He Didn't Say - He Couldn't Have Said

 

I heard that Donald Trump said that America is once again respected in the world. 

I don't know what world he's talking about, but none that I inhabit. I live in both Switzerland and the South of France. I have friends in both places of many nationalities .

Respect? People we know and complete strangers, when they hear our accents, are more apt to ask how we are feeling about what is happening in America. They offer us sympathy on the events in our birth country. 

Some tourists have expressed outrage about what Trump is doing to the world. It's more like people want to express condolences over the death of one of our loved ones.

I have yet to hear one good thing about Trump and the current administration from anyone I've talked to.

What I do hear is how they were planning a trip to the U.S., professional and/or personal, but are cancelling them or even never making plans to visit until the nightmare (my word) is over. 

Canadians with second homes, snowbirds to the Floridians, have put their houses on the market hoping not to take too big a loss.

I've heard people say, "I love (put in the name of an American product) but I won't buy anything made in America."

Maybe Trump really believes that America has grown in respect, or he mistook the laughter, snickers and just plain disgust as approval. Or maybe he just wanted to lie to his base. Articles have said many Americans have never traveled far from their home so they don't know the truth. Nor do they take advantage on the web of the different national news services in English to get another point of view. 

Different estimates say that less than one third of all Americans have passports. Trips abroad are often to visit famous sites, check the Eiffel Tower off the list, if it is Tuesday it must be Belgium type trips. Their contact with other nationalities on these trips involve more their waiters, hotel receptionists and ticket takers at famous sites compared to normal citizens of these countries. 

Whether stay at homers or once in a lifetime tourists, learning about the other culture and people is impossible. It makes the lies Trump spews seem real.

I will say, most of the people who talk with us, express sadness for the country we were born in. 

As for us, we do not want to enter the U.S. We fear it. We've told our children only the threat of death will make us risk going to the U.S.