President Donald J. Trump is reportedly reeling after he wasn't invited to a meeting and military parade with Russia, China, North Korea and India — and it's a tough moment for the ultimate "pick me girl," an analyst wrote Friday.
"The leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea are not good men," Tom Nichols wrote for The Atlantic. "They preside over brutal autocracies replete with secret police and prison camps. But they are, nevertheless, serious men, and they know an unserious man when they see one. For nearly a decade, they have taken Donald Trump’s measure, and they have clearly reached a conclusion: The president of the United States is not worthy of their respect."
America has been sidelined by these leaders amid Trump's tariff fallout, Nichols wrote, and in the wake of Trump's snub from Putin following an unsuccessful meeting in Alaska aimed to stop Russian attacks on Ukraine.
The military parade Wednesday in Beijing "is the most recent evidence that the world’s authoritarians consider Trump a lightweight," Nichols reported. "Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korea’s maximum nepo baby, Kim Jong Un, gathered to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. (Putin’s Belarusian satrap, Alexander Lukashenko, was also on hand.)"
The leaders' move added insult to injury — and an act of defiance from the authoritarian leaders — after Trump's ill-advised meeting in August.
"When the Kremlin’s dictator shows up with no interest in negotiation, speaks first at a press conference, and then caps the day by declining a carefully planned lunch and flying home, that’s a humiliation, not an exchange of views," Nichols writes.
The administration and Pentagon appear to struggle with complex foreign relationships under Pete Hegseth's leadership, and though it was long believed that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) would be "the adult in the room," he has "instead become a man in a Velcro suit," carrying out jobs and tasks stuck onto him by the president, according to the writer.
He added that the cracks in America's foreign diplomacy are starting to show.
"It has no coherent foreign policy, no team of senior professionals managing its national defense and diplomacy, and a president who has little interest in the world beyond what it can offer him," Nichols reported.
Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for leaders like Xi, Putin, and Kim Jong Un and had a "little kid high school reaction" to not joining the group in China this week, Nichols wrote.
Modi was seen driving in Putin's limousine, a move signifying the two leaders coming together following Trump's tariffs, the New York Times reports.
The Trump administration slapped India with its highest tariff rate of 50%; a 25% baseline tariff, and an additional 25% secondary tariff as a penalty for its continued purchasing of Russian oil. Trump was reportedly “completely upset” with India over its refusal to halt its purchasing of Russian oil.
After the meeting, Trump posted on Truth Social that the relationship between India and Russia had frayed.
"Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!" Trump wrote.
