CNN
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It is not exactly news that foreign leaders have concluded that, like their US counterparts, they are the necessary prerequisites for doing business with President Donald Trump.
In his first term, Trump appeared to have been practically hit by a “love letter” he received from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The other leaders pulled out all the stops to make him feel special.
But despite the background, we have entered new and impressive territory. It appears that foreign leaders have noticed a new paradigm as Trump took on a much more transparently traded second term, politicizing his office and destroyed a set of norms.
So they changed the secondary to 11. It doesn’t seem to show any amount of sicopancy on the top and there’s no praise that’s too early.
Despite most people in the world having a remarkably little faith in Trump, these leaders treat him on the world stage as all the conquered heroes with the word escalating.
On Wednesday, this took the form of multiple African leaders expressing some urging Trump to win his much-tracked Nobel Peace Prize.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rolling the ball this Monday, informing him that he had nominated Trump, but no one was trying to object.
“We can assure Mauritania that he will never oppose President Trump who will receive the Nobel Peace Prize,” said the country’s president, Mohamed All Gazwani, during lunch at the White House.
“Of course we said we support Trump’s award winning,” Guinea-Bissau President Humaro Siso Embaro said.
Senegale President Basilou Diomai Fey called it a “natural award.”
“I think President Trump deserves all the effort he is working on,” Gabonne President Bryce Oligui Nuguema said. Nguema cited a peace agreement that the Trump administration brokered between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
Don’t worry about how real that deal is indeed and how Trump failed to end the war in Gaza and Ukraine. And don’t worry about Trump’s surprise at the same incident on Wednesday that he is familiar with the African continent. (He apparently didn’t know that English was Liberian Japanese, and praised his ability to speak it and asked where he studied it.)
Don’t worry about it all. Trump was pleased.
“I didn’t know this would be treated well,” Trump said. “This is great. We were able to do this all day.”
Foreign leaders seem willing to take responsibility.
At the same event Wednesday, the Senegalese president proposed that Trump’s unexpected policy insight stems from his prowess as a “risky golf player.” He even suggested that the US president might invest in a golf course in Senegal.
Netanyahu was also enthusiastic after Trump allowed the US strike against Iran. He repeatedly casts the strike as a history-changing thing, calling it “the extremes of history that will help guide the Middle East and beyond into a future of prosperity and peace.” Netanyahu added: “I am grateful to the forces of civilization.”
Perhaps even more noteworthy these days was the rhetoric of NATO Executive Director Mark Latte, given Trump’s not-so-easy relationship with the alliance.
After Iran attacked last month, Trump posted a personal message on True Social from Latte, which sounded like it was written by the White House communications team. Latte called the Strikes “it’s really extraordinary and something no one else dares to do.”
“Europe is going to pay on a massive scale the way it should be and it will be your victory,” Latte said.
“You will achieve for decades what the US president cannot achieve,” he added.
Later at the NATO summit in The Hague, Latte responded to the vulgar Trump uttered by comparing him to “daddy.” He said: “Daddy has to use a strong language from time to time.”
Latte denied that he called Trump Nat’s “daddy.” However, his use of words coincided with his well-cultured image as the Trump Alliance’s “daddy.” And the White House and Trump quickly grabbed the remarks accordingly.
You may not understand how intentional Latte says. But it was a great gift to the US president who, as he likes, cast NATO into a subordinate position against Trump. And despite Latte’s efforts to downplay it, Trump clearly isn’t trying to let him.
And that’s really the point here. It may seem harmless to praise Trump. Foreign leaders build up praise for each other while they are doing diplomacy, because that’s what you do.
But, one level of that is expected, there is a gradient. At some point, leaders can sacrifice their credibility and rhetorically transfer power to someone who is not always concerned with their hearts.
You may remember then-President Mike Pence praised Trump. In 2017, he praised Trump for three consecutive minutes at cabinet meetings, spending on average once every 12 seconds.
On January 6, 2021, when Trump criticized the vice president when he appeared to be indifferent to Pence’s fate, he criticized the riots for falling down to the US Capitol. Since then, Pence has expressed many concerns in the direction of Trump’s conservative movement, and his power grabs on issues like tariffs.
Trump’s enthusiastic treatment will have no choice but to strengthen his second term’s deal. As long as flattering actually works for Trump, it effectively trades policy decisions for his own personal admiration.
Netanyahu apparently calculated this is a great way to inspire interest in the controversial policies supported by Israeli leaders: hit Iran.
Qatari leaders have clearly speculated that giving Trump a plane with soup-splitting of Trump is a great way to gain his affection, despite the fact that some Republicans are the best way to give his affection.
But the calculations that you give Trump what he wants and worry about the rest are multiplying, as evidenced by the rise in agencies trying to gain Trump’s transparent domestic strength.
Now it appears that it has brought about one promotion game by foreign leaders.