Anderson Cooper aims for stoicism on most subjects, but when it comes to the perplexed utterances of President Trump, he sometimes loses his cool.
This was recently the case when he and Bernie Sanders had a chuckle over one particularly bonkers Trump statement: “Who knew healthcare could be so complicated?” Cooper was reminded of that moment (and more) after being rendered speechless by Trump’s reaction to diplomacy. He had aimed to do his negotiating thing with Chinese President Xi Jingping but soon realized that solving the North Korea problem is “not so easy.”
Cooper was not only shocked by Trump’s baffled reaction but also his own response to it. He was at once amused and almost ashamed: “I don’t know why I’m reacting like this.” Yet that’s how many feel about the one-upping nature of Trump statements (along with those by Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer).
The Coop was especially disturbed while noting, “He has no real positions.” This referred to Trump reversing course on NATO almost like he was flipping a coin but perhaps because (as Cooper notes), “The NATO guy was here today and so now NATO is indispensable, but when the NATO guy leaves, is that still going to be the position?” Therein lies the difficulty.
As for Trump’s reaction to diplomatic efforts, he had attempted to sway China into agreeing to oppose North Korea. Trump even went to the trouble of “listening for 10 minutes” and concluded that this was a tough gig. Yet as Cooper assesses, Trump will easily bend to “the last person who gave him a ten-minute lecture.” Well, the U.S. knew what level of foreign policy expertise they were getting with this dude long before he was elected. Still, folks will continue to be amazed.