…half right, anyway. Saturday, he claimed that:
“The whole world is watching us. And they respect what we’re doing so much.”
Do they respect us? And what do they see? Recently, I linked to Fintan O’Toole’s evisceration of Trump — the rhetorical equivalent of Sherman’s March to the Sea had Uncle Billy, having reached Savannah, decided to return to Atlanta and do it all over again.
That's Ireland. Maybe people in other countries take a more benign view. Take the Mayor of Berlin, upon discovering that a shipment of masks had been diverted from Germany to the United States:
“The actions of the U.S. president do not just betray a lack of solidarity, they are inhumane and irresponsible,” Berlin Mayor Michael Müller, a Social Democrat, thundered on Twitter.
Here's how well cutting off US funding to the World Health Organization went over:
"Halting funding to the WHO is a dangerous, short-sighted and politically motivated decision, with potential public health consequences for all countries in the world, whether they are rich or poor.
"This pandemic is not over anywhere until it is over everywhere. Strong support from the United States has always been key for WHO's effectiveness, and must continue."
This and other reactions here.
Even the global establishment is piling on:
“What we’re seeing is the biggest global crisis of our lifetimes with truly no global response,” said Ian Bremmer, president of the international risk-assessment Eurasia Group. “Trump’s orientation — his unilateralism, his transactionalism and his challenging personal relations with so many of our key allies — have made worse what was going to be a severe structural crisis irrespective of Trump.”
The Guardian quotes a G7 official:
“Trump’s battle against multilateralism has made it so that even formats like the G7 are no longer working,” commented Christoph Schult in Der Spiegel. “It appears the coronavirus is destroying the last vestiges of a world order.”
He does have at least one fan:
"President Putin believes this pandemic is the time to help each other," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "This is very positive and the US president told Putin of this readiness during the recent phone call."
Others aren’t so sure:
'Nothing to see here. Just a Russian military aircraft landing at JFK with 60 tons of medical supplies to support America's #COVID19 response. A propaganda bonanza as our own government shrinks from America's leadership role in a global crisis,' Brett McGurk, a former diplomat for Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, wrote on Twitter.
With these guys, it’s always something.
One thing the world can count on from Donald Trump: The con will never stop.