Samantha Power: World Leaders Know Trump’s Obsession ‘Is With His Own Self-Advancement’

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” former Obama administration U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said fellow heads of states know President Donald Trump is obsessed “with his own self-advancement.”

Power said, “We in the Obama administration were in office in the wake of the Iraq War, the invasion of Iraq and all of the credibility challenges and the credibility deficit that existed in the wake of the flawed premises for that war. And it was a shadow even with a new president taking over when Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons in a massive attack in August of 2013. We went to the UN, as you remember, and described the attack. I brought U.S. intelligence experts up to the U.S. mission at the UN and got them to present all the evidence that we had, and it was overwhelming, extensive evidence. And, yet, you could just see in everybody’s mind, yeah, we have heard this before. You know, we heard a very, very flawed premise for a much broader outright invasion of Iraq. How do we know exactly that what you’re saying is true? And so it really took extensive briefings to overcome those doubts that people carry with them.”

She added, “And now we have a president who has lied. What’s the latest count? Fifteen thousand times on small issues, really small issues and on the big issues. And there is a knowledge that his obsession is with just doing the opposite of whatever Obama has done, and his obsession is with his own self-advancement, rather than that of the country’s security. And so there is a huge amount of suspicion. You wouldn’t want to be reading the thought bubbles of fellow heads of state who are receiving calls from him or fellow diplomats who the U.S. ambassador now at the U.N. is briefing.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN