# Trumps Calls With Foreign Leaders Embarrasing, Bullying, Uninformed and Disasterous **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 30, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730 "2020-06-30T03:43:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/21 "2020-06-30T16:02:46Z")
> [@solost](#): > > They don’t see trump’s faux-tough talk as the blustering man-behind-the-curtain phony con-man shit shtick it really is. 'Course not. This would mean admitting that they’ve been conned! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/22 "2020-06-30T16:08:48Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Trump supporters will never see how awful Trump’s take on foreign policy is because they don’t understand anything FTFY eh ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/23 "2020-06-30T16:27:30Z")
Frankly, I’m surprised at the restraint that world leaders have shown. I was sure that by now at least one or two would have taken Trump out behind the UN building and beat his dumb ass. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/24 "2020-06-30T16:37:33Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > One of the very, very many things that confuses me about Trump supporters is that they don’t realize how much he’s damaged the “USA” brand around the world. World leaders don’t take him (or the US) seriously. Other countries have lost respect for us. Everything he does makes us look weaker and weaker and weaker and he’s shit negotiator. Well, there’s two things at play here. One is that Trumpists are usually xenophobes, and so they figure foreigners hating the USA is a good thing. The other factor, though, and probably the more common one, is they don’t believe you. They think Trump is strong, and widely respected. Trump is of course a weakling; he is by a very wide margin the weakest President in the last century. However, to the ill informed and prejudiced, his show of strength is the real thing; the sizzle is the steak. Trump has bravado but no bravery; as the old saw goes, he’s the weak man’s idea of a strong man. So the Trumpists pick and choose their evidence, as they always do. If you tell a Trumpist how weak Trump is, it amazes them you’d suggest it. They can’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/25 "2020-06-30T17:16:01Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > FTFY eh [Moderating] Editing another user’s post to change the meaning, as you did here, is a violation of the board rules. Please avoid doing this in the futre. No Warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/26 "2020-06-30T18:05:28Z")
Really about all one needs to know to understand the MAGA mindset is to see one version of their flag. It’s the usual blue w red border & words. Across the top in big block letters is “TRUMP”. In the middle it says either 2016 or 2020. The punchline is at the bottom. It says “No More Bullshit”. If you can fly a flag showing that Trump’s spew, which is 100% bullshit, reads to you like reasoned truth, and everything else you’ve read or heard in the last 20, 40, or 60 years even from fellow conservatives is bullshit, … well … there’s just not much way to reach a man like that. That flag flies from a lot of pickup trucks around here. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/27 "2020-06-30T18:25:31Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > And, sadly, Im not sure that 77 year old Joe Biden will do much better with the worlds stronger leaders. I’m sure he would - because he would actually try to be the president, and his political strength, his base of support, comes from people who want this to be an inclusive, productive, equitable, just, and educated society. That’s the point people miss; it’s not just Trump - hell, stop focusing on that bozo. Instead, look at the forces that got us in this situation, and take a stand against the kinds of jackassery that shit-asses who voted for him endorse and embrace. And let’s not half-step either. Don’t be afraid to say “Defund the police.” Support universal healthcare, in whatever form it may take, even if the route we take isn’t your preferred one. Support economic reforms that make plutocrats pay their fair share of taxes and force them to reinvest in the rest of the economy. And for the love of God, don’t just focus on removing Trump from office. Get Lindsay Graham out of Washington. Send McConnell into retirement. Throw all the bums out. Keep 'em out. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/28 "2020-06-30T18:32:18Z")
They can’t do that publicly; they’re too dependent on the US, and they don’t want to become overly-dependent on China or other global and regional powers. But Trump is absolutely ensuring that other countries will hedge and spread more of their political investment around so that it’s much less reliant on the US. This will be a gradual process, but it is happening now, and will continue well into the foreseeable future. A President Biden, assuming it happens, will be challenged for sure, and he will not enjoy the same benefit of the doubt that even Obama had a decade ago. The damage done to our image isn’t just what Trump has done; it is also very much related to how Trump got into power in the first place, and there is a growing realization around the world that American society and American politics is seriously, obviously fucked up - potentially beyond repair. I don’t care what kind of economic or political clout a country might have at the moment, no country in their right mind invests more into an economy or a political relationship when that kind of warning is flashing on your alert screen. Take a good look at the European Union’s exclusion of American travelers: As the COVID-19 crisis has illustrated, people around the world are losing faith in America’s ability even to function. This is probably just the beginning until Americans, not just their leaders but the people themselves, can demonstrate that they can behave like responsible citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/29 "2020-06-30T18:34:54Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > As the COVID-19 crisis has illustrated, people around the world are losing faith in America’s ability even to function. Wait until next month when the evictions start. Foreclosures should start around election time, I think. Imagine an America with 20 millions people homeless. Imagine how it will look to the world that a country as rich and advanced as ours cannot house 5%+ of our population. Imagine how that should look to us, too. Thanks, Trump. He’s wrecking the country like he’s wrecked every other thing he’s ever touched in his life. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/30 "2020-06-30T18:40:58Z")
