What a very Republican Administration looks like

Digby Parton gives us a rundown on the latest Trump news in World mocks Trump at NATO summit: Impeachment has him coming unglued Salon 12/04/2019:

As promised, the House Intelligence Committee released its report on the Ukraine investigation on Tuesday. It was another of those days when everyone on TV was madly reading a pile of documents trying to find any nuggets of new information while at the same time attempting to give the public a sense of the larger narrative. This time there was no William Barr on hand to spin things in favor of the president, so the media managed to tell the real story. It is actually more devastating than anticipated.

To make the whole thing even more frantic and surreal than it already was, on split-screen TV President Trump could be seen in England making an utter fool out of himself and the nation at the NATO summit. He was predictably unable to maintain a sense of dignity or pride, lying and whining at every turn. It was a very strange news cycle, to say the least. [my emphasis]

She also provides a great reminder of why I have never been an enthusiast for NeverTrumpers who pretend that Trumpism is something other than the Republicans Party that have progressively radicalized itself:

In a surprise revelation, it appears likely that the ranking Republican member of the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was in on the scheme at least as long ago as last spring. The report includes phone records that indicate Nunes was speaking to Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas, his Ukrainian-born colleague who was recently indicted by the Southern District of New York. Oddly, in all those hearings over the past few weeks during which Nunes ranted and raved about various made-up conspiracies, he never uttered a word about knowing any of the people involved in all this. [my emphasis]

As Digby, who has no illusions about the nature of the institution called the Republican Parry, rightly concludes, "Our president is an utter fool. Those guys in that video all know it, and so does the leadership of the Republican Party. Imagine how much better off the whole world would be right now if that party's elected officials would do their constitutional duty and put an end to this nightmare."

Trump is responsible for his own actions as President. But the disaster known as Trumpism was brought to us by the Republican Party, not by Trump on his own.

The other NATO leaders don't all show admiration for Dear Leader Trump. Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron appear to make fun of President Trump Euronews 12/04/2019:

As Digby notes, Trump continued his erratic and irresponsible handling of foreign policy and basic diplomacy. "He later refused to commit to NATO's collective defense pledge if whatever country was under attack wasn't 'paid up' on its dues, revealing once again that he remains obstinately ignorant about how NATO funding works."

Julia Ioffe has provided us with a description of the kind of destruction the very Republican Party Trump Administration (Trump Is Waging War on America’s Diplomats GQ 12/03/2019:

... the administration — through three years of attempted budget cuts, hiring freezes, and grotesquely personal attacks—has eviscerated the country's diplomatic corps and put highly sensitive matters of national security in the hands of politically appointed novices. They are people like Gordon Sondland, the Trump donor who became America's ambassador to the European Union, who is now playing a starring role in the Ukrainian imbroglio that imperils the Trump presidency. It is no accident that impeachment hangs on a matter of diplomacy — and a stand-off between the country's top foreign policy professionals and the president's political allies, national security amateurs installed to do Trump’s bidding rather than the country’s.

And this is an interesting effect of the Republican's America First government is having on US influence in world affairs:

Meanwhile, China continues staffing up across the world, including in Africa, where the U.S. has an especially high number of unfilled jobs. According to Australia’s Lowy Institute, which issues an annual Diplomacy Index, China just surpassed the United States in diplomatic muscle. The United States, which for decades after World War II had the highest number of embassies and consulates, has been outpaced by a rising adversary. [my emphasis]

This is bad. But it does mean that a new President in 2021 would have a great opportunity to restart the State Department on a professional basis. Hopefully with a pro-peace emphasis.