President Donald Trump is known for bluntly saying whatever crosses his mind, even in the middle of serious speeches and at public events, and he did just that at the peace-signing ceremony between the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, making insulting comments and butchering the leaders’ names.
During a meeting between Trump, Democratic Republic of the Congo President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, and Rwanda President Paul Kagame at the newly rebranded Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace building on Thursday, Dec. 4, Trump first called them “courageous leaders” before musing that “they’ve spent a lot of time killing each other.”
Then he added another startling comment saying they’ve also spent a lot of time “taking advantage of the United States of America, economically, like every other country does, look at them.”
Kagame laughed nervously, but Tshisekedi stonily glared at Trump through his demeaning remarks.
Journalist Aaron Rupar posted a clip of Trump trying to pronounce Tshisekedi’s name and botching it big time, but he did do a better job at guessing how to pronounce Kagame’s moniker.
The internet exploded with derogatory comments about Trump’s laziness in not bothering to learn how to say their names properly.
“No effort whatsoever, why do we go to great lengths to learn English, and the English people mostly do [give a rat’s ass about our languages?” this thread’s user wondered.
Late-night comic and TV host Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t resist getting in on the action, roasting Trump over the mispronunciation and his other rudely embarrassing remarks.
“This conflict between Rwanda and Congo, this has been going on for decades. Millions of people have been killed,” Kimmel explained.
“They’re still fighting as of today, but that didn’t stop Dr. Art of the Deal from acting like he mediated a dispute between neighbors over a broken sprinkler head,” Kimmel joked before playing a clip of Trump talking about how they “liked each other a lot” before launching into the insulting comments about them “killing each other” and “taking advantage” of the U.S. economically.
And while Kimmel is certainly hilarious, social media users took Trump’s blatant insults more seriously.
“He talks about other nations’ leaders like they’re children. Jesus, that orange goon is an embarrassment,” one Threads user wrote.
“Not a day goes by where Trump doesn’t manage to show the world what a joke this country has now become,” Threads user Brian Tinson grumbled. “How the hell can anyone respect us as a nation with his incompetent a– at the helm of our deteriorating democracy?”
Another user agreed, “It’s soo ridiculous!!!!!!”
And social media poster Mary Singer was simply angry. “I am not sure if we will ever regain the respect of people around the world. Who would trust a nation full of people who would vote for this disgusting, stupid con man?
Trump has spent months crowing and widely exaggerating how he’s settled eight global conflicts, brokering peace deals and negotiating agreements.
And he did help negotiate a deal between Rwanda and Congo last summer, but the fighting rages on, so the conflict has not been settled. USA Today reported that Congo and Rwanda have not implemented the ceasefire yet as they continue to negotiate the details of the accord.
He also takes credit for helping end the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June — one of the United States’ dramatic participations — and the fighting between Cambodia and Thailand, according to The Associated Press.
Trump claims he brokered a peace deal between Israel and Hamas. He helped end the most recent years of fighting in Gaza, but he has not ended the war between the two parties.
His claims of having ended the fighting between Egypt and Ethiopia over a dam project are false. And India has denied Trump’s contention that he settled the fighting between India and Pakistan.
Trump has also boasted that he resolved a conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, but there is no war between the two countries.
And he made a big deal about settling the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and although the foreign ministers from both countries initialed a deal at the White House, the AP reported, no deal has been signed or ratified.
