Did Justin Trudeau just troll Donald Trump to his face?
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau clearly likes Donald Trump about as much as I like Donald Trump, which is to say that Trudeau and I would both consider eating glass as an alternative to having to politely sit next to Trump and listen to him blather. Yet Trudeau had to do precisely that yesterday, because literally giving Trump the finger probably wouldn’t have played well. But it looks like Trudeau may have managed to troll Trump in a slightly more subtle way.
Days ago, ABC News aired footage of Donald Trump throwing a tantrum because Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney coughed while Trump was trying to figure out how to regurgitate a scripted non-answer to a question. The takeaway was that Trump’s cognitive abilities are so far gone, the mere act of coughing can throw him totally for a loop – and he’s so agitated, he can’t help but lash out like a rabid two year old, even when the cameras are rolling.
So it’s, ahem, interesting that when Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump were holding a brief joint press conference yesterday, Trudeau suddenly felt the need to cough while Trump was speaking. Maybe it was nothing. Or maybe it was some next level trolling. Watch the video and decide for yourself:
In any case, now that the whole world knows the increasingly fragile and broken Donald Trump can be completely thrown off his game by a mere cough while he’s speaking, you have to wonder how far this is going to go. Trump has to meet with a whole lot of world leaders who are far less inclined to even pretend they like him. Trump is a joke and everyone knows it.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report