What Newspapers In 13 Countries Are Saying About Donald Trump.

In his first foreign policy speech the Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump declared that the United States is “going to be a friend again” to the rest of the world.

But the rest of the world isn’t so sure that’s the case. The rise of Trump in the presidential race has certainly surprised many in the United States, but it’s also come as a shock to much of the rest of the world. Since Trump first announced his intention to run for president last year, the media in other countries has taken a humorous, and critical, look at his candidacy — from offering refuge for Americans fleeing a Trump presidency to analyses of how U.S. democracy even allowed for his rise. And of course, there have been a lot of comments about his hair.
To quote Trump, “We were laughed at all over the world, as we have been many, many times.”

This is by no means an exhaustive list of how other countries view Trump, but it is definitely an entertaining one.

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

Trump has dedicated much of his campaign to talking about Mexico, and even included the country in his initial announcement that he was running for president when he said that many undocumented immigrants from the country are “rapists” who “are bringing drugs” to the United States.

In response, Mexican media has covered the candidate as you’d expect. Last fall, Mexico City newspaper Milenio asked readers and analysts what should be done about “the man who managed to make us miss the Bush clan.”

El Deforma, a satirical news site similar to The Onion, has devoted a fair amount of its Trump coverage to mocking the candidate’s claims that he will build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The site has included articles aboutCanada building a wall in case of a Trump victory and Pink Floyd building the wall if Mexico doesn’t pay for it. But perhaps the greatest piece was the one that said “Trump has already started to build the wall” — and featured a picture of the candidate holding an American flag and standing next to a Lego wall.

Chumel Torres, host of Mexico’s El Pulso de la Republica, a satirical news show, has also covered Trump’s rise with humor, but he noted that you can only make fun of the candidate so much. “I’m tired of talking about Trump, because it’s always the same, you know?” he recently told BBC News. “It’s just stupid, so let’s move on. As a comedian, you want a fresh kick. And with Trump it’s just the same every time, you know?”

On a more serious note, last month, Mexican academic Sergio Aguayo compared the anti-Mexican sentiment of Trump and many of his supporters to the fear of communism in the United States in the 20th century, referring to it as a new “brown panic” in Mexico City newspaper La Reforma. “We must answer again and again Donald Trump, and make the U.S. government understand that we’re not willing to continue being pointed out as the only ones responsible for problems that are also caused by the United States,” Aguayo wrote, as translated by the Associated Press.

In September 2015, Genaro Lozano, a columnist for La Reforma, told Politicothat what worries him most is “the kind of xenophobia that Trump’s comments generate in the United States.” He added, “I lived and studied in the United States for five years, and I’ve seen prejudice and racism towards Mexicans and immigrants in general firsthand. Trump’s comments resonate so much, because they express feelings the feelings of many Americans. His candidacy can make those stronger.”

Mexican media has also noted that Trump’s candidacy has brought together the Mexican community in the United States. “Trump thought he was attacking those who have always been vulnerable, those who remain silent in the shadows — and that his bravado was politically correct,” read a piece in La Jornada shortly after the real estate mogul announced his candidacy. “But he was wrong. He attacked an entire community that has finally begun to come forward and defend themselves and denounce these covert racists.” Last month, a piece in the daily newspaper Excelsior declared that “Trump unites Mexicans in the United States” and documented the increase in Mexicans applying for dual citizenship with the United States in order to stop the Republican candidate from possibly winning the presidency.

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

Last month, South Africa’s the New Age called Trump “arguably the most successful internet troll in today’s political spectrum,” noting that much of his social media commentary “reads like a laundry list of troll tactics.”

