President Donald Trump consistently wants Americans to think that he’s actually great at what he’s doing as president. In fact, he consistently seems to be floundering, big time. This Monday, he rushed to Twitter to proclaim his supposed support for the people of Venezuela against the dangerous specter of the “socialism” of Nicolas Maduro’s government. In Venezuela, there have been concerns about the integrity of the most recent election, and some in the West have supported opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the supposedly rightful leader. After Trump said in an interview with Axios that he’d actually be open to meeting with Maduro, Trump tried on Monday morning to make himself sound like a tough anti-Maduro stalwart.
The problem is that effective foreign policy isn’t conducted via Twitter. Trump can’t reasonably expect to be taken seriously when his medium of communication is insult-riddled Twitter ranting. On Monday, he shared:
‘Unlike the radical left, I will ALWAYS stand against socialism and with the people of Venezuela. My Admin has always stood on the side of FREEDOM and LIBERTY and against the oppressive Maduro regime! I would only meet with Maduro to discuss one thing: a peaceful exit from power!’
Unlike the radical left, I will ALWAYS stand against socialism and with the people of Venezuela. My Admin has always stood on the side of FREEDOM and LIBERTY and against the oppressive Maduro regime! I would only meet with Maduro to discuss one thing: a peaceful exit from power!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2020
Trump’s latest anti-Maduro rhetoric also comes after Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton claimed in his memoir that Trump was privately critical of Guaidó. In his book, Bolton claims that during a May 2019 phone call with Trump, “Russian President Vladimir Putin compared Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Clinton,” as The Washington Post‘s reporter Josh Dawsey summarized — and Bolton claims that Putin “largely persuaded Trump.” Behind the scenes, Trump has also reportedly suggested invading Venezuela, which underlines how completely and utterly detached that Trump really is from any sense of political stability.
In short, he seems to have no idea what he’s doing.
Check out Twitter’s response below:
