.

..."'The [t]rump administration’s self-centred, haphazard, and tone-deaf response [to Covid-19] will end up costing Americans trillions of dollars and thousands of otherwise preventable deaths,' wrote Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard.

"'But that’s not the only damage the United States will suffer. Far from ‘making America great again’, this epic policy failure will further tarnish [its] reputation as a country that knows how to do things effectively.'

"This adverse shift could be permanent, Walt warned. Since taking office in 2017, [t]rump has insulted America’s friends, undermined multilateral alliances and chosen confrontation over cooperation. Sanctions, embargoes and boycotts aimed at China, Iran and Europe have been globally divisive.

..."[t]rump’s ineptitude and dishonesty in handling the pandemic, which has left foreign observers as well as Americans gasping in disbelief, is proving a bridge too far.

"Erratic behaviour, tolerated in the past, is now seen as downright dangerous. It’s long been plain, at least to many in Europe, that [t]rump could not be trusted. Now he is seen as a threat. It is not just about failed leadership. It’s about openly hostile, reckless actions.

..."To a watching world, the absence of a fair, affordable US healthcare system, the cut-throat contest between American states for scarce medical supplies, the disproportionate death toll among ethnic minorities, chaotic social distancing rules, and a lack of centralised coordination are reminiscent of a poor, developing country, not the most powerful, influential nation on earth.

"That’s a title the US appears on course to lose – a fall from grace that may prove irreversible. The domestic debacle unleashed by the pandemic, and global perceptions of American selfishness and incompetence, could change everything. According to Walt, [t]rump has presided over 'a failure of character unparalleled in US history.'"