Mr Bean goes to Asia

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Popular German newspaper the Bild Zeitung recently described .. Trump's attendance at the ASEAN summit .. as "gaga". The .. president was ridiculed when he failed to do the traditional cross-over handshake correctly ...

Trump's involuntary comic side came out even in his more serious speeches. It was clear .. that the US had little of substance to offer ...

When he met Xi Jinping, he spoke up for three college basketball players from Los Angeles who were recently arrested for shoplifting in the southern city of Hangzhou. The fact that .. famous writers .. all over the world had asked him to speak up for .. Liu Xia, the widow of the late Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo, in an open letter, did not seem to interest Trump in the slightest ...

... Trump's 12-day visit will be remembered as an awkward attempt to walk on eggshells and might go down in history as a milestone in the decline of a world power which cannot demonstrate moral superiority even in the West.

http://www.dw.com/en/sierens-china-mr-bean-goes-to-asia/a-41416101

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1. Asia trip signaled American retreat

David Ignatius

... the president praised himself at nearly every stop, telling reporters on the way home that the trip had been "tremendously successful" with "incredible" achievements.

Trump’s trip may .. prove .. historic, but .. not in the way he intends. It may signal .. accommodation to rising Chinese power, plus a desire to mend fences with a belligerent Russia — with few evident security gains for America ...

... Much was made of his regurgitation of Putin's denial that he had conducted a covert action against America during last year's presidential campaign. "President Putin really feels — and he feels strongly — that he did not meddle in our election."

Remarked one former senior CIA official: "When the Art of the Deal meets the KGB, the KGB wins" ...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Trump-s-Asia-trip-signaled-American-retreat-12363859.php

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2. Was Asia trip a win for American global influence?

... Trump praised the leader of the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte, who has sanctioned gunning down criminal suspects in the streets. Rennie says Duterte "is not just a bad guy. He boasts about being a killer. ... That normally would have gotten you some rebuke from an American president."

But no more. Rennie writes, "Not only does <Trump> admire dictators; he explicitly praises thuggishness, such as the mass murder of criminal suspects in the Philippines" ...

James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there was a lack of unity and clarity coming from the U.S. administration over what actions from North Korea might open the door to negotiations, what an acceptable path was to de-escalation, and even whether its ultimate goal was still regime change.

"One question is what would the preconditions be for the U.S. to sit down with North Korea to negotiate," he said. "We've had at least three different answers to that question in the past week or two" ...

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2017/11/16/Analysis-Was-Trump-s-Asia-trip-a-win-for-American-global-influence-as-he-says/stories/201711160121