Most Think Women's Equality Won't Happen Soon

The chart above is from a survey done of 9,500 residents in 19 of the G-20 countries by The Women's Forum For The Economy And Society. It shows what people in those 19 countries think about women's rights. The results, as you can see above, were not encouraging.

The charts below are from the same survey. Note many nations are doing better than the United States.

Photo Evidence Of Donald Trump's G-20 Humiliation

When Donald Trump met with the NATO countries, there is video of him shoving another leader aside to get to the middle of the front row for the photo of the group. It speaks to Trump's narcissistic personality that he felt he should be the center of attention.

That did not happen at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg. The top photo is of the G-20 leaders. Note that Trump is NOT front row center, but has been moved down toward the end -- a clear sign that he no longer is considered to be a leader by the other nations of the G-20.

There is always a group picture of the G-20 leaders during their yearly meeting, and the American president is always given a spot of honor in that picture (front row near the center), because the U.S. president was considered to be a leader of the free world and a prime architect of world economic policy. Note in the other photos that Bush in 2008, Obama in 2009 and Obama in 2016 all had positions on the front row near the center (and while I didn't include the 2010 through 2015 photos, the U.S. president was given the same position of honor in those also).

That is no longer true. Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement on global change, and has expressed his desire to pull the U.S. out of trade agreements it has signed. Both have made the other members of the G-20 unhappy with Trump -- and they no longer look to the U.S. president for leadership. Trump's place in the photo expresses that feeling very clearly.

I doubt Trump (with his narcissistic personality) was very happy with this demotion, but he has earned it. You cannot be looked to as a world leader when you make it clear to everyone that you come first, your own country second, and the rest of the world is only an afterthought.

Was Trump's G-20 Trip A "Great Success"? NO!

(This photo of an isolated Trump at G-20 is by Felipe Trueba / EPA.)

Here is some of how Rachel Elbaum reported on Trump's trip for NBC News:

When President Donald Trump returned from his second trip to Europe in as many months, he presented his visit to the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg as a "great success."

The outlook from this side of the Atlantic, however, was less enthusiastic, with Europeans viewing the American president as more isolated than ever. 

“Generally, Trump didn’t impress very many leaders on European side,” said Susi Dennison, director of the European Power program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

“If he did have a clear set of outcomes that he wanted to achieve at the meeting, it wasn’t evident that was accomplished.”

When President Donald Trump returned from his second trip to Europe in as many months, he presented his visit to the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg as a "great success."

The outlook from this side of the Atlantic, however, was less enthusiastic, with Europeans viewing the American president as more isolated than ever. 

“Generally, Trump didn’t impress very many leaders on European side,” said Susi Dennison, director of the European Power program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

“If he did have a clear set of outcomes that he wanted to achieve at the meeting, it wasn’t evident that was accomplished.” . . .

Perhaps the largest area of discord at the summit was around the Paris Climate Change agreement, from which Trump withdrew the U.S. last month. He has vowed to negotiate new treaty terms for the U.S. that are more business friendly. 

The U.S. was the only country that did not reaffirm the G-20's support for international efforts to fight global warming. The statement released by the G-20 after the summit called the Paris climate accord "irreversible." 

Instead, recently elected French President Emmanuel Macron took the lead on climate change, announcing plans for a new international climate summit in December. 

The other major area of disagreement between Trump and Europe centered around free trade. Again it was Macron, who reportedly staunchly defended free trade, showing off his iPhone as evidence of its success. 

“While Europeans weren’t happy with Trump’s message, they now at least feel that they have a better sense of what his priorities are,” said Erik Brattberg, Director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. . . .

Perhaps unwittingly, Trump’s isolationist stance on key issues has united European leaders, who are now more determined to take the lead on their priorities. 

“It was important for all of the European states to show Trump that the EU is back as a force, and that Brexit hasn’t knocked it off course,” said Dennison. “The EU wanted to show that it intends to continue engaging in the international order as a defender of liberal western values and open globalist free trade.”

Trump Knuckles Under To Putin In Their First Meeting

(Photo of Putin and Trump is by Evan Vucci (AP) at NBC News.)

Here's what Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the Putin/Trump meeting:

“President Trump has said that he has heard earlier declarations from Mr. Putin that Russian leadership and Russian government has not interfered in the elections. And he accepts the things that Mr. Putin has said.” 

And here's what U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said:

"There was not a lot of re-litigating of the past. I think both of the leaders feel like there's a lot of things in the past that both of us are unhappy about. We're unhappy, they're unhappy. What the two Presidents, I think rightly, focused on is how do we move forward. How do we move forward from here, because it’s not clear to me that we will ever come to some agreed-upon resolution of that question between the two nations."

