Donald Trump’s “back to school week” was an embarrassment when the leaders of China, India and Russia held a summit and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un joined in a military parade in Beijing, foreign policy analyst David Rothkopf says.
Rothkopf explained on Thursday’s episode of The Daily Beast Podcast why the gatherings got under Trump’s skin just weeks after his summit in Alaska with Vladimir Putin.
“It’s been a bad back to school week for Donald Trump, right?” the Daily Beast columnist told host Joanna Coles.
“He’s going back and he wants to go to school, and he wants to hang out with the cool kids and all the kids he thinks are cool, who are really the bad kids. But all the kids he thinks are cool don’t want to have anything to do with him,” he explained.
“And he has not only alienated them, but he has elevated them. And, you know, you mentioned [Chinese President] Xi Jinping, who’s the big host of this and who’s the big winner of Trump.”
Rothkopf then highlighted how Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has downplayed any role Trump may have had in easing hostilities between India and Pakistan.
“Modi did this terrible thing to Trump. He said, ‘You know, Donald, you keep saying you solved the India-Pakistan war. You didn’t.’ And he’s pulling the rug out from Trump’s myth of himself as a peacemaker. And this p—ed off Trump,” Rothkopf said.
“And so he imposed all these trade sanctions, tariffs on India. And India is like, well, we may have hated China for the past several thousand years, but enough is enough. We’re going to go over and we’re going to get together in a way that we haven’t gotten together before.”
Monday’s summit in Tianjin, China featured more than 20 leaders from mostly Asia. This caused a sense of “fear of missing out” in Trump, who “has no sense of geopolitics at all” and “sees everything in personal terms,” Rothkopf continued.
“‘They’re leaving me out of this. I’m not in the center of this. I said I loved Kim Jong Un, but he doesn’t love me back. I said I love Vladimir Putin, but he doesn’t love me back. You know, I did all this stuff for China,’” Rothkopf imagined Trump reacting.
Rothkopf then addressed Wednesday’s military parade in the Chinese capital to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. Both Kim Jong-un and Putin attended.
“Can you imagine what it was like for Donald Trump to look at the military parade that took place in China yesterday?” he wondered.
“He had squeaky tanks going by him in Washington. He had the worst military parade in history on his birthday. And all of a sudden China puts on a display like we have not seen in decades in the world of advanced technology, armies marching in step, perfect uniforms.”
Prior to the parade, Putin, Xi and Kim were also discussing advances in biotechnology to extend lifespans. This added yet another layer of embarrassment for 79-year-old Trump, who has faced health concerns after his diagnosis with chronic venous insufficiency, Rothkopf said.
“It was like muscle flexing and Donald is sitting there going, ‘How do I get in with the good kids again?’” he said.
“And they’re talking about, ‘We’re going to live forever.’ Well, the headlines in the United States are, ‘Is the president even alive anymore?’ I mean, it’s really something.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a Daily Beast request for comment.
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The post This is How Trump Just Got Triply Humiliated: Political Guru appeared first on The Daily Beast.
