http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=725182Newsmax
Politico: World Leaders Frightened of Trump Presidency
Thursday, April 21, 2016 05:51 PM
By: Greg Richter
World leaders are privately terrified Donald Trump will be elected president, but are keeping quiet publicly over fears of retaliation should the billionaire businessman succeed in his quest for the White House, Politico reports.
The website quoted more than two dozen U.S. and foreign officials, saying world leaders are in "full-boil panic" at the prospect of a Trump presidency and are not comforted by President Barack Obama's assurances that Trump will either fail in his effort to secure the Republican nomination or will lose to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Most have seen predications fail that Trump wouldn't go far in the primary process.
"They're scared and they're trying to understand how real this is," one American official was quoted. "They all ask. They follow our politics with excruciating detail. They ask: 'What is this Trump phenomenon? Can he really win? What would it mean for U.S. policy going forward or U.S. engagement in the world?' They're all sort of incredulous."
Many are rushing to make deals with the Obama administration.
"In Europe, we are concerned about the U.S. possibly turning toward a more isolationist orientation. That would not be good for United States, good for Europe, good for the world," said Olli Rehn, Finnish minister of economic affairs. "We need the U.S. engaged in global affairs in a constructive, positive way."
"However much people recoiled from George W. Bush or have been disappointed by Obama, they see Trump as off the Richter scale," said Peter Mandelson, British Cabinet member for prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. "The reason for that is not that he must be stupid — nobody thinks that — but that he’s disdainful, unscrupulous, prepared to say anything to harvest the populist vote. And that makes people frightened."
