Last weekend Fairfax Media published this stunning photograph in its Good Weekend Magazine, celebrating the photographer, Annie Leibowitz, and her new book she has published.
The photograph is from a 2006 Vogue Magazine photo shoot she did of Melania Trump, pregnant with her son Barron, and Donald Trump seated in the Mercedes car.
I am not sure what the objective of that photo shoot was but to my mind it screams of bad taste.
From what we know of Donald Trump now, it’s not surprising. (On the other hand, personally, I have had the view that Melania does have taste, decorum and intelligence. Did Donald force her to pose)?
Also last week, Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, in Vietnam. The American media is going crazy over Trump’s belief that Russia didn’t interfere in the American presidential election.
The New York Times reports Trump saying “Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it”.
The New York Times then points out “his own intelligence agencies, which have concluded that Mr. Putin directed an elaborate effort to interfere in the vote. The C.I.A., the National Security Agency, the F.B.I. and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all determined that Russia meddled in the election”.
They also quote Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the election.
“You know who else is insulted by it, Mr. President? The American people,” Mr. Schiff said on Twitter. “You believe a foreign adversary over your own intelligence agencies.”
Bad judgement Mr Trump!
Then, after his critics conceding that he was being somewhat statesmanlike on his Asian tour, he tweets:
“Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old’, when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat’? Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen”!
All perceptions of statesmanship destroyed! Bad, bad timing – and again judgement.
The UK betting agency Ladbrokes are offering 3 to 1 odds that he will be replaced next year. I am placing a bet!
