Suppose you are wondering what to make of the recent meeting of the “nonwestern alliance” in Beijing. In that case, Tom Nichols captures it succinctly at the beginning of his article in The Atlantic:
The leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea are not good men. They preside over brutal autocracies replete with secret police and prison camps. But they are, nevertheless, serious men, and they know an unserious man when they see one. For nearly a decade, they have taken Donald Trump’s measure, and they have clearly reached a conclusion: The president of the United States is not worthy of their respect.
Wednesday’s military parade in Beijing is the most recent evidence that the world’s authoritarians consider Trump a lightweight.
And I would add that they would be unworthy of their positions if they did not consider Trump a lightweight.
The big military parade hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which celebrated the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat, was a clear snub to the United States, given the U.S. role in Japan’s defeat.
Significantly, Indian President Modi was at the Beijing meeting, no doubt being welcomed by China’s president Xi Jinping as a gesture to counter Trump’s imposition of the 50 percent tariffs on India. One wonders whether the Trump administration realizes that the U.S. is the fourth-largest importer of refined oil from India.
Predictably, Trump sulked publicly and un-presidentially with a post on his social media. Of course, his unseriousness is exemplified each time he talks or posts on social media with his childish language.
These leaders recognized his ineptness early in his first term, particularly when pictures emerged of the president laughing and appearing chummy with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, who was implicated in alleged ties between the Trump administration and Russia.
A Russian photographer took the pictures, and Moscow released them, as U.S. reporters and photographers were shut out. Observers raised security concerns about the Russians being in such a protected area.
Trump also reportedly boasted to the Russians about the intelligence he was receiving, telling the two men, “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day.” And according to the Washington Post, he went on to reveal highly classified information to the two top Russian officials, sending shocks and alarms throughout our intelligence establishment.
Notably, Trump’s meeting with the Russians came the day after he fired FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing an investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. elections and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, raising the possibility of a connection.
Also, during his first term, Trump was apparently played by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with all the so-called “love letters” between them. And Trump’s hostility to fellow NATO members was out of Putin’s playbook, as the weakening of NATO has been a long-time objective of the Russian leader.
This term, Trump’s ineptness showed as Putin played him like a banjo in the Alaska summit. Putin, an indicted war criminal who cannot visit many Western countries without the possibility of being arrested, literally received the red-carpet treatment on American soil, did no real negotiations with Trump, instead playing to Trump’s ego by declaring his agreement with Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. Then Trump left the summit, changing his tune and echoing Putin’s claim that a ceasefire was not needed before negotiating for peace. And Putin kept bombing Ukraine – that’s civilians in Ukraine, and not just the Ukrainian army.
Those leaders in Beijing are not friends of the United States, and these times call for an American leader who understands and can negotiate international “minefields.”
