The Conman Abroad: How the World Sees Trump More Clearly Than We Do

Japan’s Shinji Aguma delivers a brutal truth Americans still ignore:Trump isn’t a negotiator, he’s an extortionist. And while foreign leaders brace for his chaos, the U.S. media keeps feeding the myth

While tens of millions of Americans still treat Donald Trump like some misunderstood patriot-warrior, part martyr, part messiah, the rest of the world sees him clearly for what he is: a petty, erratic, blustering extortionist with all the depth of a used car salesman and the impulse control of a vengeful toddler. And nowhere was that more evident than this week in Japan’s House of Representatives, where opposition lawmaker Shinji Aguma stood up and gave the kind of blistering, soul-cleansing truth that would cause half of Congress to hide under their desks.

Aguma didn't hedge or sanitize. He called Trump a juvenile delinquent engaged in extortion. He warned his government that good faith is seen as weakness by the Trump regime. He urged ministers to watch documentaries about Roy Cohn and Trump as a necessary act of strategic self-defense. Because when you're dealing with a man like Trump, reason is useless and appeasement is a guarantee of more abuse.

His words weren’t just a slap, they were a survival manual. He described Trump’s logic as so chaotic, it “would score zero on a math test.” And he warned that every concession Japan made would not lead to peace, but invite more chaos. Because, as Aguma understood, and as so many Americans still refuse to grasp, you don’t negotiate with a conman. You don’t deal with a mob boss in good faith. You contain him.

Contrast that with Trump’s press conference days earlier, where he dismissed rising global cooperation with China as “nothing,” claimed “nobody can compete with us,” and mangled the name of a slain Japanese prime minister as he turned a supposed tribute into a clumsy sales pitch. It wasn’t just disrespectful, it was disqualifying. But here in the U.S., his base clapped like trained seals. And the media? They covered it like theater. Again.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has been practically yelling into the void for weeks. He warned that Trump’s reckless tariff tantrums would backfire, that the U.S. was alienating key allies, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and creating a strategic vacuum China would be more than happy to fill. And that’s exactly what happened. Trump’s “toughness” didn’t scare Beijing. It delighted them. They watched as America lashed out at its own allies, undermined decades of coalition-building, and handed China a diplomatic gift basket stuffed with opportunity.

What Emanuel said, and what the American media still won’t confront, is that Trump has flushed years of delicate, essential diplomacy down the drain. Not because he had a better plan. Not because he’s playing some genius-level 4D chess. But because chaos is the brand. Sabotage is the point. And weakness, real weakness, is thinking that bullying your allies and golfing through international crises makes you strong.

And still, millions cheer. Because here’s the cruel twist: while the rest of the world assesses Trump based on his actions, many Americans treat him like a fictional character whose crimes and failures only add to his legend. He’s the outlaw hero in the story they’ve been fed by cable news, clickbait factories, and Facebook rage loops. And the press, mainstream, corporate, legacy, played an enormous role in shaping that myth.

From the moment he descended that golden escalator, media executives saw ratings gold, not a threat to democracy. They gave him billions in free coverage, breathlessly aired every insult, every scandal, every rally. They let him phone into shows unchallenged, normalized his lies with euphemisms like “controversial statements,” and built him into an unstoppable force of narrative gravity. Even now, some outlets treat his criminal indictments like juicy subplots rather than existential alarms.

It’s no wonder that it takes a Japanese lawmaker to stand up and say what most of our own won’t: this man is an extortionist. This regime is not rational. You do not bargain with a wrecking ball. You hold firm and you don’t flinch.

That speech went viral for a reason. Because Shinji Aguma said what millions around the world are thinking, and what far too many Americans still can’t, or won’t, face.

And maybe, just maybe, the next time Trump pulls out his Sharpie-scrawled tariff charts or tries to strong-arm another ally while the media calls it a “pivot,” someone in our government will remember Aguma’s words.

Watch the documentaries. Study the behavior. Know exactly who you’re dealing with. And don’t give him a damn thing.