Friday, December 2, 2016

Foreign Policy: Now Commence Amateur Hour

Late on Wednesday afternoon US President-elect Donald Trump had a phone call with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

According to a Pakistani account of what should probably have been a procedural discussion, Mr Trump lavished extravagant praise upon Pakistan's prime minister and its people.

"You have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy," it goes. In addition, Pakistan is "a fantastic country, fantastic place" with the most "intelligent" people and "your country is amazing with tremendous opportunities".

Not satisfied with that, the account, commonly known as read-outs, culminates with this flourish: "Please convey to the Pakistani people that they are amazing and all Pakistanis I have known are exceptional people, said Mr Donald Trump."
One may be surprised that Trump didn't say that "Pakistanis are the best cab drivers and suicide bombers."

Naked and baseless flattery may work in Trump's world, but to those who live in a reality-based universe, it looks like insincere bullshit.

Since apparently the fetal-Trump administration doesn't believe that there is such a thing as "facts" or reality, then this is going to be a very interesting administration to watch and endure.

1 comment:

  1. Taiwan? Waddya mean I can't call Taiwan, I'm gonna be the president!

    -Doug in Oakland

    ReplyDelete

House Rules #1, #2 and #6 apply to all comments. Rule #3 also applies to political comments.

In short, don't be a jackass. THIS MEANS YOU!
If you never see your comments posted, see Rule #7.

All comments must be on point and address either the points raised in the blog post or points raised by commenters in response.
Any comments that drift off onto other topics are subject to deletion.

(Please don't feed the trolls.)

中國詞不評論,冒抹除的風險。僅英語。

COMMENT MODERATION IS IN EFFECT UFN. This means that if you are an insulting dick, nobody will ever see it.