The rest of the media in South Africa hasn’t disappointed in its analysis of Trump either. Earlier this month, the Daily Maverick published a pieceimagining what would happen if Trump actually won the presidency — an event made possible only due to North Korea’s launching a missile in the Sea of Japan, Hillary Clinton being indicted for sharing classified information through her personal email, and a series of explosions in the parking garages of Trump-branded buildings across the country. “Exit polls demonstrated voters felt that eight years of Democratic administration were enough and that, instead, the country now needed someone who wasn’t, in the words of responses to the exit pollsters, ‘soft on nuclear armed dictators’, ‘global terrorists’ — and who had not ‘cheated on the country’s classified information,’” the piece satirically commented. “But on the day of the actual inauguration itself, before half a million Americans standing in front of the Capitol Building (many pro and some not), television channels around the world showed split screen pictures of violent demonstrations in many different locations, juxtaposed with the actual ceremony taking place in Washington. While the Washington police managed to keep the crowds in the capital relatively calm, demonstrators across the U.S. held smaller demonstrations in sympathy with those anti-Trump events taking place throughout the world.”

The Daily Maverick has also published a variety of other pieces on Trump, including ones calling him the “dark side of American Populism” and describing his rise as a product of the Republican party.

In the last couple of months, the City Press has published pieces on how members of the Republican party are going through the five stages of grief, the likelihood of Trump actually building the wall he wants between the U.S. and Mexico, and a psychiatrist’s two-part analysis on “the tricks and techniques Trump uses to sell his own brand of flimflam.”

“God help us all if Trump wins,” declared the City Press in a piece in February, before analyzing how South Africa can best handle a Trump presidency. “The answer to a possible far-right takeover of the White House will not be to ‘look East’, as some of our politicians will suggest,” wrote Mondli Makhanya. “It will be to bolster our diplomatic capabilities so as to penetrate sectors of American power and bypass the White House for most of our dealings.”

A lot of South African media has compared Trump to different political parties and figures in the country. Earlier this month, the Daily Maverick drew parallels between Trump’s success and the future of South Africa’s African National Congress. “In 2016, the American and South African elections will see powerful political parties humbled,” it noted. “Both will survive better than they deserve, on paper. But both will be forced into introspection, out of which both may rebuild their former glory. But only if they recognise where they lost their way and offer something that makes more sense to the ordinary voter.” In March, Rand Daily Mail compared Trump to Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa, with one piece focusing on the violence at both their rallies. A piece a few days earlier, however, noted Trump’s similarity to President Jacob Zuma. “They’re peas in a pod, our President Jacob Zuma and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, both of them macho men whose opinion of women is stuck in the stygian gloom of the dark ages,” wrote Charmain Naidoo for the paper.

In February, the Sunday Times also compared Trump to Julius Malema. “If Trump’s symbol is the figurative middle finger, then Malema’s is an expletive outrage, not fit for a family newspaper. Like Trump, he burrows deep into the zeitgeist of the marginalised and the left-behinds.” New Age Editor-In-Chief Moegsien Williams also called Malema South Africa’s “very own Donald Trump” in February, claiming EEF similarly intimidated media in the country.



Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been referred to as the “anti-Trump,” a Canadian island jokingly said it would accept Americans fleeing a Trump presidency, and Google searches on “moving to Canada” spiked after Super Tuesday.

As such, it’s no surprise that Canadian media has had a lot to say about the Republican presidential candidate.

Canadian newspaper Toronto Star has published a number of articles on Trump, including ones that called him a “historically unpopular” candidate, described Trump’s rallies as a “testosterone rage,” and noted that Trump is actually “an epic illusion.”

After a series of victories in February, Toronto Star columnist Vinay Menon wrote that Trump is actually following a condominium development script, where “you hook people on the idea of owning a piece of the sky.” “If there are hiccups in construction — if there’s no way to actually build a wall or bring China to the bargaining table by declaring it a currency manipulator or remove from the income tax rolls more than 50 percent of all U.S. households — well, too bad, his four years are up. You should have read the fine print before signing,” Menon wrote. “Trump is the front-runner in a party he claims not to need. He’s become a leader to people who, on balance, wouldn’t be allowed in his servant quarters. A man of unmatched ego and wealth has passed himself off as a saviour to the weak and the demoralized.”

