[Note: I am acutely mindful that any headline today that features the words “Int’l Laughingstock” would lead one to think what follows is all about Trump’s taxes. But it’s an indication of how thoroughly laughable his presidency is that this commentary has nothing to do with that. But I promise I’ll get to that “bombshell” topic later this week.]
That said, you probably had no idea the US government hands out an International Women of Courage Award annually to
women around the world who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership to bring positive change to their communities, often at great personal risk and sacrifice.
(state.gov, 2020)
Before the Trump presidency, though, no one would’ve expected the mere mention of the United States doing so to evoke nothing but mocking laughter. Therefore, it’s an indication of the reputational damage President Trump has caused that, these days, practically every mention of the United States evokes such laughter.
As it happened, the international community demonstrated this fact by laughing at him … to his face:
President Trump has long argued that the United States has been taken advantage of by other nations — a ‘laughing stock to the entire World,’ he said on Twitter in 2014 — and his political rise was based on the premise that he had the strength and resolve to change that.
But at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump got a comeuppance on the world’s biggest stage. Delivering a speech that aimed to establish U.S. ‘sovereignty’ over the whims and needs of other nations, the president’s triumphant moment was marred in the first minute when he was met by laughter — at his expense.
(The Washington Post, September 25, 2018)
But nothing could have been more laughable than watching him kowtow and suck-up to dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean President Kim Jong-un. Except that, after three years of laughing, many around the world are now pitying the United States. A Saturday headline in the Boston Globe emblazoned this into stark relief:
‘I feel sorry for Americans’: a baffled world watches the US
Yet every member of his administration still spends their days trying to protect his fragile ego from any hint of criticism, ridicule, or news that does not fit his narcissistic view of world affairs.
According to current and former officials … Trump’s staff can’t just deliver him the [president’s daily brief (PDB); i.e., intelligence on pressing world affairs] as is. Presumably afraid of the president’s temper, his briefers reportedly avoid orally discussing anything that might make him unhappy. …
Perhaps the intelligence officers should consider including flattering photos of the president in the briefings to keep a smile on his face.
(New York Magazine, December 14, 2017)
That is why this latest cowardly spectacle comes as no surprise:
The Trump administration rescinded an award recognizing the work of a journalist from Finland last year after discovering she had criticized President Donald Trump in social media posts, then gave a false explanation for withdrawing the honor, according to a report by the State Department’s internal watchdog.
According to the report, the journalist, Jessikka Aro, was selected for the State Department’s International Women of Courage Awards for her reporting on Russian propaganda activities dating back to 2014. Aro endured death threats and cyberattacks for her work, which helped expose Russian troll factories.
(SF Gate, September 25, 2020)
Yes, the staff that can’t even cower straight. I mean, how can such cowardice – compounded by this bungling – not be utterly laughable?
No doubt Aro responded with nothing but indignant laughter when she learned that the Trump administration had rescinded her award.
America might not be a sh*thole country … yet. But it became an international laughingstock the minute it elected a reality-TV charlatan as president.
And, yes, I warned it would be thus the day after in “WTF! President-elect Donald J. Trump?! America. What. Have. You. Done?,” November 9, 2016.
Sure enough, ever since, he has never stopped giving the world reasons to laugh at America.
Related commentaries:
Trump on world stage… WTF…