Robert Reich spent the past week speaking to many officials and cabinet ministers in Europe. He said they had a particular subject that they wanted to talk about.
Reich wrote that the European governments were very wary of Donald Trump as they prepared the summit. He summarized their concerns as follows.
- Trump is unstable, and we’re not going to count on anything he says or commits to.
- Trump doesn’t support NATO or European integration.
- Trump is actively encouraging racist nationalists in our country.
- Trump is allied with Putin to bring Europe down.
- There’s no doubt Trump worked with Putin to win the U.S. presidential election.
- If Trump’s polls drop too low, he’ll start a war in order to get Americans to rally around him. (Opinions varied on whether Trump’s war would be with North Korea, Iran, terrorists in Nigeria, or an escalation in Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan.)
- How did you Americans come to elect this ego-maniac? (Others called him an infant, moron, ignoramus, fool.)
- He’s another Berlusconi (or Franco, Mussolini, Salazar, Hitler).
- We remember fascism. We never thought it would happen in America.
- The world depends on American leadership. We’re very worried.
Robert Reich had a prescient conclusion based on his conversation.
My overall impression: Anti-Trump sentiment is even stronger in Europe than it is in the U.S. If Trump expects his European trip to give him a reprieve from his troubles at home, he’s mistaken.
It is clear that our allies have no faith in the president of the United States. They are cognizant that the president is an unstable liar who has no core. Sending this man overseas to represent this country is not only damaging to Trump himself, but to every American. The world must be wondering if the slipping level of education in the United States and the willful ignorance of many is becoming the permanent state within the American democracy. One hopes that is not the American reality.