Donald Trump's European trip was a fiasco at best, a disgrace at worst, and only he, being so consistently clueless, could have stumbled through it so fecklessly. Surely nobody else could have as effortlessly ruined a chance to mend fences with allies and take an adversary to task.
From his virtually fact-free rant against NATO to his behind-her-back critique of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to his latest capitulation to President Vladimir Putin about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, again Trump proved to be a negotiation novice of global proportions. Most significantly, he continued to demonstrate an almost sociopathic lack of concern for anybody besides himself, including the very people who elected him.
Trump broadcast his profound ignorance, lack of preparation and general weakness on the world stage most resoundingly by being Putin's eager lapdog — even blaming America for Russian aggression — just as he sat on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's lap last month. Watching Trump be outplayed by both dictators so effortlessly is like watching diplomatic amateur hour, and it brings belly laughs heard across oceans.
Trump has proven himself to be hopelessly in over his head regarding foreign affairs, a bumbling ignoramus drowning in a pool of his own transparent narcissism, a wholly flaccid wannabe autocrat. He spins his tiny cerebral wheels trying to alienate allies while kissing up to adversaries, just like the buffoon that genuine global leaders have long known he is.
As Trump bulldozed from nation to nation and gaffe to gaffe, America's current and future international relevance continued to wane. Sadly, Trump is sacrificing long-term U.S. interests at the alter of his own abject ignorance and unfettered megalomania.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.