Toronto Star sportswriter Bruce Arthur also offered refuge to Americans in his backyard following those Super Tuesday wins:



Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail documented the significant increase in American tourism to Canada’s Cape Breton, described Trump rallies as an “uneasy mixture of anger and excitement,” and highlighted a top Canadian real estate executive’s comments that Trump’s popularity highlights the “stark differences in opportunity and attitude” between the U.S. and Canada.



Earlier this month, the Globe and Mail’s conservative columnist Margaret Wente noted that a majority of Americans “would rather swallow arsenic than vote for Mr. Trump” and predicted his fall. “If Donald Trump were a stock, my advice would be to sell it now,” she wrote. “The one thing that has to happen is that Mr. Trump will have to change. And he can’t. His most deadly foe is himself. Mr. Trump has no situational awareness. He has no ability to take advice, or build bridges, or learn from others, or direct a team.”

CBC’s The Fifth Estate devoted an entire episode to documenting Trump’s campaign, called “The Fire Breather: The Rise and Rage of Donald Trump,” as has documentary series The Passionate Eye, in an episode called “The Mad World of Donald Trump.” Last month, CBC asked audience members why Trump has been so popular, and received answers ranging from his charisma, to the increasing polarization in the United States, to the role of celebrities in American culture.

Canadian media has also documented developments with Trump’s business ventures in Canada since he announced his candidacy, including Toronto’s Trump International Hotel and Tower’s desire to disassociate from the Trump brand, and the construction worker that flew a Mexican flag over Vancouver’s Trump International Hotel and Tower, claiming that it the building was only standing because of Mexican workers.

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

Trump has previously bragged that he would “get along very well with Putin.” And after Putin called Trump “a bright and talented person without any doubt” in December, Trump returned the praise, calling the Russian president “a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”

Much of Russian media has focused on the praise. Last fall, Russian journalist Ivan Nechepurenko published a piece in English-language news site the Moscow Times, which noted the similarities between Trump and Putin. “Both are anti-mainstream and self-confident people who don’t feel constrained by political correctness,” he wrote. “Both belong to closely knit systems: Putin is a graduate of the Soviet security apparatus, Trump belongs to the American corporate world. Both want to be portrayed as genuine men who are not part of the establishment.”

At a press conference last month, Trump told state-owned Russia Today’s Caleb Maupin that he was open to having closer U.S.-Russian relations. “I want a better relationship with everybody. And with Russia, yeah,” he said. “If we can get along with Russia, that’s very good.” The head of another state-owned news network, Rossiya Sedognya, has also praised Trump. As Foreign Policy noted in March, Dmitry Kiselyov, who was appointed to head the network by Putin himself, has described Trump as “anti-establishment” and said he “is not wanted and is even seen as harmful” by the other presidential candidates due to his praise for Putin. Kiselyov has also previously called Trump a “rising star” in U.S. politics.

But despite the continuous praise — all might not be well. Putin’s press secretary told Russian media last month that a video ad Trump posted to his Instagram account asking about the United States’ toughest opponents, and showing Putin flipping a judo opponent onto the mat, demonized the country. “I saw this clip. I do not know for sure if Vladimir Putin saw it. [But] our attitude is negative,” Russian Press Secretary told reporters in Moscow, according to Russian news agency TASS, as translated by Mashable. “It’s an open secret for us that demonizing Russia and whatever is linked to Russia is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America’s election campaign. We always sincerely regret this and wish the electoral process was conducted without such references to our country.”



Trump said he’d be “neutral” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — but that doesn’t mean the media there hasn’t gone after him.

“As an Israeli Who Loves America, I Am Worried by Trump,” wrote Ari Shavit in the liberal publication Haaretz after a series of Trump victories in February. “After the astounding victories of the vulgar populist in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, it is clear to all that America is no longer the country we have known. It is no longer a nation with a prudent economic establishment, a contented middle class and a stable political system. It is no longer a nation confident in itself, its identity and its future. It is a frightened, angry America. An America that has lost its way,” he wrote. “To an Israeli who spends considerable time in debates about Israel between Boston and San Francisco, Trump is a relief. Suddenly Israeli politics seem a little less embarrassing.”

