If you believe Donald Trump, the first week of September was the start of a new political school year - with himself as the top of the class, putting America back on the right track. The reality, however, looked like the nightmare of a student who hadn\u2019t done his homework: three dictators, a summit in Beijing, and a military parade that sounded more like a political thriller than geopolitics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Narendra Modi took turns meeting in China, Kim Jong-un saluted his rockets, and somewhere in Washington Trump sat in the Oval Office, typing on Truth Social and declaring that none of this meant anything. It sounded a bit like the class president trying to convince the math teacher that the test doesn\u2019t count because he didn\u2019t understand it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not just a diplomatic slap in the face, but three at once. Trump, the man who likes to present himself as a master strategist, looked like someone who lost his timetable and now stands on the schoolyard with chalk in his hair while everyone else is already enjoying recess. The humiliations of the week read like satire in real time: Russia, China, and India show that they can do world politics without Washington, North Korea plays bowling with missiles, and the president of the United States looks like the student at the blackboard hoping no one notices he doesn\u2019t know his multiplication tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps this is the true \u201cBack-to-School Week\u201d: a crash course in reality. Only this time, the student happens to be the most powerful man in the world - and the world is laughing out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n