title:  Trump Is Crushing An Int’l Tradition That Even Worldwide Hatred Of George W. Couldn’t Dent
text: The whole world is talking about Donald Trump, over which he is no doubt preening because any attention is good attention as long as it s focused entirely on him. But besides the obvious problems with this, there s one tradition that s very important among international leaders and diplomats. Trump is getting dangerously close to destroying it.The tradition is this: You don t trash-talk a foreign country s political candidates.That might seem silly. It might seem trivial. It s not. This is a very old tradition that was actually turned into policy at the 1961 Vienna Convention. While different countries interpret  Thou shalt not interfere in foreign countries  elections  differently, most are careful to keep their mouths shut, at least publicly. Even in 2004, when the whole world hated George W. Bush for the fiasco that was Iraq, foreign diplomats and leaders mostly kept quiet.Not so now. Trump is testing everyone s patience, and many find that they just can t keep it to themselves: If you represent one of these countries that has been insulted or attacked, you tend to react. We are very passionate, and our blood is pretty hot. But we have to play it cool and understand that this is a campaign, and an election, and that we are diplomats. This week, thousands of foreign diplomats are gathering in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly. Trump has insulted a great many of them in one way or another. What the Latin-American diplomat said to Politico is true around the world: Adding to the complications is that U.S. elections are increasingly followed intensely by people overseas, whether it s via Facebook or CNN International. So when a U.S. presidential candidate slams a foreign country as Trump has so often (with Mexico, Japan, China, members of NATO, and on and on) representatives of those countries feel unusual domestic pressure to respond. Wars of words could easily escalate into more serious wars with Trump. He s proven that with his threats against both Ted Cruz and John Kasich for the 2018 midterms   he can t let a slight go.As another example of how he goes after everyone who pisses him off: He s busy trash-talking a Scottish whiskey company for daring to give an award to a neighbor of his who criticizes his golf course. In retaliation, he s banned every brand of whiskey from William Grant & Sons for that affront, because really, how dare they?He should have more important things to worry about than petty personal slights, but they re actually the centerpiece of his whole existence. When foreign leaders won t play ball his way, and go on record with nothing but what he thinks are insults, what s he going to do? Two guesses what he ll do, but you ll only need one.He hasn t even been elected yet and foreign leaders and diplomats are openly attacking him. Some of these people probably held their tongues when George W. was running for re-election, however hard that might have been. This would be hilarious if it wasn t so frightening.Featured image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images