Trump did not just cause a controversy over his politics, however. A report from the Jerusalem Post earlier this month noted that Trump Vodka is actually not kosher. After the brand was discontinued in the U.S., it continued to be popular in Israel, where “Trump Vodka found a niche as one of the few kosher for Passover vodkas,” according to the publication. But an investigation revealed that some bottles of the spirit currently being sold in Israel “are not kosher for Passover, despite being labeled as such.”

Despite the bad coverage, in March, Naomi Zeveloff published a piece in the Forward on how Trump’s offensive style was actually winning many Israeli admirers. “If America elects a person who advocates discrimination and condescension and even resentment toward minorities, maybe we won’t be so criticized by the West,” Yaron Ezrahi, a professor emeritus of political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explained to Zeveloff regarding Israeli right-wing thinking on Trump. A month later, Dan Cohen, reporting for Mondoweiss, similarly noted a “love for Donald Trump” among many Israelis he spoke with.



Among Palestinians, there is a tendency to prefer Hillary Clinton over Trump, Adnan Abu Amer reported for Al-Monitor in March, but many are not concerned with the U.S. presidential election at all. “Our history with both Democratic and Republican administrations is long, and many previous presidents failed to fulfill the aspirations of the Palestinian people, namely the establishment of a state and liberation from occupation,” Husam Zomlot, the Ramallah-based Executive Deputy Commissioner for Fatah’s Commission for International Affairs, told Al-Monitor. “As Palestinians in general, we are not concerned with the U.S. electoral campaigns. “What concerns us is the political approach that the next president will adopt, irrespective of whether it will be Clinton or Trump. Much of what we hear these days is designed to gain the sympathy of U.S. public opinion and attract votes and funding, which mostly emanates from Jewish parties.”

+972 Magazine, an independent blog-based website founded by Israeli and Palestinian writers, has criticized many of Trump’s policy recommendations by comparing them to actual policies in Israel, like building a wall anddifferent identification cards for Muslims. Last December, journalist Mairav Zonszein boldly claimed that “Trump is no more racist than mainstream Israeli policy.”

+972 has also questioned pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom’s decision in March to put an interview with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on its front page, alongside the headline: “Giuliani says: ‘Trump isn’t afraid to say Islamic terror.’” The Hebrew-language paper, which was founded by the far-right billionaire Sheldon Adelson, also included a subheading of Giuliani’s opinion that Clinton has “failed at everything she has ever done,” sparking questions of whether the paper and Adelson were endorsing Trump for president.

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

German media, like media elsewhere in the world, has expressed a lot of surprise at Trump’s candidacy. In July 2015, German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle described Trump as “the presidential hopeful who baffles Europe.” “He’s leading some polls when it comes to Republican presidential candidates, but most Germans, and other Europeans, have a hard time taking ‘The Donald’ seriously,” wrote Carla Bleiker. “That’s because their expectations of politicians differ.”

In August 2015, conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted, as translated by WorldMeets.US, that Trump is “the outsized American version of a populist phenomenon that can also be observed in other Western states, especially in West Europe.” Still, the author explained, Trump’s rise is particular to the United States. “In American society, a political and social atmosphere has developed that rewards this type of bullying rhetoric. It is a milieu in which such rhetoric is appreciated, reflecting nothing but contempt for the political compromise that is the essence of democratic societies. In this context, it is regarded as a welcome counterbalance to Washington’s ‘normal’ politics — in its institutions, practices and ways of communicating.”

