An American foreign policy and national security commentator says world leaders increasingly see President Donald Trump as an “embarrassing idiot” — a perception he argues was reinforced by Trump’s speech on Wednesday, January 21, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
David Rothkopf, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a longtime international affairs lecturer at institutions including Columbia University, Georgetown University, and Johns Hopkins University, discussed Trump’s Davos appearance on The Daily Beast podcast. During the conversation, Rothkopf claimed Trump’s performance signaled a damaging decline and a widening rupture with U.S. allies.
“Europe does not trust us anymore”
Rothkopf argued that Trump is eroding America’s standing abroad by attacking alliances he says have anchored U.S. security for decades.
“For a hundred years, the U.S. has made building transatlantic relationships the foundation of peace and prosperity for us, and for many, many people in the world. And it’s over,” Rothkopf said. “Europe does not trust us anymore.”
Rothkopf also claimed Trump appeared physically unsteady during the trip, and he criticized Trump’s Davos remarks as confusing and unfocused. He alleged that Trump mixed up Greenland and Iceland multiple times during a rambling stretch of comments and said some attendees were reported to have walked out.
“Something’s wrong with Trump”
Rothkopf did not hold back in his assessment of the Davos appearance.
“It was a fiasco. It was a mess. Trump was embarrassing. Trump was offensive. Trump was a boor. Trump was an idiot,” he said.
He also argued that Europe’s economic weight and technological capacity give it the ability to reshape global alignments in ways that could leave the United States more isolated.
“Europe not only is big and important and leading in a lot of key technologies, but also, Europe has the ability to focus on China, to focus on others in the world in a way that really changes the equation for the United States,” he told host Joanna Coles.
Rothkopf further claimed Trump is doing lasting damage by turning against allies, calling it “a bright red line in history.”
“The world is not the world that it was when you woke up this morning. And it only promises to get worse and worse,” he warned.
He also said Trump — whom he described as cognitively “declining” — appears diminished compared with prior years.
“I believe that everybody who is looking at this objectively thinks there’s something wrong with Trump,” Rothkopf said. “Trump is certainly not the Trump he was a year ago, and he’s not the Trump he was 10 years ago. And, you know, he wasn’t so great to start out with, right?”
The White House responded to The Daily Beast with a statement dismissing Rothkopf’s remarks: “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible and energetic President in modern American history. Anyone who would waste their time appearing on the ‘Daily Beast’ podcast is a low life, left-wing loser whose opinion is not worth a d***.”
