MSNBC Analyst Rick Stengel Slams Trump for How Foreign Leaders View U.S. Now: ‘God Damn S—Show’

MSNBC political analyst Rick Stengel let loose at Donald Trump for how the latter’s performance as president has corroded the nation’s esteem around the world, slamming the country’s global reputation as having fallen to a “god damn s***show.”

During his appearance on Deadline: White House, Stengel decried Trump’s failed coronavirus response as yet another alarming example of America’s incompetence and how it has undermined confidence in the country abroad. For example, a 2018 Gallup poll of 134 countries found a record-breaking erosion of confidence in U.S. leadership under Trump. A similar US News survey of most trusted countries from early 2020 — before the coronavirus pandemic struck the U.S. — found that worldwide faith in the United States had cratered by 50% since 2016, the biggest drop of any nation on the list.

“What do we look like to the leaders of foreign governments?” host Nicolle Wallace asked the former Obama era Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. “What do leaders, foreign policy advisers, put on the list when they call Donald Trump. Stop spying? Democracies, this democracy has had or plays on the world stage certainly under your old boss, President Obama, of trying to urge other countries to be more democratic. What do other democracies urge our country to be?”

“Well, first of all, they don’t pay any attention, if we still urge them to respect freedom of speech and freedom of the press and freedom of religion. I mean, they’ll say, ‘Look at you guys!'” Stengel said. “Around the world, we’re at low points that we haven’t been at probably since the end of World War II. And I think the people are looking at the way Trump has handled the coronavirus and thinking, you know what? Maybe I don’t always like the Americans kind of interfering in our elections or talking about democracy, but we’ve always thought they were competent.”

“Now we’ve exploded the image of our own competency,” Stengel added, growing clearly frustrated, ” where people around the world look at the United States and think, ‘This is a god damn s––show that they don’t know how to run a two-car funeral. That’s going to take a long time to repair and it’s not going to happen overnight. And I do think we’ll have to look at, after Trump is president under hopefully Joe Biden, he’s going to have to look at all of these things.”

After Stengel’s mini-rant concluded a smiling Wallace wrapped up the segment: “Now you know why Rick Stengel was coveted at the highest levels of government because he spoke in brutal truths: ‘A god dam s––show,’ I love it, Rick Stengel.”

“Sorry about that,” a slightly embarrassed Stengel responded.

“It’s perfect, you’re perfect.” Wallace insisted.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.