Two months later, the newspaper had perhaps the best description of Trump. “If a communist propaganda ministry had commissioned a gifted cartoonist to draw a typically-American rogue, he would have invented a figure like ‘The Donald’: a man who embodies the wealthy, boorish philistine, from his self-important attitude to the way his hair is folded this way and that, and someone for whom nothing is sacred — other than money, bosoms, success and power,” wrote Yascha Mounk, as translated by WorldMeets.US. “In Germany, Trump’s unstoppable rise is seen mostly as a symptom of a distinctly American disease. In no other democracy in the world, it is said, could voters be so openly motivated by greed, show so little concern for less-privileged fellow citizens and be so politically ignorant. Only in hate-filled, under-educated ‘Ami-land’ could someone like Trump be successful.”

After Trump mocked a disabled New York Times journalist in December, German national newspaper Die Welt said his candidacy revealed that the U.S. no longer has any red lines. “Whether mocking a Vietnam veteran like John McCain or spouting sexist talk, nothing seems to sink his poll numbers. Therefore, it is unlikely there will be any consequences for aping the disabled Kovaleski,” Clemens Wergin wrote, as translated by WorldMeets.US. “The same type of enraged German citizen who cries ‘lying press’ — in the U.S. hoots with delight at Trump’s political improprieties. After each of Trump’s outbursts the mainstream media wonders when, at last, the red line will have been crossed. Now though, a growing number of disillusioned analysts are concluding that in the United States, there may no longer be any red lines.”

But beyond just pure surprise, German media has also explored the danger that would come from a Trump presidency. In February, German news site Spiegel Online labeled Trump the “World’s Most Dangerous Man.” In March, German business newspaper Handelsblatt noted that “the Trump candidacy has opened the door to madness: for the unthinkable to happen, a bad joke to become reality,” as translated by the Associated Press. “What looked grotesque must now be discussed seriously.” In late January, the print version also included the candidate on its cover with a burning American flag in the background and a one word headline: Madness.



CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

“The Trump Storm Is Coming,” the popular reformist newspaper Shargh Daily wrote last month, borrowing British magazine The Week’s description of the candidate. “He is noisy and at any moment, it is possible that he will start a brawl with his words.”

Shargh is not the only one that has focused on the fights that happen around Trump’s campaigns. Also last month, Iranian newspaper Javan featured a photo of a fight that broke out during a Trump rally with the caption “American democracy! Trump rally turned into a boxing ring.”



Earlier this month, Tasnim News Agency declared Trump a fascist in a political cartoon portraying him as half-Donald Trump, half-Statue of Liberty. The accompanying caption noted that the Economist Intelligence Unit recently forecast that a possible Donald Trump presidency would be a major global risk.



Reformist weekly Seda, meanwhile, drew a comparison between Trump and former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week in its front cover in a mock movie poster. The move, about whether the populists will unite, stars “Mahmoud and Donald.”



The managing editor of conservative newspaper Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, however, recently said that the smartest plan “crazy Trump” has is to rip up last year’s Iranian nuclear deal. (It is not actually clear if Trump would do this, since like many other issues, he has made opposing statements about the deal.)



Last month, the English-language publication of the state-owned Global Times said that Trump has opened a “Pandora’s box” in the U.S., noting Trump’s “racist and extremist” comments and the fights that break out during his rallies. “Even if Trump is simply a false alarm, the impact has already left a dent. The U.S. faces the prospect of an institutional failure, which might be triggered by a growing mass of real-life problems,” read the piece, which noted that leaders like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler also came to power through Western democracy. “The U.S. had better watch itself for not being a source of destructive forces against world peace, more than pointing fingers at other countries for their so-called nationalism and tyranny.”

The publication has also called Trump “the most beguiling part of the election process” and a master of “manipulating populists.” A story in the Chinese-language version of Global Times gleefully noted that there had been violence at Trump’s rallies, in what was supposedly one of the “most developed and mature democratic election systems” in the world, as translated by the Guardian.

A recent report from state-owned Xinhua similarly decried Western democracy, noting that Trump’s success revealed “the limitations of the ‘democracy’ that Americans have long boasted about,” as translated by the BBC. Another boldly claimed that Trump’s rise “illustrates the malfunction of the self-claimed world standard of democracy.”

