Australian Journalist’s Trump Takedown Goes Viral

An Australian television reporter’s comments about President Trump’s impact on the recently concluded G-20 summit have gone viral:

In an Australian news broadcast that seems to have resonated with Americans, a political journalist delivered a scathing evaluation of President Trump’s performance last week at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

The journalist, Chris Uhlmann, said in a segment originally broadcast on the program “Insiders,” that Mr. Trump was an “uneasy, lonely, awkward figure” at the meeting and that the president “has no desire and no capacity to lead the world.”

The video immediately took hold on social media, and by Sunday morning had been viewed more than a million times on Twitter and Facebook — further emphasizing how viral videos, once reserved for cute kitties and humorous mishaps, have become increasingly political, and that interest in these gatherings of world leaders is no longer just for policy wonks.

(…)

In the “Insiders” video, Mr. Uhlmann, the politics editor at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the country’s main public broadcaster, assessed Mr. Trump in bold and brash terms. His commentary would be out of line for American journalists, who are supposed to strive for objectivity and to keep opinions to the editorial pages.

“What did we learn?” Mr. Uhlmann asked about Mr. Trump’s stint at the conference. “We learned that Donald Trump has pressed fast forward on the decline of the United States as a global leader.”

In November, another harsh critique of Mr. Trump, also delivered via video, went viral. The Irish Labour senator Aodhan O’Riordain condemned the results of the United States election, calling the then president-elect a “fascist.” It has been viewed 3.3 million times on the senator’s Facebook page alone.

Here’s the video clip, which started out on the Twitter feed of Australian broadcast network ABC:

This, my friends, is what the world thinks of us now.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. alanstorm says:

    “This, my friends, is what the world thinks of us now.”

    No, dear boy, that’s what an ignorant and inconsequential overseas journalist thinks of us. The decline of the US, happily overseen by Barry O and his idiotic ideological siblings, has been temporarily halted. Whether we can reverse the decades of damage done by idiot liberals (BIRM) is yet to be determined.

    You appear to live in a very small world.

  2. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Who is Chris Uhlmann?

    Uhlmann has been the national political editor of ABC news since 2015, and won a Walkley award, Australia’s highest journalism honour, for broadcast interviewing in 2008.

    While he may not be globally recognised, he caused controversy in Australia in 2016 when he blamed the South Australian state blackout on wind power and renewable energy, even though scientists disputed the claim. Uhlmann refused to apologise despite attracting complaints, and likened himself to a heretic being burned at the stake. In February that year he also published an essay that said the “intellectual virus” of Marxism was destroying the culture of western society.

    Uhlmann describes himself as a centrist and once ran for public office in the Australian Capital Territory’s state election on a ticket with the conservative Christian independent Paul Osborne.

    @alanstorm: A real loony lefty right out of the Hugo Chavez basket, ain’t he? Ignorance is a choice you seem rather fond of.

  3. Scott says:

    @alanstorm:

    You appear to live in a very small world.

    It is always projection for you all in the right wing bubble.

    We are witnessing the most incompetently Government run by an incompetent President.

    I’ve concluded that the Trump Presidency model is that of Warren G. Harding.

  4. Daryl's other brother Darryl says:

    @alanstorm:

    You appear to live in a very small world.

    Anyone who voted for the Orange Snowflake, and continues to support him even after his disastrous first 6 months in office, has serious mental health issues.
    LET ME BE PERFECTLY CLEAR…You need professional help.
    Obamacare will cover it. Just be sure to get help before Republicans take away your access to health care.

  5. Franklin says:

    We all have friends or relatives that are Republican. Most of them are good people overall even if we think they are generally misinformed. But this is the first time in my lifetime where a large percentage of them are awfully quiet, or even vocally against a Republican administration.

    This gives me some amount of solace, that some people are finally understanding what has happened here: We have elected a nincompoop.

  6. CSK says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It wouldn’t matter if Uhlmann were the president of the William F. Buckley Institute for Conservative Studies. Uhlmann doesn’t like Trump; therefore, Uhlmann is a lying traitorous Commie elitist.

  7. gVOR08 says:

    How many times have you seen a commenter call a writer a Democrat/leftist/libturd/commie over one isolated comment seen as anti-Republican. I’ve seen it done to Bill Kristol and Chuckles Krauthammer.

  8. reid says:

    The Trump clan a thousand times more corrupt and incompetent and classless than the Obamas? Who cares, MAGA and Barry sucks! Such burning hypocrisy and idiocy….

  9. grumpy realist says:

    @alanstorm: Considering how many countries are going their own way in spite of whatever Trump says, where do you get the idea that Trump is “increasing” American power?

    China’s taking over on the TPP front. Germany and China are roaring ahead on the renewable energy front. Europe is cranking up its own military and its own science research given that they know they can’t count on the US any more. Japan and the EU are signing some nice big fat trade agreements totally oblivious to whatever the US says.

    Why do you think people are going to listen to us any more? Trump can bluster all he wants about “American Power” but if no one else listens what good is it?

  10. Monala says:

    Trump supporters think that allies deciding that the U.S. can’t be trusted, is no longer a world leader, and making trade deals and global decisions without us means that the U.S. is strong. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad.

  11. CSK says:

    @gVOR08:

    Endlessly. As I say, if you breathe one word of criticism of Trump, that makes you a Commie libturd. Ben Sasse is a Commie libturd. Ted Cruz is a Commie libturd. Lindsey Graham is a Commie libturd.

    Charles Krauthammer has been a Commie libturd ever since that day in 2008 he suggested that Sarah Palin finish out her term as governor and study up on foreign and domestic policy if she ever wanted to run for national office again.

  12. TM01 says:

    BREAKING NEWS:
    Leftists don’t like President Donald Trump.

    OTB is becoming The Hill.

  13. Janis Gore says:

    Rick Wilson calls Trump the “Opiate of the Asses.”

  14. Daryl's other brother Darryl says:

    @TM01:

    Leftists don’t like President Donald Trump.

    It’s not about liking Donnie Snowflake or not liking him…it’s about loving this country.
    You are excusing what looks like treason…an effort to get dirt on an opponent in an American campaign from the Russians, an enemy who is widely known to be engaged in spying inside the United States. You are excusing collaborating with Russian agents intent on undermining our democracy.
    If you like the Russians so much, I would suggest you move there.

  15. Daryl's other brother Darryl says:

    @TM01:
    A loyal American, when approached by foreign agents promising dirt on an opposing political candidate, would call the FBI.

  16. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @TM01: Another idiot heard from.

  17. rachel says:

    @TM01:
    TM01’S NEW DEFINITION:
    Leftists: anyone who doesn’t like President Donald Trump!

    (So… about 60+% of the country?)