They all view us as
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had spoken to a number of world leaders in recent days, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and “they all view us as the world leader” when it comes to fighting coronavirus, “and they’re following us.”
Nope. No they don’t, no they aren’t, no they haven’t, no they won’t. Not even a little tiny bit.
Trump was speaking to Republican members of the U.S. Congress on Friday. Citing calls with Merkel, Japan’s Shinzō Abe and other, unnamed leaders, he said “so many of them, almost all of them, I would say all of them” believe the U.S. is leading the way when it comes to tackling the virus.
That progression is so typical of him. He tells the lie and then expands it and then expands it some more – apparently oblivious to how he’s giving away the fact that he’s making it all up. “so many of them, almost all of them, I would say all of them” – Start modestly, just say “so many,” but then feel a stab of pain at the inadequacy and move to “almost all” but then instantly feel the anguish of “almost” and make it oh what the hell all of them, “I would say all of them” because that’s just what a pinhead I am.
Then he says “not everybody wannoo admit it but they all view us as…[pause] the world leader, and they’re following us.”
Not everybody do wannoo admit it, that’s very true, and in fact none of them wants to admit it, and they don’t admit it, and they can’t “admit” it because it isn’t true. They could say it, and it would be untrue, but they can’t “admit” it. I can’t “admit” that I’m forty feet tall, because I’m not.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s possible for his brain to believe everything – or even half of everything – that his mouth says. And then I realize that his brain believes what it wants to believe, no matter what. So I guess, yeah, his brain believes it for the moment, until the next lie contradicts that, and then his brain will believe that.
I have a brother who is a pathological liar. He will tell a lie even when the truth would serve him better, but once he tells it, he believes it, and will defend it vigorously.
To be fair, he was only a little bit off:
If we’re following the American lead, we’re doing a crap job. Now we’ve got to play catch-up. Someone tell Trudeau he needs to shoot some ronds of golf between rallies, and bouts of doing sweet fuck all.
Pretty sure it’s Moon Jae-in that’s the leader here (and as far as world leaders go I think Merkel is generally considered the top nob?)…
The latest official figures for Japan are 15,777 cases of COVID-19 & 624 deaths. They are undoubtedly higher than this, but, this not being North Korea, cannot be all that much higher. Japan is slightly larger in area than the UK, but its population is roughly twice as great, and because the country is very mountainous, the population is crowded into a far smaller area than the British population, and people live generally in more crowded conditions. So Japan is doing not too badly in comparison with the incompetence on display in both the UK & the US. Trump is widely regarded as a dangerous clown, and a liar, here, but also as someone who, because of the great power the US wields, has for the present to be put up with. As Thucydides remarked, powerful nations to what they will, smaller nations do what they must.
That is, as Thucydides quoted one of the Athenians as saying that to the Melians. Mary Beard wrote something warning not to take any of Thucydides at face value, all the more since we’re reading him in translation and he’s very difficult to translate. All that said I’ve always found it a fascinating picture of the mindset of the Nazis, the US in Vietnam, and the like, even if it’s not actually what Thucydides wrote.
World leaders. Ha. “I am Arthur, your king!” etc.
Catwhisperer, Make that Ozymandias.