Trump the Second is all about speaking and not listening
Trump the Second is all about speaking and not listening.
His administration reflects the big man’s propensity to speak loudly, carry a big stick and drown out every other voice.
Trump administration luminaries' high-handedness has to be seen (and heard) to be believed.
Not only has the Big D, Donald Trump, self-annointed ‘king of the world’ declared he will take over the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada, he will “buy” Gaza (or rather not buy Gaza, “there’s nothing to buy”) and develop it, having permanently evicted two million people.
How majestic.
And then there was Mr Trump’s deputy. Not First Buddy Elon Musk, but the elected vice-president J D Vance.
Mr Vance has something of a track record on US public media for his acerbic, un-Christian commentary about people whose lifestyle and opinions he doesn’t like. He is currently travelling around Europe, attending the artificial intelligence (AI) summit in Paris and then onwards to the Munich Security Conference.
What he says and does in Munich is yet to be revealed, but US Vice President Vance’s behaviour in Paris is indicative of the new American administration’s lordly disregard of propriety, as well as everyone else’s feelings or dignity.
In Paris, Mr Vance lectured his European counterparts about their “risk aversion” and slammed the European Union’s efforts (EU) to regulate the AI industry and keep tech companies in check. He declared that the United States was an AI juggernaut that had little time for the “hand-wringing” over tech safety and corporate abuse in Brussels. And he basically put his tongue out at European politicians, poking fun at what he called their “trepidation”.
The final insult? Leaving the summit without listening to the main speeches of France’s President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Trump administration clearly wants the world to listen to it but not to return the favour.
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
