{"id":1312388,"date":"2019-07-13T23:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-14T05:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/a-play-on-trump-and-leaked-cables-in-one-act\/"},"modified":"2019-07-13T23:32:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T05:32:00","slug":"micek-column-a-play-on-trump-and-leaked-cables-in-one-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/micek-column-a-play-on-trump-and-leaked-cables-in-one-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Micek column: A play on Trump and leaked cables, in one act"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Ext. 10 Downing Street, nighttime. The lights of London shine in the late evening. Revelers wander in and out of pubs. Big Ben stretches imperiously against a July sky. Inside No 10, a phone rings.)<\/p>\n

Ministerial Aide: \u201cNo. 10, may I help? Mhmhmm \u2026 mhmhmm \u2026 He called him what? (raucous laughter). Okay, yes, right, I\u2019ll tell her.\u201d<\/p>\n

(The aide disconnects the call,shakes his head,and presses a button.)<\/p>\n

Theresa May (groggily): \u201cDo you know what time it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cYes, Prime Minister, I apologize for the lateness of the hour. But you\u2019re going to want to hear this one. It\u2019s our man in America, ma\u2019am, the ambassador, Kim Darroch. Well, it appears that there\u2019s been a leak of some diplomatic cables to the Mail on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

May (suspiciously):\u201dWhich ones?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cWell, you know the ones, ma\u2019am. The ones where he called the American president \u201cinept\u201d and \u201cinsecure?\u201d And the White House \u201cdysfunctional?\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cOh, right, those. Well, he wasn\u2019t wrong, was he?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cOh, no, ma\u2019am. Of course, not We\u2019ve known that since Day One. It\u2019s just that, well, President Trump, is on the Twitter again. And he\u2019s throwing all of his toys out of the pram. He\u2019s in a right snit.\u201d<\/p>\n

May (wearily): \u201cWhat did he say this time?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide (consults laptop, reads, his eyes twinkle with amusement): \u201cWell, Prime Minister, he said that Sir Kim is \u2018a pompous fool,\u2019 and a \u2018very stupid guy.\u2019<\/p>\n

May (laughs): \u201c\u2018Stupid guy?\u2019 Isn\u2019t this the same president who said the American rebels captured airports during their adorable little \u2018revolution\u2019 all those years ago?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u2018Yes, Prime Minister. But there\u2019s something worrying. He says the American government won\u2019t work with Sir Kim anymore because of his candor. They seem to want him fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

May (exhales heavily): \u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cYes, Prime Minister, that\u2019s exactly what the American president said.\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cHmmm \u2026 remind me, would you, what has President Trump said about other countries and their leaders?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cWould you like the exhaustive list, Prime Minister?\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cNo, no. We\u2019ll be here all night. Just give me the greatest hits. Pretend we\u2019re on \u2018Top of the Pops.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cWell, there was that time when he called Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada \u2018dishonest and weak.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, there was the row over him calling Mayor Khan of London \u201ca stone, cold loser,\u201d who was \u201cfoolishly nasty\u201d to him over his visit here in June \u201cAnd, of course, there was that whole thing about him dismissing \u2018s**thole\u2019 countries.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cOh \u2026 right. That one. Where did you find all these? It\u2019s not that American humor newspaper, what is it? \u2018The Turnip,\u2019 is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cIt\u2019s called \u2018The Onion,\u2019 Madam Prime Minister. And no, all of this really happened. The American newspaper, the Washington Post, which I believe President Trump also mocks because it\u2019s owned by that Bezos chap who\u2019s richer than he is, ran a whole list of insults by Trump and his diplomats this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cWait, American diplomats have been rude overseas too?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide (taps more keys, brings up the Washington Post story): \u201cOh, absolutely Prime Minister. You\u2019ll recall the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, said video of him saying there were parts of that country that were \u2018no-go\u2019 zones because of \u2018the Islamic movement was \u2018fake news.\u2019 The Post reported that Dutch journalists filleted him at his first news conference over his false claim and demanded an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cAnything else?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cOh yes, ma\u2019am. The Post reports that the American ambassador to Israel,David M. Friedman, and the White House\u2019s Mideast Peace Envoy Jason Greenblatt, were \u2026 ahhh \u2026 \u2018filmed using hammers to break into an archaeological site under Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cWait? What? Are these career diplomats doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cOh, no, Prime Minister, no career diplomat would be that crashingly dumb.They\u2019re political hacks. Both were former lawyers to President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cAnd they were fired, course?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cNo, Prime Minister. Both still have their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cAnd yet Trump doesn\u2019t want to deal with Sir Kim?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cYes, Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cAll right, draft up a resignation letter, and have Sir Kim sign it. Make it look convincing. Add something flowery like, \u201cThe professionalism and integrity of the British civil service is the envy of the world. I will leave it full of confidence that its values remain in safe hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: Yes, Prime Minister. Absolutely. But we\u2019re really not going to fire Sir Kim for being right about Trump are we?\u201d<\/p>\n

May: \u201cNo, of course not. Don\u2019t be absurd. We\u2019re going to wait a respectful period of time and then do what anyone would do to reward an employee who does their job well. We\u2019re going to promote him. Ask Sir Kim how he feels about being our man in Bora Bora, would you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aide: \u201cI\u2019ll get right on it, Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com<\/a> and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Ext. 10 Downing Street, nighttime. The lights of London shine in the late evening. Revelers wander in and out of pubs. Big Ben stretches imperiously against a July sky. Inside No 10, a phone rings.) Ministerial Aide: \u201cNo. 10, may I help? Mhmhmm \u2026 mhmhmm \u2026 He called him what? (raucous laughter). Okay, yes, right, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 17:07:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}