Frankly, I don't trust what either Lavrov or Tillerson ever says, because the Putin administration and the Trump administration have both demonstrated a total disregard for the truth. But when both sides agree on what happened in the meeting, then we are probably getting something at least close to the truth. And that's how I read the two statements above.

Tillerson said Trump opened the meeting by "pressing" Putin on the issue of Russia hacking our election. He had to do that, even though he said just the day before that he still isn't sure it happened (or that it was the Russians who did it). If he hadn't, he would have been roundly criticized by members of both political parties. While Trump doesn't want to admit it happened, the Republicans and Democrats in Congress (and the American public) believes our intelligence agencies (who say it is a fact, and that it was directed by Putin himself).

If we are to believe Lavrov and Tillerson, then Trump did bring the subject up and Putin denied it. Then (whether Trump accepted it or not) they agreed to move on to other subjects and work toward developing a better relationship. That's is NOT adequate!

The hacking of our 2016 election by Russian hackers at the direction of Putin was nothing less than an attack on our country -- on the very basis of our democratic form of government. NOTHING is more important than that -- not Syria, not Ukraine, not North Korea, and not improving relations between Russia and the United States.

The hacking should have been the most important subject of that meeting, and until satisfaction was received on that subject (an apology and assurances that it would never happen again) no other subject should have even been discussed. How can anyone improve relations or have agreements with a government that has attacked the very foundations of our democracy?

Trump knuckled under to Putin on the most important issue there was to discuss. By refusing to stand up to Putin, he failed his country -- and he made the world a much more dangerous place (with a stronger Putin and a weaker American presidency).

Residents Of G-20 Countries Trust Merkel More Than Trump

This chart reflects the results of the Spring global survey done by the Pew Research Center. It shows what the residents of the G-20 nations think about Donald Trump and Angela Merkel -- and which they would trust more to do the right thing regarding world affairs.

In the past, most of these nations would trust the U.S. president over other world leaders. That is no longer true. Now, in 14 of the 17 nations queried, the residents would trust Germany's Angela Merkel over Donald Trump to do the right thing. Only Russia and India would trust Trump more -- while South Africa is split between trusting Trump and Merkel.

Trump is not even trusted more than Merkel in the United States. About 56% in the U.S. would trust Merkel to do the right thing, while only 46% would Trust Trump to do the right thing -- a substantial 10 point advantage for Merkel.

Donald Trump May Be The G-20's Biggest Problem

The chart above shows the member nations of the G-20 and their leaders. It was established in 1999 as a way to stabilize the world economy (which would be beneficial to all nations). These powerful economic entities can have a significant effect on the world economy, since they control 4/5 of the gross global product and 3/4 of the world trade. It was originally only attended by the finance ministers of each entity, but in 2008 the heads of state started attending (due to the economic problems posed by the recession).

But to be effective in stabilizing the world economy, the G-20 nations need to act together. Unfortunately, there is now a fly in the ointment -- Donald Trump. Trump is taking actions that go against the purpose of the G-20.

Recently, Trump notified the world that the United States would pull out of the Paris Agreement on global climate change. Global climate change is an issue that will have a growing effect on the economies of all the world's nations -- and having the United States not participating puts the effort to control global climate change in serious doubt (since the U.S. is the largest user of fossil fuels and second in production of greenhouse gases).

Trump has also decided that he wants to "renegotiate" the trade agreements the U.S. has with other entities -- claiming they are unfair to the United States. And he has even said he might pull the U.S. out of those trade agreements if they cannot be redone to favor the United States. There is little doubt that a U.S. abandonment of the trade agreements would be detrimental for the world economy.

In other words, Trump is acting against the very purpose of the G-20. Instead of joining the other nations to stabilize the world economy, he is acting to destabilize it. Donald Trump is emerging as the G-20's (and the world's) biggest problem.

18 Of 19 G20 Countries Want Clinton As Next President

The YouGov Poll recently surveyed citizens in the G20 countries about who they preferred to see become the next president of the United States -- Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton (who are the odds-on favorites to get their party's nomination). Only one country chose Donald Trump -- Russia. All the other G20 countries chose Hillary Clinton -- with a margin of between 12 (China) and 54 (Mexico).I think it's pretty obvious that Trump scares a lot of the rest of the world, while they know and trust Clinton.

Clinton was also the preference over Bernie Sanders in every one of these countries. The smallest margin was in Canada -- where Clinton holds a 17 point lead over Sanders. The margin was larger in every other country.