^ Agreed, Bo. And people are drinking some really enjoyable, powerful spiked juice if they believe that the market is reflective of reality, because it most certainly is not. As you point out, we will see evictions. We’re also about to see waves of business bankruptcies. If anything, I find the stock market’s inflated prices to be even more worrying, as it deepens my suspicion that much more of our economy than I ever realized hinged on cheap credit and borrowing. I have a sinking feeling that when people finally wake up, the market won’t just decline; it will crash. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/31 "2020-06-30T19:16:55Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Thanks, Trump. > > He’s wrecking the country like he’s wrecked every other thing he’s ever touched in his life. Years ago, just after the election, I read (and agreed with) the comment that “Everything Trump touches turns to shit. Just wait until he is finished with this country” Well, that was pretty prophetic. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/32 "2020-06-30T19:20:09Z")
I’m trying not to get complacent but when I see that Trump’s plan for re-election rests on finding a new nickname for Biden, it makes me smile. > **[Trump's campaign is struggling to find a more damaging nickname for Biden...](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-struggles-to-find-better-biden-nickname-than-sleepy-axios-2020-6)** > > With Biden leading Trump in several swing states, Trump's campaign team are trying to figure out how to dent his popularity. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/33 "2020-06-30T19:26:55Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > This is something everyone should have foreseen way back in 2015, if not earlier. Sixty-five million of us did and voted against Trump. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/34 "2020-06-30T19:50:39Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > If anything, I find the stock market’s inflated prices to be even more worrying, as it deepens my suspicion that much more of our economy than I ever realized hinged on cheap credit and borrowing. I have a sinking feeling that when people finally wake up, the market won’t just decline; it will crash. I wonder every single time I see the stock market numbers, which have recovered from their recent 18,000 lows to near record highs at 26,000. It makes not a damn lick of sense given the incredible stress on the economy due to unemployment and decline in business revenues across all retail and service sectors. Who has all this confidence and what is it based on? Don’t get me wrong. Last thing we need is to add a stock market crash on top of everything else. Still, I wish I understood what’s floating the markets. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/35 "2020-06-30T20:28:48Z")
From what I’ve read, it’s not really confidence in anything particular but rather a lack of viable alternatives. Investors aren’t going to stuff their money under their figurative mattresses, so the stock market may just be the least bad of several alternatives. And the markets are notorious for positive feedback loops. It’s more obvious now than before that stock prices aren’t strongly coupled with conventional notions of ‘value’. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/36 "2020-06-30T20:38:30Z")
That makes sense if you believe that the market will generally hold and that there will be a v-shaped recovery, but I think that assumption is based a lot on hope that the fed and treasury will be able to underwrite the economy for the duration of the slowdown. The only other group of investors buying makes sense for are people who are trying to catch a wave and trying to time their sell-off right. In either case, I don’t think the market is going to sustain them. I lived through the dot com bubble and what’s happening now reminds me of the magical unicorn “new economy” crap that we saw back then. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/37 "2020-06-30T22:37:55Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > One of the very, very many things that confuses me about Trump supporters is that they don’t realize how much he’s damaged the “USA” brand around the world. World leaders don’t take him (or the US) seriously. Other countries have lost respect for us. Everything he does makes us look weaker and weaker and weaker and he’s shit negotiator. I think some don’t understand that it’s possible to damage the USA brand or have other leaders not take POTUS seriously. They seem to believe that the US is the number one power in the world, that this is somehow ordained from on high, and no more subject to change than the moon being the Earth’s only natural satellite, or most of the planet’s surface being water. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/38 "2020-06-30T23:04:32Z")
I get the impression that the heavy MAGA acolytes are deeply provincial and consequently suspicious of anyone “foreign”. So, they do not value what other countries think of the US or of Trump. They truly do not care what some dumpy German lady or some (fill in the blank) thinks, at all. And nothing anyone says is going to change their minds. I do understand the attitude, in the abstract mechanical sense. (I mean, do I really care what some random person in the next block over thinks of me? Not really.) But, intellectually, I know that they are wrong, and should care what other world leaders think of the US and of Trump, because it can have real world consequences to us. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/39 "2020-06-30T23:21:06Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Biden would have his dementia or pre-dementia showing but least his intentions would be good. Cite as to his dementia? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730/40 "2020-06-30T23:22:12Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > … Is it really your birthday today? You have a cake beside your name… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-embarrasing-bullying-uninformed-and-disasterous/913730.md?page=3)