Someone had better straighten up right quick, or America will face even bigger problems. Except for Orban, most of our allies are saying bugger off. Your bullying doesn’t work over water. We are tired of your attempts. Get stuffed. Piss off. No say no do. Get Lost. We (they) can do without you, and we are. Help the Iran war? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Won’t happen. And that sucks for the American people stuck in a country where a raving lunatic is the government’s ‘leader’. It’s not us they are weary of. Compliments to Raw Story:
Donald Trump’s Iran struggle has exposed a fundamental truth: the world no longer fears American threats, and traditional allies are abandoning Washington to form new partnerships. According to Politico’s Nahal Toosi, Trump faces a wall of resistance from longtime U.S. allies who are actively forming new alliances and sidelining America as a diplomatic partner. In recent days, multiple global players have openly defied the president, exposing the severe limits of American influence.
Yup. He “finally” went over the edge, and allies are quickly backing far, far away. It will be a surprise if we have any left after he either kicks off or gets clobbered in the next election. No idea how we’ll be able to do anything to mitigate that. I sincerely hope we can. Demanding help with Iran was absolutely the final straw. All Trump did was give Iran economic control over the world. They’re not going to reopen the Strait. Why should they? It’s become a big money-maker for them. Plus, are they ever going to let US ships through? We can’t be surprised if they don’t. Iran isn’t thinking about the pain they are causing by keeping the ships bottled up.
The core problem is philosophical. “Trump and his aides often appear to operate as if most other people on the planet are ‘non-player characters‘ in a video game,” and they believe that America can use “threats, economic muscle and military action to bend other capitals to its will,” Toosi observed.
But foreign policy doesn’t work that way, and the Politico analyst suggested the current administration is “not adjusting well” to a changed world. The problem is structural. “He is surrounded by ‘yes’ people,” one senior European diplomat fumed.
Diplomacy requires reciprocity — a concept Trump’s team appears incapable of grasping. “If you want something from somebody, you have to give them something, unless, like in World War II, they’ve truly surrendered. It can’t just be ‘we’re going to keep beating you,'” said a Western diplomat based in the Middle East.
Trump will *never* understand this. Everything he does is for himself, for him to “win”, and to heck with the rest of us. As long as he comes out covered in gold *snort* he’s happy. But with Iran, he can’t come out covered in gold. It’s simply not possible. Some of his cabinet members might begin to realize that. The bullying failed. And the war failed. He. Can’t. See. That. Everything in his background led and leads to being out only for himself. It’s tiring. Surviving his “bright ideas” is tiring. Heck, surviving in this *country* is tiring. The recession is coming.
Trump’s tariffs are accelerating the divorce. [Gee, ya THINK?!] Other countries are actively finding new trading partners beyond the U.S., reducing their economic reliance on America. As nations decrease their military and economic dependence on Washington, they become less likely to heed American demands in the future.
The fundamental misunderstanding runs deeper. Many foreign affairs experts worry that Trump treats global conflicts as real estate deals, reducing complex geopolitical issues to mere land disputes. But “identity, politics and the desire to simply survive as a people is what fuels many conflicts,” not purely material calculations,’ he wrote.
Trump and his team “fail to realize that people tend to fight for what gives their life meaning beyond the purely rational or material cost-benefit analysis,” according to a former Latin American official granted anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive topic.
Regrettably, this is happening just as we predicted it would. There are products from other countries that are popular here. It seems we will see those diminish. There are certainly things we need that can’t be done very well here. If Trump keeps Trump-ing, we may find ourselves alone in the world. And then who can take advantage of that? Let’s not start a list.
See you soon!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise that among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a group of elderly, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
a massive problem of the administration’s own making. if you keep insulting people and genrally treating them like crap then they won’t like or want to play with you any more.
Oh, yes, and we have been watching it happen. They really are leaving. Trump refuses to see his behavior is the problem. (Of course.)