‘Tough’ vs. rude

So on Thursday President Trump insisted that the American public shouldn’t worry about his “tough” talks with other world leaders.

“They’re tough. We have to be tough,” he insisted. “We’re taken advantage of by every nation in the world, virtually. It’s not going to happen anymore.”

But Trump fails to draw a line between “tough” and simply rude and ill-considered. And the latter sooner or later is going to get our country into big trouble.

One of the more recent examples was his telephone conversation with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto — whom Trump insulted by insisting on a pledge to pay for a border wall before Pena Nieto could visit Washington, D.C. Pena Nieto canceled the trip.

According to an excerpt of a transcript leaked to the Associate Press this past week, Trump told his counterpart: “You have a bunch of bad hombres down there. You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I might just send them down to take care of it.”

The White House didn’t comment and the Mexican government, which would like to maintain a civil relationship with the man in the White House, denied everything. The credibility of the report was bolstered by a similar account on a Mexican website by reporter Dolia Estevez, who said Trump humiliated Pena Nieto.

This is mind-boggling arrogance. Mexico has a major crime problem in its drug-trafficking gangs, but the government cooperates closely with U.S. law enforcement agencies, — as shown by the recent extradition to the United States of captured drug baron “El Chapo” Guzman. What law enforcement timidity there is is found in corrupt local police forces; the Mexican military has been far more effective and far less corrupt.

Pena Nieto is not alone. Trump’s telephone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, lasted only half of its allotted hour time when the president accused Turnbull of trying to export the “next Boston [Marathon] bombers” in a refugee swap struck with the Obama administration.

Trump seems not to realize that the kind of crowd-pleasing bombast that worked well on the campaign trail doesn’t really cut it when talking to world leaders — especially those world leaders who are among this nation’s closest allies.

There’s a time and a place for tough — but that doesn’t equate with simply rude.