Most Americans have known this for years, but Rachel Maddow said on Monday that Donald Trump’s performance at the G7 summit in France this weekend should remove any remaining doubt that the president of the United States is completely off his rocker.
During her program, Maddow pointed out that if anyone else behaved the way Trump did during the G7, they would be dragged out of the room and given medical attention.
“If this were anybody involved in the United States government in any official capacity who spoke this way publicly at an international gathering like this, their colleagues or their superiors or at least security would, like, lift them up by the armpits and rush them out the door until they could be revived or given medical treatment,” the MSNBC host said.
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Rachel Maddow says the G7 summit was the latest evidence that Donald Trump is completely out of his mind. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/9RMONhuBOt
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) August 27, 2019
Maddow said:
I know we’ve gotten used to this kind of thing, but it is nuts. It was also nuts this weekend at the G7 when President Trump was asked if he attended the meeting at the G7 that was about climate. The president responded by saying that that meeting had not yet happened yet, that it was going to be next. The next thing, like the next thing in the future. In fact, the meeting had already happened. And he just hadn’t been there. Then the White House press secretary put out a formal statement explaining that the reason the president hadn’t gone to the climate session was not because it was still in the future, as far as he was concerned, but, instead, because at the time of the climate meeting, he was busy. He was having bilateral meetings with the leaders of India and Germany. Well, here’s a picture of the climate meeting that he didn’t go to. There’s the leader of Germany in the purple there. That’s the leader of India in the black. The Indian and German leaders were there. … It was also nuts when the president was asked by a reporter that the G7, “Mr. President, any second thoughts on escalating the trade war with China?” And he answered, “Yeah, sure, why not?” The reporter followed up, “Second thoughts, yes?” The president said, “Might as well, might as well.” The reporter tried again, “You have second thoughts about escalating the war with China?” President’s response, “I have second thoughts about everything.” At which point somebody distantly in the room started laughing out loud because they couldn’t control themselves. I mean, if this were anybody involved in the United States government in any official capacity who spoke this way publicly at an international gathering like this, their colleagues or their superiors or at least security would, like, lift them up by the armpits and rush them out the door until they could be revived or given medical treatment.
Trump’s incoherence will do permanent damage to American credibility
While we as a country have become almost numb to Donald Trump’s bumbling incoherence, particularly on the world stage, it is nothing to be laughed off.
After all, as American credibility is crushed under the weight of a man-sized toddler acting as president, the rest of the world – our allies in particular – is moving on. They see the U.S. as weak and unreliable. Their relationship with America under Trump is to simply nod and smile while they’re in the same room but ignore us otherwise.
It will be the job of the next president to normalize relationships with the rest of the world and show American foes like Russia and North Korea that they will no longer have a president who blushes over them.
This work will not be easy, particularly as Donald Trump will spend every day until he’s out of office trampling all over American credibility.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