Another recent story from national magazine Beijing Review noted that the Obama’s fairy tales in U.S. political history are over, and Trump’s success has now turned the presidential race into “an unprecedented joke,” as translated by the Guardian.

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

“Donald Trump faced with the choice of respectability,” declared Le Monde after Trump’s foreign policy speech on Wednesday, noting the candidate’s restraint in recommending torture or a disproportionate use of force in the fight against terrorism, as he has repeatedly done in the past.

French newspaper Libération has devoted a significant amount of its covers to the Republican front-runner, calling him “the American nightmare,”comparing him to French politician Le Pen, and asking what can bring him down. One of its more recent covers shows a cartoon Trump sitting on a world plagued by climate change, explosions, and nuclear war.



French media also criticized Trump after he claimed that the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris last November would have been better off if they had guns. The Libération declared, “Well, finally, Donald Trump is a ‘vulture,’” referring to a tweet by French Ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud.



In an interview with Valeurs Actuelles’s Andre Bercoff in February, which the magazine said was his first interview with any European outlet, Trump decreed that the end of Europe was near. “What’s happening in Europe can lead to its collapse. It’s dramatic what [Merkel] has allowed to happen, this flood,” Trump said, referring to the refugee crisis, as translated by the Telegraph. “If we don’t deal with the situation competently and firmly, then yes, it’s the end of Europe,” he added, and Europe could see “real revolutions.”

“Unfortunately, France isn’t what it was, nor Paris,” Trump claimed. (At least this time, Trump knew Paris was in France and not Germany.)

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

Like elsewhere in the world, Japanese media hasn’t held back on its criticisms of Trump.

“There’s a puzzling mood within the administration on the unexpected turn of events in the U.S. presidential election,” the Evening Fuji reported in March, as translated by the Washington Post’s Anna Fifield. “The foreign ministry has already made an internal document that compares Trump and Ronald Reagan.”

“But the biggest concern for Japan is his foreign and security policies as he keeps saying things like ‘China and Japan are taking jobs away from the U.S.’ and ‘We should demand Japan pay more for the support of U.S. forces in Japan,’” the paper added.

“What would become of Japan if ‘President Trump’ were born?” the Nikkan Gendai asked last month, as translated by Fifield. “We’d better think that Trump is simply speaking on the American people’s behalf,” former Japanese ambassador to Lebanon Naoto Amaki told the paper. “I won’t deny there is a possibility that the U.S. will some day ask to review U.S.-Japan security treaty from scratch and dissolve the alliance.” Thus, the piece concluded, Japan will be in trouble if Trump wins the presidency.

“The ‘wild child’ of a lost big power is engulfing people in his crazy whirlpool,” Shukan Shincho wrote in March, as translated by Fifield. Trump “was a joker and considered as a buffoon in the beginning, but now he’s jumped to a position of a probable winner,” something that wouldn’t be good for Japan.

After Trump said that U.S. troops should withdraw from Japan, and he would be open to allowing the country to develop its own nuclear arsenal, in aninterview with the New York Times last month, the concern grew.

Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun referred to government concern about Trump’s remarks. “If [Trump] becomes the U.S. president, it would be a problem for the Japan-U.S. national security system,” it quoted an unnamed source close to the Japanese government as saying, as translated by AFP. The conservative daily paper Sankei Shimbun similarly called Trump’s proposals “a grave threat to Japanese security.”

Interestingly, however, not all of Japanese media is criticizing the candidate. As Fifield has reported, there are some who may even admire him. “Japanese writer Hidenori Sato, a writer for the RocketNews24 pop culture website, went to a fashionable beauty salon in Tokyo and asked them to make him look like Trump,” she wrote. “It took some effort — and two rounds of bleach on his Japanese hair to achieve Trump’s ‘glittering blond’ — but Sato came out with a very Donaldesque orange quiff [sic].

“’Leaving aside his ideals, I thought to myself: ‘I want to become big like him so that I can be talked about internationally!’’ Sato wrote. ‘To make my appearance look like him at least, I went to a hair salon and asked: ‘Please make me like Donald Trump!’ I think I’ve become even closer than I expected to becoming a big star!’”



CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

Trump may not have said anything particularly offensive about the Netherlands, unlike some of the other countries on this list, but that hasn’t stopped Dutch media from commenting.

Last month, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, or the People’s Paper, created a “VoteWiser” tool, exposing Trump’s inconsistent positions on issues like the Iraq War, undocumented immigrants, and even Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. The newspaper asked readers to find out “which Donald Trump suits you best” with the tool, which showed on what day Trump agreed with the user’s answers to a series of questions.

In September, the newspaper published a piece on understanding Trump’s popularity through our evolutionary history. “Monkeys live in groups with a clear hierarchical structure, whereby one dominant male, the alpha, is boss. The alpha-male decides who can eat, who can interact and who is allowed to pick his fleas,” wrote Mark van Vugt as translated by WorldMeets.US. “Intimidation and bullying is part of his daily repertoire. It’s easier for the other monkeys in the group to make themselves subordinate to the alpha rather than join the ‘losers.’” Van Vugt delved into this evolutionary history, as well as psychology, to explain that Trump’s popularity is due to his “narcissism, intimidation, anger, charisma and guinea pig hair,” but ultimately concluded that he wouldn’t win the Republican nomination. “Studies into monkeys and children show that the bully has a shaky power base because he makes too many enemies,” he wrote.

Dutch political cartoonist Joep Bertrams also has some of the best cartoons on Trump, including this one:
https://twitter.com/joepbertrams/status/702201899735498752

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos/ThinkProgress

“Donald Trump embodies how great republics meet their end,” wrote Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times of London, last month. “Mr. Trump is a promoter of paranoid fantasies, a xenophobe and an ignoramus. His business consists of the erection of ugly monuments to his own vanity. He has no experience of political office… Trump is grossly unqualified for the world’s most important political office.”

“Dear America, this Donald Trump thing? It’s not all about you,” declared arecent video in the Guardian, noting the ramifications his victory could have for the rest of the world. “If Trump actually makes it to the White House, there’s only one thing you can predict about this wholly unpredictable man. There’ll be a surge of what people will call anti-American-ism. People will mock the nation as dumb, vulgar, and aggressive. It’ll be like it was in the George W. Bush years, only much, much worse.”

The Guardian has also published pieces giving Trump emergency hair advice(“bleach it, cut it, or get a wig”), imagining what a “Keeping Up With The Trumps” television show would look like, and describing him as “an arrogant televangelist suspected of murder by Columbo.”

After researchers in the United States found that Trump’s grammar in his speeches is similar to that of an 11-year-old, the Independent invited readersto see if they were smarter than him. The British newspaper also told readers to “be very afraid” after Trump declared he would be his own foreign policy adviser in March. “He’s a nativist, a mercantilist and a neo-isolationist, who is not afraid to turn long-term allies into enemies. And Trump will mainly be trusting his instinct,” wrote Rupert Cornwell.

Weekly magazine the Big Issue featured a cartoon Trump on its front page in January for a story on what the candidate’s incendiary rhetoric really means. “Rather than problems coming from overseas, those who’d do most damage are the indigenous hate groups mushrooming up across the States” emboldened by Trump’s language, wrote the magazine.



Trump’s first interview with UK media was on ITV News’ Good Morning Britain just a few weeks ago, and Piers Morgan questioned the candidate on issues like the terrorist attacks in Brussels, the refugee crisis, and gun violence in the United States. After the interview, many British viewers took to social media to criticize Morgan for not pressing Trump on the issues — especially on whether he is anti-Muslim. (Trump said he’s not racist, but he is “speaking my mind and it’s just common sense.”) Morgan didn’t really comment on why he didn’t press Trump harder, but it may have something to do with thisdescriptions of the Republican presidential candidate, who he has known for 10 years, as someone with “warmth,” “good humor,” and a “sense of perspective.”