Apparently this ABC Insiders video hasbeen well-reived in the US:
What did we learn about @realDonaldTrump at this #G20? @CUhlmann explains. #Insiders pic.twitter.com/TGOXdiFWhB
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) July 8, 2017
That pretty much sums it up for me.
The loon pond answers via Andrew Bolt:
Sounds plausible, if you forget who Trump replaced. Didn’t Russia and China grow strong by filling the vacuum that was Barack Obama? Didn’t Syria collapse and North Korea develop its nuclear bombs as Obama quit the field and surrender to multilateralism?
Uhlmann wants Trump to not be an outsider at G20. But what was the issue on which he was most isolated?
It was on global warming – the Paris agreement. But check what that agreement did. It committed the US to cut its emissions while letting China and Russia increase their own. In other words, it was designed to weaken the US and strengthen China and Russia.
Isn’t the truth that it was Obama who weakened US influence, and it is now Trump who is asserting it?
Criticism from Merkel and Macron is not evidence of US decline. It is evidence that the US is now more focussed on the interests of the US, and not that of Germany and France.
Sure, Syria is a debacle but Iran was a triumph of diplomacy. Looking for certain outcomes in international relations is the stuff of unicorns and children.
Emission cuts in the US transpired via the shale gas revolution. They have delivered the US the cheapest gas and electricity in the developed and most of the emerging world (much cheaper than prior). I’m not sure you can thank Obama for that but you sure can’t turn into a negative unless you’re allergic to facts. Meanwhile, in Australia, we had the same fracking revolution but gave ourselves the highest gas and electricity prices in the world. Any Aussie criticising the Obama path to decarbonisation is a fool.
The truth is, Andrew, Trump is destroying US leadership at a spectacular rate as he backs everyone into a corner on North Korea, sells out Qatar and turns his home into a climate pariah.
If you gave two hoots about Australia and its democracy, you would not be cheering that on. Our next hegemon will not be so kind.
