Speaking Of Asia

Trump disarray seen from Asia

While America's military and economic power remains unrivalled despite the pandemic, the Trumpian response to protests outside the White House has left Asians wondering about its impact on the US as a moral force

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Absorbing news of US President Donald Trump emerging from a secure underground bunker to threaten protesters that he could use "vicious dogs" and that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts", the mind goes back to an October morning in the Philippines in 1987.

On that day, then President Corazon Aquino showed up in a government prosecutor's office to file a lawsuit against popular columnist Luis Beltran of The Philippine Star newspaper who'd suggested that she "hid under her bed" during a coup attempt that August - "perhaps the first commander-in-chief to do so".

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 05, 2020, with the headline Trump disarray seen from Asia. Subscribe