Worldwide, Trump’s latest legal woes draw outrage, silence, shrugs
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The world, it seems, is once again gawking at the messiness of the US and calculating the costs and opportunities of the latest Trump revelations.
PHOTO: AFP
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NEW YORK – As details emerged from the indictment
China’s propaganda machine, which would normally leap on a US scandal, stayed quiet. Russian commentators called the charges a fake production of the “deep state”.
And among American allies in Asia and Europe, there were concerns that the episode hurt not just the former president but also the United States by highlighting that security secrets were not safe in its hands.
“The case shows once again that Donald Trump belongs behind bars, not in the White House,” said Mr Ralf Stegner, a German Social Democrat who sits on the German intelligence oversight committee, “This man is a threat to security and democracy in the US and around the world.”
The world, it seems, is once again gawking at the messiness of the US and calculating the costs and opportunities of the latest Trump revelations transfixing and dividing the country.
His indictment has mostly been a reminder of what came before – and what might return as he runs for office again. But the world now is more experienced, knowing that his legal woes are far from over.
Many countries chose silence in public and eye rolls in private. “Save your energy because there will be other things to react to,” said Associate Professor Chong Ja Ian, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
Nonetheless, that did not mean that the episode would pass unnoticed – or fail to be exploited by other nations trying to tilt the world away from US leadership.
For China, publicly ignoring Trump’s indictment may have reflected deeper, long-term goals. Some analysts believe that Beijing might welcome his return to office because he was less committed to traditional alliances – and democracy – and might see value in a US-China deal of some kind.
Mr Nikolai Starikov, a pro-Kremlin commentator on the Russian state news television talk show 60 Minutes, characterised the cases against Trump as a pressure campaign to push him out of the 2024 race.
In Europe, the accusations of mishandling of classified information were deeply worrisome. The bloc is anxiously following the political drama unfolding across the Atlantic, questioning whether it would help or hurt the former president’s campaign and European security. NYTIMES
