Anne Applebaum: “In only a few minutes, the conduct of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance created a model new stereotype for America: not the quiet American, not the ugly American, however the brutal American. No matter illusions Europeans ever had about People—no matter photos lingered from previous American motion pictures, those the place the great guys win, the unhealthy guys lose, and honor defeats treachery—these are shattered. No matter fond reminiscences stay of the smiling GIs who marched into European cities in 1945, of the speeches that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan made on the Berlin Wall, or of the crowds that after welcomed Barack Obama, these are additionally fading quick.”
“Fairly aside from their politics, Trump and Vance are impolite. They’re merciless. They berated and mistreated a visitor on digital camera, after which boasted about it afterward, as if their ugly conduct achieved some sort of macho ‘win’…”
“These are the actions not of the great guys in previous Hollywood motion pictures, however of the unhealthy guys. If Reagan was a white-hatted cowboy, Trump and Vance are Mafia dons. The refrain of Republican political leaders defending them appears each sinister and shocking to Europeans too.”
