Mocking laughter at Trump puffing

[reedak]

1. Michael H Fuchs is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. The following are excerpts from his 25 September 2018 article headlined "Trump is a laughingstock. But if we weren't laughing, we'd be crying".

(Begin excerpts)
At the UN general assembly, world leaders laughed at the US president after he bragged about his own performance. Perhaps they needed comic relief.

For the rest of the world, President Donald Trump’s America is a laughingstock, not a leader.

That was the takeaway from Trump’s speech to the 2018 United Nations general assembly. Trump opened his speech the same way he opens his campaign rallies, TV interviews, and probably conversations with every visitor he meets: “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

The response from the leaders assembled in the room? Laughter. The entire world literally laughed at the US president – and they weren’t laughing with him.

Even Trump himself was taken aback: “I did not expect that reaction …”

And while reporters and foreign policy experts could not recall another leader ever before drawing derisive laughter at a UN speech, it did not end there. When Trump made another claim – “Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy …” – the cameras revealed the German delegation laughing and snickering to one another.

With Trump’s own behavior and policies as a backdrop, the substance of Trump’s speech merited laughter – it was an incomprehensible joke.

The main theme of Trump’s speech was protecting US “sovereignty” and he said that all countries should do likewise. He claimed: “The United States will not tell you how to live, work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.” But shortly thereafter Trump spent portions of his speech telling Iran and Venezuela what to do at home.

In the Middle East, Trump claims his “new approach is yielding great strides and very historic change” as he announced that the United States is working with Gulf countries, Jordan and Egypt to establish a strategic alliance. Moments later, Trump reversed course and launched a broadside against Opec (of which the Gulf states are the key members) for “ripping off the rest of the world”.

Unfortunately, the consequences of the policies embedded within Trump’s speech are no joke. They can inflict lasting damage.....

The list of Trump’s foreign policies and the ways they can wreak havoc can go on and on. Trump didn’t even once mention climate change – which his administration refuses to believe even exists – the greatest existential threat facing the world today.

Perhaps most telling was the list of countries that Trump highlighted at the end of his speech as those embodying the “dreams” of the kind of nations our children will inherit.....If these countries are Trump’s idea of the future we want to leave for our children, Trump’s vision of the world he wants to build is quite dark.

Perhaps the laughter in the room during Trump’s speech was a tinged with a sense of anxiety and dread. Perhaps it was the response that comes from those who recognize they are listening to a reckless, dangerous vision from the leader of the world’s most powerful country. And all one can do is muster is a despondent chuckle. (End excerpts)

P.S. Trump must have never dreamed that he went all the way to the UN general assembly just to be laughed at by other countries. What a joke !

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... l-assembly

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 54506.html