something I just posted on Facebook regarding the Trump-Merz press conference -

[cab67]

If you voted for Trump, I'd like you to do two things:

1. Watch the press conference he held with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. It's on Youtube.

2. Defend Trump's behavior.

I'm not asking you to defend any of the positions Trump expressed - though he did lie about stopping Nordstream 2. I'm asking you to defend the way he carried himself in front of the leader of one of our closest allies.

There were two heads of state in that press conference. One of them acted like a dignified and intelligent diplomat. The other was Donald Trump.

I'm serious about this. He rambled. He veered from subject to subject like a slowly meandering stream, and much of what he talked about had nothing to do with US relations with Germany, Europe, or NATO. He talked about himself - a lot. And he rarely gave Chancellor Merz the opportunity to say anything.

Chancellor Merz is a guest in our country, and the leader of an economic and scientific power, and he was treated like a tourist looking for a photo op. His treatment was disrespectful and condescending. It revealed Trump to be someone lacking class, grace, courtesy, a working understanding of global geopolitics, literacy, and the ability to speak in coherent sentences.

Watch that press conference, and tell me with a straight face that this is how a world leader should act.

(I will also tell you this - any response that points to Biden's age will be deleted as irrelevant. Biden is not the president right now. Biden was not on the ballot in November. And however much Biden's age was showing toward the end of his term, he never - ever - embarrassed the country in front of a foreign head of state like this. So focus on Trump and Trump alone.)

If you actually think this is how you want your country represented on the world stage, you need to do some self-reflection.

[Marie Marie]

1. Regarding your second last paragraph:

Spot on! Joe Biden at his worst was waaaaayyyyy more polished, dignified and intellectually aware than Donald Trump at his best. I don't know, maybe it was well hidden or I missed something but I thought Joe was a great President and performed his duties very well - right up to the end of his term. Best President in my lifetime.

As for the rest of your post - AMEN!! Trump is an embarrassment - always was and just keeps getting worse.

[cab67]

2. I wouldn't rank Biden as the best in my lifetime.

My lifetime includes LBJ and Jimmy Carter, both of whom were more consequential in the longer term. And Obama is, in my view, the greatest president of my lifetime.

But Biden was a very, very good president. He knew how to work with a recalcitrant Congress, and he understood what he was expected to do. He carried himself throughout his administration with the grace and stolidness we expect from our head of state. He also cleaned up a lot of the mess his predecessor left behind. History will remember him well.

Trump? His name will become a perjorative, like quisling, dunce (based on 13th-century "scholar" Duns Scotus), or chauvinist. No one will want to be a self-centered, ignorant bigot who thinks the world owes him something for having done nothing except cheat those weaker than him. No one will want to be a trump.

We're not in that world yet, but I really do think it will come, and during my lifetime.

[lastlib]

7. "will become" a pejorative?

In my bathroom, I have a sign over the toilet: "trump Dump--this is where you set your rump, this is where you dump your trump.
Flush twice."

[ananda]

12. Same. LBJ for sure!

Carter, not so much.

Best ex-president by far, though!

[yellow dahlia]

3. True words!

"someone lacking class, grace, courtesy, a working understanding of global geopolitics, literacy, and the ability to speak in coherent sentences"

I think he believes the gold he surrounds himself with signifies class.

[Amaryllis]

4. He did the very same thing with Mark Carney. I dont think he ever learned social skills. I know young children with

better social skills.

[msongs]

5. surprised any leader would have a press conference with him nt

[SallyHemmings]

6. Agree

Waste of time...

[Scrivener7]

8. Did you get any replies?

[cab67]

16. not from red-hatters

[FakeNoose]

9. Chancellor Merz visits the US and he expresses himself eloquently in English

Same with President Zelensky, and all the other international leaders. It's assumed they will speak English...

When Chump goes to Germany, does he address them in German? When he goes to any other non-English-speaking country does he address them in their native language? Of course not, because he can't. Chump can barely manage English, let alone a foreign language. He's a complete embarrassment. The European and Asian leaders run rings around him.

[PatrickforB]

11. This makes me mindful of John F. Kennedy's Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech. He tried to speak in German but told them

he was a jelly donut.

But they loved him anyway because he told the world we would bear any burden for democracy.

Boy have we gone downhill since...

[Buzz cook]

13. Urban legend.

The people around Kennedy weren't that dumb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner
]

[FakeNoose]

15. If he had said "Ich bin Berliner" it would have been grammatically flawless

However, when JFK said "Ich bin ein Berliner," the Germans all understood exactly what he meant, and they LOVED him for it. Yes a few chuckled but regardless ... it was classic and Presidential.

We look at Chump now, and he's the opposite of JFK.

[cab67]

17. sadly -

- if any US President were to visit another country and address its people in their language, there would be a blood-curdling outcry from the media. How dare he or she not speak English! How are we supposed to understand what he or she said?

As if (a) there would't be a translation made available and (b) there wouldn't be other people in the US speaking that language to keep that translation honest.

Being a courteous guest and try to learn some of the local language? Unthinkable!

[FakeNoose]

18. As far as I know, Jimmy Carter is/was the only President who spoke fluent Spanish

I seem to recall that Jackie Kennedy (Onassis) spoke good French, but her husband did not.

[cab67]

20. apparently, George W Bush speaks Spanish as well.

Martin Van Buren's first language was Dutch.

Several other presidents spoke French, Spanish, German, and/or Latin. Herbert Hoover could speak Mandarin.

[Bread and Circuses]

10. Agreed! The entire world knows we have a cartoon madman in the White House.....and

No world leader should meet with him or invite him .

[Martin Eden]

14. Excellent!

Please let us know if any T voters attemped to defend him.

[malaise]

19. Link

&t=24s&pp=2AEYkAIB