What if you had a long time friend who lived across town? For decades, you had helped each other out. Then, this friend wants to be friends with your beligerent next door neighbor.
This neighbor had been shooting fireworks over your and your other neighbors’ houses. Your friend supported your and the neighborhood association’s desire to stop the fireworks, which happens. Everyone is hopeful the beligerent neighbor will behave going forward.
Then, the beligerent neighbor starts shooting fireworks near your fence. Again, you complain. But, this time your cross-town friend stands right next to you in your yard and says to the neighborhood association that the neighbor’s shooting fireworks does not bother him. What? But, it bothers me.
This happened in Japan just last week. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood there as US President Donald Trump said the North Korean testing of short range missiles does not bother him. It does seem to bother Trump’s head of National Security and Secretary of Defense, South Korea and the United Nations, but not the man who says his gut is smarter than everyone’s brain, which is insulting in and of itself.
The fact his former Secretary of State testified the week before to a Senate committee that Putin had “out-prepared” them is telling. And, a Politico article this week noted Trump continues to stand alone on North Korea. Yet, none of that would stand in the way of belittling legitimate fears, not the ones he contrives.
Many Americans do not realize Japan is one of our best allies. To stand on their soil and say their concerns about a beligerent neighbor are unimportant is an insult. To Abe’s credit, he reiterated his concerns referring to the missile test as a “quite regrettable act.” What he sadly realized then and there is what other people who have dealt with Trump eventually come to realize. You can cater to him, but he will not reciprocate.
musingsofanoldfart 
Intelligent world leaders should by now know full well that Trump is an imbecil and after being given a pat on the butt, sent home with a lollipop. There is nothing there to have an intelligent discussion with, case closed.
Sha’Tara, I think they are learning if they don’t know already. I think they know not to trust him. None of what we see him do is new, as he has acted this way his whole life. Keith
Why is it that he seems to denigrate all our friends and pander to our foes? He has put down Angela Merkel, Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron, Andrés Obrador and others, yet he has only kind words for Kim, Putin, Duterte and Bolsonaro. We are going to find ourselves in need of a friend one day and there will be none left. As far as his gut … surely there is room there for a lot of smarts, but my guess is it’s filled with lard. If he were a tenth as intelligent as he claims to be, he might actually qualify for the office he holds. Sigh.
Jill, well said. He has made America the relative you have to invite to Thankdgiving, not a friend you would love to come. The best analogy is that conference where he is wandering the room after dinner looking for someone who will talk to him. He finally wandered over to talk to Putin, which scared the crap out of our senior officials. Keith
You’re right … that was a telling moment! And you’re also right about how our allies view him … the uncle that we invite because we have no choice, but nobody really wants him around.
Jill, the way you phrased it, I could hear a mother’s echo of saying why we must invite “Uncle Donald.” Keith