title:  Foreign Diplomats Scared Sh*tless Over The Idea Of A President Trump
text: As we know, the final United Nations General Assembly of President Obama s presidency is occurring in New York City this week. That gave diplomats from around the world to weigh in on this year s very strange presidential election. Many seem rather rattled about the idea of a Donald Trump presidency, while others merely poked fun at Trump s buffoonery.One diplomat mocked Trump, saying,  he s a clown.  Another said,  He s nuts.  Yet another said that Trump is an  untrustworthy egomaniacal equivocator. Well, it s too bad so many American citizens can t see these traits in Trump. An Ipsos poll that polled foreign ambassadors who are currently working in America has 60 percent of these people saying they would vote for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton if they were citizens, while only 7 percent would hop on the Trump Train. That in and of itself is very telling.Dennis Jett, who spent much of his career being a diplomat himself and now works for Pennsylvania State University School of International Affairs, says that Trump s behavior has made many diplomats nervous and worried about American leadership, America s role in the world. Also curious is the fact that the American people have succumbed to the belief that Hillary is untrustworthy, while 93 percent of those surveyed in the Ipsos poll say that they find Hillary to be  somewhat  or  very much  in the realm of someone who they feel they can trust. On the other hand, just two in five of those surveyed say that they trust Trump  a little  while the rest said they don t trust him as far as they can throw him.German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says that Trump is a  hate preacher  and alluded to the idea that the billionaire tycoon reminds him of demagogues from past times in his own homeland. French President Fran ois Hollande says that the GOP nominee s excesses make you want to retch. One lobbyist familiar with the diplomatic community says that there are deepening fears around the world regarding the idea of Trump making it to the White House. Speaking anonymously, the lobbyist said: Foreign clients are very concerned about what they perceive as a tipping point in this election. This is less about Democrat versus Republican, and more about open versus closed economy, vis- -vis the rest of the world. With a wave of nationalism and protectionism sweeping the West, there is a real concern it will take hold in the United States and in what form it might show itself post-election.Whether it s immigration reform or trade policy, it feels as if much of the world is opening while the U.S. is teetering on closing. Even more alarming, the diplomats say, is Trump s  America First  and isolationist demagoguery. Stephen Walt, who works as a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, says of the situation among diplomats: First and most obviously, most foreign governments would like a relatively predictable post-November situation, and I think they regard Trump correctly as a giant leap in the dark.Whatever Hillary Clinton s strengths or weaknesses might be, she has been a very conventional politician, at least when it comes to foreign policy. Therefore, people don t anticipate any kind of radical turn if she s elected. Of course, another source of more than a little concern is Trump s penchant for starting public feuds with longtime allies of the United States, as well as his public musings that he might not honor alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)   which is the single most important military alliance that we have developed since the horrors of World War II.In other words, the entire world is afraid of Donald Trump. Why aren t the American people able to see how dangerous this demagogue is? Donald Trump could single-handedly destroy the world with the power of the presidency.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images