Donald Trump, pushover

| 7:07 pm EDT August 26, 2019
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Something new and humiliating happened to Donald Trump at the G7 summit. No, we’re not talking about the part where he got people’s names wrong and then tried to invite Russia to the party. None of that is particularly new for him. Instead we’re talking about the part where Trump dissolved into little more than a worldwide pushover.

Try to imagine what would have happened if the Donald Trump of 2017 had shown up to the G7 summit, only to learn that the other leaders had secretly invited the Iranian Foreign Minister to attend behind his back. Trump would have gone apoplectic, right? He’d have thrown a fit about Emmanuel Macron for having dared to do such a thing. Instead Trump sat there meekly today, while Macron sat next to him and all but dictated upcoming U.S. foreign policy toward Iran.

Similarly, when China essentially announced this morning that it was declaring victory in the trade war and that it wanted to dictate terms to Donald Trump, he hopped on Twitter and made it sound like he’s just going along with it.

We’ll see what happens once Donald Trump is back home and left to his own devices. For all we know he’ll call Macron a “poopy head” and announce even more ridiculous tariffs on Chinese goods. But these past few days, while Trump has been on the world stage, he’s unmistakably been a pushover. It’s as if he knows he’s losing on all fronts, and he’s afraid to make the kind of move that could finish him off.