Once-Great Britain Insults President Trump

At the least, President Trump’s meetings in Europe are going to be entertaining. Gone are the days when we treated European powers as America’s equal. Gone are the days of being nice to Angela Merkel, a woman whose open arms policy has damaged her nation and has hurled the European Union down the road to perdition.

Trump denounced Merkel for being a captive of Russia. He denounced her for buying massive amounts of Russian gas while expecting the United States to guarantee her nation’s security. Trump sees many European countries as parasites, feeding off American largesse, not doing nearly enough to contribute to their own defense. Better yet, using the money they do not spend on defense to fund a generous social safety network, the better to show how much more virtuous they are.

Of course, Obama was happy to belong to the group. He embraced transatlantic liberal values. He diminished the United States in order to make all other nations appear to be our equals. Europe loved Obama. It certainly does not love Trump.

European leaders have taken to lecturing Trump on the importance of having allies… all the while refusing to act like allies. After all, where would we be without allies like Sweden and the Netherlands?

With the exception of Eastern Europe, the part that is breaking off over the Muslim migrant issue. While Trump was recently welcomed warmly in Poland, he is going to be greeted by a derisive caricature in Once-Great Britain.

Bruce Bawer set the terms of the meeting:

When Donald Trump visited Poland last July, he was greeted with wall-to-wall cheers, a sea of American flags, and enthusiastic chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” When he goes to Britain on Thursday, he'll supposedly be welcomed by massive protests and “a giant 'Trump Baby' balloon” floating in the skies over central London -- a puerile insult for which Sadiq Khan, that city's Trump-hating mayor, has approved a permit (even as his police force has refused to allow a pro-Trump rally during the presidential visit). This in a country where Members of Parliament from all parties, it will be remembered, argued after his election victory for him to be banned from the UK.

Theresa May’s government is on the verge of collapse. The British Prime Minister has shown herself to be singularly inept in negotiating Brexit. If and when Once-Great Britain exits the European community, it might need to have some friends on the other side of the Atlantic. In geopolitical terms, Once-Great Britain is heading toward irrelevance. It ought to cultivate its alliances. Instead, it has taken to insulting the American president, and, by definition, America itself. The nation that turned a blind eye to Muslim grooming gangs in Rotherham should not be lecturing anyone on anything.

Now, as Trump prepares to visit Great Britain, the Queen’s subjects are hell bent on embarrassing him, and America, by floating a large blimp, resembling a caricature of Trump in a diaper. The mayor of London, one Sadiq Khan, a man who gives special meaning to the word pusillanimous, has granted an approval. On the grounds that it’s free expression.

Piers Morgan has the story:

When President Trump comes to Britain later this week, a giant 20ft balloon depicting him as an orange baby in diapers will be flown over the Houses of Parliament.

It will be the visual fulcrum for a large scale 'Stop Trump' protest being planned in London to welcome the divisive leader of the free world on his official state visit.

Campaigners crowd-funded their balloon stunt by raising $25,000 online to pay for it. Their intent is simply to humiliate President Trump in a way that will garner embarrassing images and headlines around the world.

Yes, indeed. Humiliate America. There, that’s the trick. Recall that when Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia last May, he was greeted at the Riyadh airport by King Salman. Recall that portraits of Trump and the monarch were festooned around Riyadh. Again, some nations feel that it’s worth the trouble to show respect for the American president. Will the real allies please stand up.

Speaking for America, Rudy Giuliani responded in kind. Morgan reports:

‘Sadiq Khan should be ashamed of himself,' he [Giuliani] raged. 'Maybe he should just do his job instead of attacking a world leader? Many people who come to London are Americans. More than half of us in the US now support the President and even those who don't support him, support his office. I would not like to go to a country where someone with the authority of a mayor was rallying people against them. It's highly inappropriate.'

Giuliani, whose own 'zero tolerance' policies were widely applauded for substantially reducing violent crime in New York, added: 'He's so busy attacking President Trump's visit and in the meantime, crime is spiralling in London. If crime is going up, he is obviously not paying attention to his job. This is one mayor who can tell him how to reduce crime – you have to pay attention to your job. From one mayor to another – do your job, Mr Khan.'

To which Morgan adds that Giuliani is right. Under the mayoralty of the cowardly Khan, London crime has skyrocketed.

Knife attacks have soared by 21%, shooting incidents by 23%, street robberies by 33%, motorbike robberies by 50% and murders by 44%.

There have been over 80 murders so far in 2018, and in the months of February and March the city's murder rate exceeded that of New York.

So many believe Mayor Khan has been an absolute disaster when it comes to keeping Londoners safe and he should be focusing on THAT rather than approving stupid balloon stunts designed to embarrass America's president.

What does Piers Morgan think of the balloon stunt?

My own opinion about the balloon is that it's a pathetically puerile stunt that makes Britain look woefully petty, small-minded and gratuitously offensive.

Of course, the protestors will argue that nobody is pettier, and more small-minded or gratuitously offensive than Trump himself.

But fighting childishness with worse childishness is usually a zero sum game – even for a child.

Whether you love or loathe Trump, for Britain to be greeting the leader of the United States of America, its greatest ally, in this way is appallingly disrespectful.

Americans are by far the largest group of tourist visitors to the UK, with more than 3.8 million travelling across the Atlantic last year, pumping billions into Britain's economy.

The two countries also enjoy reciprocal trade worth several hundred billion dollars.

And of course, they have fought shoulder-to-shoulder in almost every modern military conflict.

So for a senior British politician to sanction such an openly insulting sneer at America's president is beyond embarrassing.

Disrespectful and beyond embarrassing. it looks as though Once-Great Britain is consigning itself to the ranks of the also-ran. It is increasingly removing itself from big nation balance of powers diplomacy.

Morgan continues:

This balloon farce comes as Britain teeters on the brink of political meltdown over its decision to leave the European Union.

Trump, an enthusiastic supporter of Brexit – in direct contrast to Obama, who said Britain would go to 'the back of the queue' for a trade deal with America if we voted to leave the EU – has repeatedly said he is keen to do a great new trade deal with the UK once it actually happens.

Britain desperately needs that deal to happen.

So ridiculing the man who can make that happen when he flies over to discuss such a deal seems a perverse act of self-harm.

Shame on you, Mayor Khan.

Don’t the small minded leaders of Once-Great Britain understand that they are weak? Don’t they understand that they might need America’s support at some point in the future? Do you think these petulant gestures are going to ensure that American public opinion will rally to the British cause? Somewhere, someone is not thinking.