patrick.net

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/now-they-see-the-clownish-nature-europeans-brace-for-visit-from-laughingstock-trump/

Now, however, after Trump’s inept, scandal plagued first months in office, people who spoke with Germany-based Politico correspondent Susan B. Glasser said, “The dominant reaction to Trump right now is mockery.”

“People are less worried than they were six weeks ago, less afraid,” said one German government official to Glasser. “Now they see the clownish nature.”

“People here think Trump is a laughingstock,” another German national confided to Glasser in Berlin.

He was echoed by Michael Wertz, an expert on German-American relations with the Center for American Progress, who said, “The Trump administration is becoming an international laughingstock.” Werz said that he was struck by “how rapidly the American brand is depreciating over the last 20 weeks.”

Diplomats representing U.S.-friendly countries all have been comparing notes on how to handle the president, who is known for his volatility, short attention span and thin skin.

“The president of the United States has a 12-second attention span,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to a “former senior official” after an April meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. Furthermore, Stoltenberg said, the president seemed unprepared and ill-informed during the meeting, attempting to steer the conversation with NATO representatives to North Korea, which is not a part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s charter, since it is not located in the North Atlantic.

“Some of the reported preparations for the NATO session in Brussels this week suggest just how much the volatile-clown theory of the American president has now taken hold,” wrote Glasser.