GODZILLA'S FOREIGN POLICY

Before taking the escalator and the USA down, Trump was a fixture in local tabloids and on a TV reality show. His persona veered between that of a playboy for Page Six and a louche boss who had to contend with the seedy side of Atlantic City (there is no other).

Arriving at the White House like a mad croupier, he must have asked himself how to continue on his path to diplomatic jeopardy. He could have gathered seasoned diplomats around him and gone for a retreat at Monticello. Instead he chose to visit the home of Andrew Jackson. Besides that empty gesture (he knew nothing of his unloved predecessor other than what Steve Bannon had suggested to him for a photo-op), that most uncharismatic president now has his portrait in the president's Oval Office (which now looks like some executive Hilton suite).

After two years of turmoil, Trump's "thinking" has become clear. Everything is entertainment, is done for bluff, noise, repetitive added value.  His Saudi visit was a remake of Aladdin, his North Korea idyll followed in the steps of A Star is Born, Europe is a never-ending Who's Afraid of..., China is a sequel to Pearl Buck: The 'Rare' Earth.  Israel--with Bibi and all the Trumps--is The Trapp Family 5, Iran is Bond without Ursula...and one can go on.

To take Trump seriously is to confuse sequel and consequence. The former is for the "base", the latter is for the "concerned". In a derelict landscape of allies snubbed, values overturned and given words broken Godzilla roams alone, driven by the sole need to stick to prime time. The more serious-minded beasts talk among themselves meanwhile, out of view.

This American summer risks being most unpleasant because the one who sets the tone and the agenda is only driven by his own scent. America and the world have become special effects for his own adornment.