He'll Never Be Respected in the World

He can demand it. He can travel to the Middle East and pretend he's getting it. But we can be sure that most will never give it to him.

Trump comes to Qatar to cash in and secure his jumbo jet. (Photo by Win McNamee via Getty Images)

Can we take a brief stroll along memory lane, when a man in orange pancake makeup promised the nation that this would be the beginning of a “golden age” in America? Oh, what a fairy tale this man had to share. It started like this 116 days ago:

From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.

I know, I know. This stuff was hard to listen to that day. And this nonsense, untethered from reality, remains hard to read now. Envy of the world? Respected again? Putting America first?

We all know how he’s succeeded these last few months in ravaging America’s reputation, trashing America’s economy, wrecking government agencies and democratic institutions, dismantling alliances that have enabled America to flourish and stoking fear across the globe.

But bear with me for a moment. He had more gild for his fantasy. “Our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free,” he lied. “America will soon be greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.”

Of course, in the room that day, buoyed by bowing billionaires, the words spurred excited applause. Who cares about democracy and principles if there’s money to make? So what if he’s BS’ing the country if the oligarchs and kleptocrats could score alongside the corrupt felon?

The speech was a long way from the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009—what feels like a lifetime ago—who spurred applause for these words:

We remain a young nation. But in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

As much as that dream has failed to be realized, we knew on that day that the freshly inaugurated president believed them and sought to make them real. He worked to expand opportunity and to inspire hope based on inclusion, not severing the ties that bind. As hard as these days may be for many of us, I can only imagine how hard the long nights are for our former president.

As Trump gloated among rich royals this week in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, I’ve been thinking about Obama’s famous entreaty for us to put aside childish things. Now we have this deeply corrupt man who refused to imagine why anyone would have a problem with him taking a shiny new $400 million jumbo jet from his Qatari pals.

There he was loving the flattery and the pomp delivered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. So what if he was implicated in the bone-saw murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi? “I like him a lot,” Trump said while gripping the hand of MBS. “I like him too much.”

There was Trump in Doha, reveling in all the palatial marble, fighter jet escorts and royal guards on camelback—all in his honor. Soon he would be comparing Mohammad bin Salman and Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani as “tall, handsome guys that happen to be very smart.” Never miss a chance to childishly rely on appearance to make a judgement, even about a sheikh who has backed Hamas. (Note that backing Hamas, whether true or false, is used as pretext for arresting and removing international students in the U.S.)

And there he was in Abu Dhabi, promising UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan that “we’re going to treat you, as you should be: magnificently.” Of course, the UAE has already treated the Trump family magnificently: A billion-dollar, 80-story Trump hotel is rising in Dubai with apartments selling for $20 million each. And the government of Abu Dhabi is investing $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency business, which Eric proudly announced two weeks ago.

This is what Trump meant when he talked about a golden age nearly four months ago. This is the kind of flourishing he was talking about as his oligarch buddies—displayed behind him in the same Capitol where Trump incited a violent insurrection four years ago— listened closely. A number of them, including Elon Musk, joined this trip looking to do deals and cash in on their campaign investments.

As for everyone else? You know, the people that are not making money hand-over-fist thanks to Arab oil wealth? Time for tariffs and rising prices, a burgeoning reality as underscored by China-dependent Walmart’s announcement yesterday. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon noted that “given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren't able to absorb all the pressure.”

It was time to set aside childish things in 2009 and it’s time to set aside childish things now as our globe faces profound challenges. But we are saddled with a seriously corrupt and criminal man in the White House, who is also childishly undeveloped, acts on whim, and never was educated or motivated by democratic principles. How childish could an electorate be that they would put him back in power?

Three times in Trump’s inaugural address he referenced the idea of being respected.

America “will be respected again all over the world,” he said.

“America will be respected again and admired again,” he said.

“America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world,” he said.

These were not the words of a president, but of a little boy who never was respected by daddy. He failed to earn the respect of Manhattan’s elite as a New York real estate developer. And he will never earn the respect of most Americans and once-staunch democratic allies who despise what he is doing to our country.

No wonder he lashes out against America and all that it stands for while he luxuriates in the pretend respect that he gets from autocrats and dictators. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to understand what’s going on here.

Recall the admonition of Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump is weak, she said of her rival candidate. “It’s a sign of weakness that you want to please dictators and seek their flattery and favor.”

With every dark turn in the coming months, as he violates our Constitution and works to enrich himself, let’s keep in mind that we have the power to ensure that he never earns the respect he so desperately wants. That means reminding him and his regime that we will not back down and give him the power he seeks to destroy the world that he can never have. Be not afraid.

As Obama noted in that first inaugural speech a lifetime ago, Americans throughout our history “saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions, greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.” We cannot let them down.

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