Another foreign disaster
by digby
Helsinki remains the low point, but this is looking more and more like one of the big ones:
...After the two men strode to the podium on Monday afternoon, Mr. Abe declared that the friendship and alliance had been further cementedby a day on the golf course, inside the sumo arena and at a robatayaki dinner with their spouses. He said that he and Mr. Trump were “completely on the same page” on issues like trade and North Korea.
But Mr. Trump, after praising Japan’s hospitality and ancient culture, as well as Mr. Abe’s friendship, made it clear that he was there to put America, and in some cases his own grievances, first.
During the 40-minute news conference, Mr. Trump again shrugged off North Korea’s recent tests of short-range ballistic missiles, which, if fired at Japan, could kill thousands of civilians.
Mr. Trump had kicked off his four-day state visit the day before by making a similar declaration on Twitter, despite the fact that Mr. Abe and the president’s own national security adviser, John R. Bolton, had both called the tests a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“My people think it could have been a violation,” Mr. Trump told reporters, but he added that he was not “personally” concerned about the launches.
“Perhaps he wants to get attention, and perhaps not,” he said of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, an autocrat with whom Mr. Trump has worked to forge warm relations in pursuit of a denuclearization agreement. “Who knows? All I know is there have been no nuclear tests, no long-range missiles going out. I think that someday we will have a deal.”
The president also bristled upon mention of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a hallmark of the Obama administration from which Mr. Trump withdrew the United States early in his presidency. “I have nothing to do with T.P.P.,” he said of the vast trade agreement championed by Japan, adding that “I’m not bound by anything.”
Additionally, Mr. Trump continued to nurse domestic grievances in front of his Japanese guests, taunting his Democratic enemies and reprising his denunciation of the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
The president refused to back down from a Twitter post a day earlier in which he took aim at Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential candidate he is most concerned about. On Twitter, Mr. Trump appeared to praise Mr. Kim for calling Mr. Biden a “low I.Q. individual” — echoing Mr. Trump’s own words about the former vice president — after Mr. Biden had branded the North Korean leader a “tyrant.”
The tweet has earned Mr. Trump criticism back home, including among members of his own party, but in Tokyo, Mr. Trump did not seem concerned.
“Kim Jong-un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-I.Q. individual,” Mr. Trump said. “He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that.”
He continued to fixate on Mr. Biden and what he called “the horrible Iran deal” that the Obama administration made.
“Joe Biden was a disaster,” he said. “His administration, with President Obama, basically a disaster when it came to so many things — economy, military, defense. They had a lot of problems; I’m not a fan.”
And, while I don't blame Abe for this --- what choice does he really have? --- this is why Trump gets away with treating our allies like shit:
As Mr. Trump veered from topic to topic, Mr. Abe remained intent on praising the president and reinforcing the healthy state of their alliance.
At some point, quite soon, allies like Japan are going to have to make other arrangements. They cannot afford to count on the US. Look what we've put in charge.
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