The World Is Laughing At Donald Trump -- Again!

(Photo of Finland's President Sauli Niinisto and Donald Trump, from Politico.com, is by Chip Somodevilla/Getty images.)

Once again, Donald Trump showed he is either the most ignorant world leader or he just makes things up to make himself look good -- perhaps both. While it is becoming obvious to most people that global warming is causing more disasters, Trump is still in denial.

He exhibited this when he announced that the cause of the devastating fires in California were caused by a failure to rake the leaves and small brush from the forest floor. He even went so far as to say that Finland's President Sauli Niinisto told him that there are fewer fires in Finland because they rake their forests.

"I was with the president of Finland, and he said, ‘We have a much different — we’re a forest nation.’ He called it a forest nation. And they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don’t have any problem. And when it is, it’s a very small problem."

Of course, that was a lie. The Finnish president was quick to point out that he did not say that to Trump. He simply said that Finland has a good monitoring system and network. That's something the U.S. also has (although it has been made more difficult by Trump cuts to the budget).

The idea of raking millions of acres for Forest is a ridiculous idea, and the people of Finland know that. They have taken to Twitter and social media to laugh at Trump silly idea. Here's a sample of the Finnish people have fun at Trump's expense:

Public Is Not Happy With Trump's Helsinki Performance

Donald Trump is still trying to convince Americans that his meeting with Putin in Helsinki was a great success, but the public is not buying it. By a 17 point margin, adults disapprove of the way Trump handled the meeting (33% to 50%). And among registered voters, that margin increases to 21 points (33% to 54%).

Only one group approved of Trump's performance in Helsinki -- Republicans. All other groups disapproved.

This makes me wonder how good an idea it is to have Putin visit the White House right before the November election. It won't matter to GOP voters, but is it wise to remind other voters of how they feel about the Trump/Putin bromance - especially if they again meet in secret. A majority of Americans don't trust Trump, and a new summit where Trump praises Putin could just drive more voters to the polls (which is not what Republican candidates want to see).

The chart above reflects the results of a new ABC News / Washington Post Poll -- done between July 18th and 20th of a national sample of 464 adults, with a 5.5 point margin of error.

The new NBC News / Wall Street Journal Poll was also released on Sunday (see below). It was done between July 15th and 18th of a national sample of 900 registered voters, and had a margin of error of 3.3 points. The results were very similar to the ABC/WaPo Poll.

Public Doesn't Like How Trump Handled Helsinki Summit

It's now been several days since Trump met in secret with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, and both the American public and the U.S. government (and military) still has no idea what went on in the meeting. What we do know is that Trump was fawning all over Putin in the press conference that followed it. And he made it clear that he prefers the company and friendship of the Russian dictator to that of any of our best allies. It was an embarrassing and frightening spectacle to behold.

What did most Americans think about Trump's performance in Helsinki? They didn't like it. Two polls have now been released about the Helsinki meeting. In the first, 55% of adults, 83% of Democrats, and 53% of Independents said they disapproved of how Trump handled himself in Helsinki. In the second, 58% of adults, 91% of Democrats, and 62% of Independents disapproved.

There was only one group that approved of Trump's performance in Helsinki -- Republicans. In the first poll 68% approved, and in the second poll 79% approved. That makes me wonder if there's ANYTHING Trump could do that the Republican base would not approve of.

The CBS News Poll was done on July 17th and 18th of a national sample of 1,007 adults, and has a 4 point margin of error.

The Axios / SurveyMonkey Poll was done on July 16th and 17th of a national sample of 2,100 adults, and has a 3 point margin of error.

What Did Trump Agree To In Secret Meeting With Putin ?

(Cartoon image is by Arend van Dam at cagle.com.)

While Donald Trump bragged about what a good meeting with Vladimir Putin, he said nothing about reaching any agreement with the Russian leader. Instead, he left the impression that the two men had a friendly talk, and that talk had (in Trump's opinion) established a new and friendlier relationship between the two countries.

But Russia seems to have a different opinion of what happened in the secret Helsinki meeting. Here's what Russian military spokesman Major General Igor Kosashenkov said on Tuesday (the day after the secret meeting):

"The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is ready for practical implementation of the agreements reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in the sphere of international security achieved at the Helsinki summit." 

WHAT AGREEMENTS? Were agreements reached on international security that Trump doesn't want the American people to know about? Has Congress been informed about these agreements? If not, then why not?

If any agreements were reached in that secret meeting, even agreement in general terms, it should not be kept secret between Trump and the Russians. Did Trump give away something he shouldn't have? Did Trump give Putin a free hand in Syria? Did he assure Putin we wouldn't act to protect some of our Eastern European NATO allies? Did he agree to something else equally nefarious?

I would say that its time for Trump to tell Americans what went on in that meeting, but frankly, Trump can't be trusted to tell the truth about it. He has shown himself to be a prolific and consummate liar.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) has come up with what is probably the only way to find out what happened in the secret Helsinki meeting. She wants to subpoena the U.S. translator that was in the meeting to testify before Congress under oath.

Some people won't like that, but in my opinion, the meeting shouldn't have been held in secret to begin with. Top aides or cabinet members should have been in the room to curb Trump when his incompetence got out of hand -- and make sure any agreements reached were in the best interests of the United States.

This is especially important in light of the fact that most Americans don't trust Trump's judgement. As the chart below shows, only 35% of Americans think Trump exercises good judgement, while 50% thinks he does not -- a gap of 15 points.

The chart reflects the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between July 15th and 17th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,272 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.2 points, and for registered voters is 3 points.

Mosquito "Rats Out" Car Thief

This is a great story. A car thief in Finland thought he had committed the perfect crime. He stole an automobile and left absolutely no evidence or witnesses that the police could find. At least, that's what he thought -- but he was "ratted out" by an insect.

The thief stole the car in Lapua -- about 235 miles north of Helsinki. Several weeks later, police found the car about 25 miles from Lapua, in Seinaejoki. But police had no clue as to who had taken the car -- until one of them noticed a mosquito that had been trapped inside the abandoned vehicle.

They noticed the mosquito had recently filled up on someone's blood. They had a crazy idea. Could DNA be recovered from blood a mosquito had sucked from a human? They captured the mosquito and sent it to the lab. Sure enough, blood was recovered and a DNA profile was developed.

The DNA profile was matched to a known criminal whose DNA was on file with the police. He has now been arrested. The thief is still denying the crime (says he was only a hitchhiker picked up in the car). Maybe he'll get lucky with a Finnish jury, but personally, I think the mosquito has "nailed" him for this crime.

He left one witness too many -- the mosquito!