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New Orleans Whoever thought that global diplomacy was not child’s play? They have huge lessons to learn from President Trump, who is proving every day in every way that the world is simply his schoolyard where he is the big bully on the playground.
He’s cornered by all of the rest of the kids from 194 other countries around the world, so he’s swinging wildly and hoping he hits someone. Anyone will do. China, he hopes, but they are not really the target here. He is desperate to turn the news cycle on his disastrous pandemic performance and his falling performance polls by blaming someone, anyone, President Obama, China, labs in Wuhan, or the World Health Organization for the mess he has made of America, our health, and our economy.
The World Health Organization is now having its virtual annual meeting with participation from all of its member countries. Trump suspended funding of the WHO some weeks ago as he tried to put a target on their back for not warning him and the gang at the White House of the danger. There was a problem since a couple of dozen CDC staff were at WHO headquarters throughout the entire period, privy to everything, and had kept their bosses in Atlanta up to date. Never you mind.
China reacting to the USA pullback, increased their contribution to rave reviews around the world. Trump wasn’t having any of that. His gambit was to pledge that the USA would match the Chinese WHO contribution, even if that was 90% less than we had been providing as the world’s premier funder of the agency. Literally, the next day with the print hardly dry on the newspapers that still exist in print, he sends a letter to the head of WHO saying unless there is an investigation on his claims of their failure within thirty days, he will pull the USA out of the WHO permanently, crippling the global health effort. The WHO had already agreed with many delegate countries to do a thorough review of their performance and lessons learned in this pandemic.
Now get this. You’ll never guess how he sent this diplomatic salvo to the WHO in the middle of its convention? OK, maybe you will. He sent it through his personal diplomatic pouch: Twitter!
Trump thinks the CEO of McDonald’s should be in charge of Americans’ nutrition. He would nominate Dr. Feelgood to be Surgeon General. If Doctor John was still alive, he would now have a chance to run the Center for Disease Control.
Trump is tweeting as the world dies in the pandemic. Each tweet has different words strung together, but the message is always the same: it’s all about me!