"Trump has pressed fast-forward on the decline of the United States as a global leader."

Chris Uhlmann, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's political editor, had some interesting (and by "interesting," I mean "relentlessly scathing") observations about Donald Trump while covering the G20 summit:

What did we learn about @realDonaldTrump at this #G20? @CUhlmann explains. #Insiders pic.twitter.com/TGOXdiFWhB

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) July 8, 2017

What we already knew, Barry, that the President of the United States has a particular skill set — that he's identified an illness in western democracies, but he has no cure for it and seems intent on exploiting it — and we've also learned that he has no desire, and no capacity, to lead the world.

The G20 became the G19 as it ended. On the Paris Climate Accords, the U.S. was left isolated and friendless. But given that that was always going to happen, a deft president would have found an issue around which he could rally most of the leaders — and he had the perfect one: North Korea's missile tests. So where was the G20 statement condemning North Korea, which would have put pressure on China and Russia? Other leaders expected it; they were prepared to back it. But it never came.

There's a tendency among some hopeful souls to confuse the speeches written for Trump with the thoughts of the man himself. He did make some interesting scripted observations in Poland, about defending the values of the West, and he's in a unique position: He's the one man who has the power to do something about it.

But it's the unscripted Trump that's real — a man who barks out bile in 140 characters; who wastes his precious days as president at war with the West's institutions, like the judiciary, independent government agencies, and the free press.

He was an uneasy, lonely, awkward figure at this gathering, and you got the strong sense that some of the leaders are trying to find the best way to work around him.

Donald Trump's a man who craves power because it burnishes his celebrity. To be constantly talking and talked about it all that really matters, and there is no value placed on the meaning of words, so what's said one day can be discarded the next.

So, what did we learn? We learned that Donald Trump has pressed fast-forward on the decline of the United States as a global leader. He managed to isolate his nation, to confuse and alienate his allies, and to diminish America. He will cede that power to China and Russia — two authoritarian states that will forge a very different set of rules for the twenty-first century.

Some will cheer the decline of America, but I think we'll miss it when it's gone. And that's the biggest threat to the values of the West, which he claims to hold so dear.

This is as chillingly accurate as it was entirely predictable. Trump was always going to destroy this nation if he was allowed to win. And here we are.

As horrible as this feels now, it's only the beginning of a long descent. I have nothing but contempt for any human being who cast a vote for this malignant fuck. It was a vote for our collective ruination. A vote that traded our future for naught but the validation and empowerment of rank bigotry.

I will never stop being angry.