All partisan politics aside, it's tragic that this is how the US is being represented to the world. [View all]

[Tommy_Carcetti]

There's certain minimal baseline expectations I would have for any President. I could disagree with virtually each and every one of his or her positions or policies. I could count the days until he or she leaves office because I think he/she is leading the country in the opposite direction. I could go to the streets and protest what I see are the harmful consequences of his/her decisions. And that's all normal in the world of politics.

But there are some things, some very basic things, I should be able to expect from any President.

Most namely, I should be able to expect him/her not to act a fool to the world.

I should be able to expect him/her to go in front of our closest allies as they present us a memorial of a terrorist attack that happened on our soil at their headquarters and not act like a shady debt collector or insinuate that he/she won't have their back if they are attacked, even if they've shown that they've had ours.

I should be able to expect him/her not to use a gesture as simple as a handshake between two leaders as a measure of dominance.

I should be able to expect him/her not to shove--literally shove!--other leaders of allied countries out of his/her way to gain a prominent position for a group photograph.

I should be able to expect him/her not to call one of our closest and important allies "bad" or "evil" for no reason other than the fact they sell cars, and threaten a trade war with that close ally over such a reason.

There are any number of people who could have become President in November 2016, and some of them were pretty bad or depressing to think about (**cough cough Ted Cruz cough cough**).

But only Donald J. Trump fails the utmost basic of all basic tests of acting like a gracious representative to the world, even to our closest allies.

He is truly the worst.

And I hate what he's doing to the nation's image. I absolutely hate it.