Plan B Forum

Trump Once Again Assails America’s Friends as He Opens Overseas Visit

OSAKA, Japan — President Trump plunged back into the world of international diplomacy on Friday with characteristic provocation, keeping some of America’s closest allies, including his hosts, off balance even as he sought advantage on an array of economic and security disputes with profound consequences.

Mr. Trump opened a series of high-stakes meetings with world leaders gathered in Osaka, Japan, for an international summit meeting after calling into question the very foundation of the relationship between the United States and two of its most important friends, Japan and Germany, and lashing out at a third partner, India.

The Japanese leaders hosting the meetings were still reeling Friday morning at the president’s attack on the mutual defense treaty that has been the bedrock between Washington and Tokyo for nearly seven decades.

Before arriving in Osaka, Mr. Trump complained that under the treaty, Japan would not come to the aid of the United States if it were attacked and instead would “watch it on a Sony television.”[I guess nobody told him about all the support Japan has provided for US operations in Afghanistan since we were attacked on 9/11]

German leaders have grown more accustomed to shrugging off Mr. Trump’s attacks on Berlin as a security freeloader taking advantage of America’s defense umbrella while India was left trying to manage the president’s complaints about its trade policies without provoking him into the sort of tariff war escalation he has engaged in with China.

The choice of targets seemed directly tied to the president’s schedule of meetings on Friday. He was set to sit down with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, the host of the annual Group of 20 gathering in Osaka, and then jointly with Mr. Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. Then he was to meet separately with Mr. Modi. After that, he was scheduled to sit down with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

By contrast, Mr. Trump said nothing critical before arriving in Osaka about the fourth leader on his diplomatic schedule for Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whose government waged a systematic campaign to interfere in American elections in 2016 and has arrested two Americans on what critics consider false charges.

[Well that's understandable...it would be really bad form to insult the boss right before your quarterly performance review...]

Nor did he say anything negative about his breakfast date for Saturday morning, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who was just accused by the United Nations of having most likely orchestrated the murder and dismemberment of a Saudi journalist living in the United States.

In saving his critiques for America’s friends, Mr. Trump repeated his approach to visiting Britain earlier in the month.

In the latest case, he lashed out at Japan’s mutual defense treaty with the United States, the underpinning of the relationship between the two countries dating back to the early years after World War II. After Bloomberg News reported that he had privately talked about pulling out of the treaty, he raised the subject without even being asked about it during an interview on Fox Business Network on Wednesday.

“We have a treaty with Japan,” Mr. Trump said. “If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in and we will protect them and we will fight with our lives and with our treasure. We will fight at all costs, right? But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television, the attack.”

When journalists asked Trump just before he left for Japan what he would like to talk to Putin about, he told them it was “none of your business”. As they sat alongside each other, a reporter asked whether he was going to tell Putin not to meddle in the 2020 election.

Trump said: “Yes, of course I will,” drawing a laugh from Putin. Then, without looking at Putin, Trump said briskly: “Don’t meddle in the election, please,” and then repeated the phrase with a mock finger wag as Putin and the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, smiled broadly.

Trump said: “Yes, of course I will,” drawing a laugh from Putin. Then, without looking at Putin, Trump said briskly: “Don’t meddle in the election, please,” and then repeated the phrase with a mock finger wag as Putin and the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, smiled broadly."

Once again Trump shows just how ignorant and unqualified he is to hold any public office above the level of truant officer or dog-catcher.

Trump said: “Yes, of course I will,” drawing a laugh from Putin. Then, without looking at Putin, Trump said briskly: “Don’t meddle in the election, please,” and then repeated the phrase with a mock finger wag as Putin and the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, smiled broadly."

Even Trump’s critics were taken aback by his comments. Lawyer George Conway, husband of senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, called his answers “completely bizarre,” and wondered if the president was “breathtakingly ignorant” or his answers were a sign of “cognitive decline.”

• Look, I'm all for talking instead of shooting, but explain to me how this is different from Iran?
  
  If Iran had nukes, would Trump suddenly treat THEM with respect?
  
  Maybe I might see their point here.

Big RR wrote:Or even try to hold him hostage; it would end up being like that O Henry story.

the "no negotiation with terrorists" policy