A brutal monologue from an Australian journalist denouncing US president Donald Trump's performance at the G20 and claiming he has "no desire and no capacity to lead the world" has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
What did we learn about @realDonaldTrump at this #G20? @CUhlmann explains. #Insiders
Chris Uhlmann, the political editor of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), has been in Hamburg, Germany, covering the Group of 20 nations conference over the past few days.
On Sunday morning Australia time, he delivered a set piece on ABC political talkshow Insiders, which has now been shared and viewed thousands of times in the hours since it went to air.
Chris Uhlmann, @cuhlmann is now trending in #DC https://t.co/1ypK7X5RuE
In the monologue, Uhlmann said Trump had "pressed fast-forward on the decline of the United States as a global leader" and has "no desire and no capacity to lead the world".
He slammed the US president for not rallying other states at the G20 in a joint statement condemning North Korea's missile tests, and said that people can be mistaken when they conflate Trump's speeches with the beliefs and ideas of the man himself.
"But it's the unscripted Trump that's real: a man who barks out bile in a 140 characters, who wastes his precious days as president at war with the West institutions like the judiciary, independent agencies and the free press," Uhlmann said.
"He was an uneasy, lonely, awkward figure at this gathering and you got the strong sense some of the leaders are trying to find the best way to work around him."
The view from Australia: "Trump has no desire and no capacity to lead the world... The #G20 became the G19"
At the conclusion of the G20, the leaders of 19 of the world’s 20 largest economies reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris climate accords, putting on record their differences with Trump's administration.
Here is a full transcript:
What we already knew is that the President of the United States has a particular skill set, that he's identified an illness in Western democracies, but he has no cure for it and seems intent on exploiting it – and we've also learned that he has no desire and no capacity to lead the world.
The G20 became the G19 as it ended. On the Paris climate accords, the US was left isolated and friendless. But given that was always going to happen, a deft president would have found an issue which he could rally most of the leaders. And he had the perfect one – North Korea's missile tests. So where was the G20 statement condemning North Korea which would have put pressure on China and Russia? Other leaders expected it. They were prepared to back it, but it never came.
There's a tendency among some hopeful souls to confuse the speeches written for Trump with the thoughts of the man himself – he did make some interesting, scripted observations in Poland about defending the values of the West. And he's in a unique position. He's the one man who has something to do something about it. But it's the unscripted Trump that's real: a man who barks out bile in 140 characters, who wastes his precious days as president at war with the West institutions like the judiciary, independent agencies and the free press. He was an uneasy, lonely, awkward figure at this gathering and you got the strong sense some of the leaders are trying to find the best way to work around him.
Donald Trump's a man that craves power because it burnishes his celebrity. To be constantly talking and talked about is all that really matters and there is no value placed on the meaning of words, so what's said one day can be discarded the next.
So what did we learn? We learn that Donald Trump has pressed fast forward on the decline of the United States as a global leader. He managed to isolate his nation, to confuse and alienate his allies and to diminish America – he will cede that power to China and Russia. Two authoritarian states that will forge a very different set of rules for the 21st century. Some will cheer the decline of America. But I think we'll miss it when it's gone. And that's the biggest threat to the values of the West which he claims to hold so dear.