The latest events in the US have been deadly serious, but it is still impressive that the frontmen of certain foreign regimes have managed to keep straight faces as they voiced their concern. A spokesman for China’s foreign affairs ministry urged the US to “safeguard and guarantee the legal rights of ethnic minorities”; the Russian foreign ministry said that the incidents were “far from the first in a series of lawless conduct and unjustified violence from US law enforcement”; and an Iranian diplomatic spokesman assured the American people: “The world has heard your outcry over the state of oppression.”
Donald Trump’s reactions to the protests across the US following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by police, have gravely undermined the country’s moral voice in the world. The image of a pluralistic, democratic US of strong individual rights was already on the floor after more than three years of a cynical and demagogic presidency. The scenes of recent days – the killing of Floyd, Trump’s incitements to violence, attacks by police on peaceful protesters and bystanders, soldiers on the streets – are surely the killer blow.
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