Yep, things are going just swimmingly with Popular Vote Loser Donald Trump being the most powerful world leader. Just tremendously well.
President Donald Trump spent much of a recent phone call with French President Francois Hollande veering off into rants about the U.S. getting shaken down by other countries, according to a senior official with knowledge of the call, creating an awkward interaction with a critical U.S. ally.
While the Hollande call on Jan. 28 did touch on pressing matters between the two countries — namely the fight against the Islamic State — Trump also used the exchange to vent about his personal fixations, including his belief that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and by international bodies like NATO, the official said.
At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. “wants our money back,” the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be “obsessing over money."
“It was a difficult conversation, because he talks like he’s speaking publicly,” the official said. “It's not the usual way heads of state speak to each other. He speaks with slogans and the conversation was not completely organized.”
The leakiest White House in the history of White House leaks (at least in the first two and a half weeks) has let slip that Trump "warned Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto that he might send troops to Mexico to clear out the 'bad hombres down there' and that he argued with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a prior agreement with the Obama administration to resettle refugees from a camp in Australia, saying that Turnbull is giving him 'the next Boston bombers'" before abruptly hanging up on him. So, this reaching out to allies thing is going great.
There is, apparently, though a way for foreign leaders to have a successful call with Trump: "The trick to a good call with Trump is less about policy agreement than personal chemistry, said two people familiar with some of the world leader talks." Don't talk about anything that matters and find common personal ground. Or just agree with him on immigration and Iran, as Milos Zeman, the president of the Czech Republic, did. Trump reportedly told Zeman "you're my type of guy," and invited him to come hang out.
I have a suggestion for how to make these calls go well—set up calls with "foreign leaders" with actors on the other end, and when foreign leaders actually call Trump, give the phone to Alec Baldwin. What Trump doesn't know won't blow up the entire globe.