Article originally in the Financial Times. Other articles .
America has a new sport for viewers: there are no inhibitions in it, it is perfect for the main broadcast time and is played in an oval office. President Donald Trump was in a red corner in Wednesday and faced his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphos.
The guest came to negotiate business and investment, but found himself in the diplomatic equivalent of wrestling strangers. Trump cut him for the refuted claims that the white South African farmers are big killing and chasing them out of their land. Ramaphos refused these claims.
The US President even dusted the lights to show the cut of video clips that allegedly show violence against the white men. Ramaphosa calmly stressed that most victims of crimes in South Africa are blacks. Experts are still trying to find out what the latest forfeiture in an oval office for US foreign relations means.
On the rug was also green
“It is not just that they do not want to come to sit with Trump. Who knows how they will treat them?” John Bolton, who served as Trump’s National Security Adviser in his first term, told the Financial Times. “I think it’s counterproductive.”
This could have serious consequences for future Trump’s negotiations with leaders, such as Chinese President Si Jin-Pching, who would like to avoid such a public rupture at all costs. “It has to strengthen Jin-pching’s current fears of pre-prepared moments with foreign leaders,” said Stephen Wertheim, historian of American foreign policy from the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace.
It wasn’t the first time Trump publicly reprimanded a high foreign representative who was visiting him. In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Greeda was similarly on the rug when Trump and JD Vance criticized him for not showing sufficient gratitude to the United States, which raised concerns about the complete split between the two allies.
Gift for Beijing and Moscow
Such public quarrels are a gift for Moscow and Beijing, which consider them to be subjected to the international prestige of the United States, experts say. The US ‘soft force’ has already been damaged by the abolition of the US Agency for International Development of USAID, which led to the end of hundreds of life rescuing medical programs around the world.
“Such steps are suitable for China without having to do anything,” said Michelle Gavin, a manager for the study of African policy in the Council for Foreign Relations. “They gave credibility to China’s claims that he is a reliable partner.”
“In Russia and China, the plugs from champagne will fly,” says Christoph Heusgen, who worked as an advisor to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for national security. “America will significantly lose influence in the world as a result of such incidents.”
The international position of America is already declining. According to the latest survey of the perception of the perception of democracy, which took place in April, the share of countries with a positive view of the United States is currently 45 percent, with 76 percent last year.
The perception of Trump was also negative in 82 out of 100 countries. On the contrary, Russian President Vladimir Putin was perceived negatively in 61 countries and Si Jin-Pching in only 44 countries. “This performance in an oval office will only contribute to the unpopularity [ Spojených štátov]”Said Wertheim.
Distributes public knocket
The new version of diplomatic mixed martial arts, which takes place in an oval office, has grown from modest beginnings. Photothermines was always simple, the president and his guest shaved their hands and exchanged phrases for five to ten minutes, then the staff reported journalists and the action moved to the government meeting.
Trump mixed cards. Photothermines are now attending the high -ranking members of the government, including Vancea, as well as a whole range of Protrumpian media, and have turned into full press conferences that the President apparently enjoys. “Now there is a whole royal court,” Bolton said.
During his first term, Trump rarely criticized his guests, limited to small contempt gestures, such as refusing to put his hand with Merkel in front of television cameras in 2017.
Clear propaganda has become a topic
He also uses photothermines to praise politicians who are related to his ideological agenda, such as Salvádor President Nayib Bukele, who personally thanked for his help in his campaign for deporting illegal immigrants.
Some world leaders were able to repel Trump’s verbal attacks. At the February meeting in the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron Trump, he said that the EU “lends Ukraine money [a] He gets his money back “. Macron put his hand on his shoulder on Trump and opposed him.” No, in fact, to be honest, we paid 60 percent of the total cost ….
The newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also used his performance in the White House to strongly reject Trump’s claims about Canada and say, “There are places that are never for sale”. The last word, however, was Trump, which launched the Tirad that the United States has a lion share in the defense of Canada.
However, the meeting with Ramaphos was simply mysterious for many observers. The United States and South Africa had something to discuss: Trade and investment, the future of the BRICS, the G20 Sumit, which will be held in November in Johannesburg. Instead, Trump talked to false claims about the genocide of white African farmers.
Bolton questioned whether these claims were checked by US experts in South Africa, who would certainly question their validity. “If not, what does it say to other leaders of the world that clear propaganda, if Trump is engraved in the brain, suddenly becomes a topic that publicly talks to the head of a foreign government?”
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