Trump’s Micro Stick is Embarrassing…And Dangerous

His small stick behavior is a stain on America

Written by Ben Meiselas

In 1902, America’s 26th President, Teddy Roosevelt, famously said that those who wield real power “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt took this expression from a West African proverb and used it to describe how U.S. foreign policy should involve “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.” This has been called the “big stick policy.”

Donald Trump represents the opposite of the big stick policy. Trump is all about his “tiny stick” or his “small stick energy.” Trump bloviates and bullies. He acts loud and obnoxious, but when push comes to shove, he runs away from threats and problems. Just as with COVID—when he said, “like a miracle, it will go away”—his entire approach is to avoid direct threats, conflict, and responsibility of any kind. Trump acts tough but carries a small, shriveled, deformed, disgusting micro stick.

World leaders have taken notice of Trump’s micro stick.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum quickly responded to Trump’s tariff threats by threatening retaliatory tariffs of her own and strongly asserting Mexico’s sovereignty. She responded to Trump from a position of strength. Trump rushed back to social media and pretended he struck a deal with her that never even happened.

Even the Prime Minister of the Bahamas publicly responded to Trump’s threats of dumping migrants into the Bahamas. The Bahamian Prime Minister told Trump, absolutely not.

We are already seeing world leaders compete to take advantage of Trump’s micro stick policy in international affairs.

For example, on the one hand, Vladimir Putin has ratcheted up threats of nuclear war, knowing such threats would intimidate Donald Trump and cause him to shrivel up. On the other hand, on Saturday, President Macron of France invited Trump to the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral to give Trump a “tough guy” photo op and let him perform a comically silly handshake in front of cameras with the impressive cathedral in the background. Macron’s real goal—and he should be applauded for it—was to get Trump to meet with President Zelensky in France and send a message to Russia. Macron knew he could lure Trump with the tough guy photo op.

Trump’s pathology is easy to exploit, and it’s already being plucked at by world leaders.

The biggest winner in all of this is China.

China gets to act like the grown-up in international affairs and pursue an actual “big stick” policy. While Trump posts angry and erratic social media rants, behaving like a petulant schoolyard bully and wavering with inconsistent positions depending on the flattery or threats from world leaders, China is making major investments in countries across the world as part of its One Belt One Road initiative—sometimes referred to as “the new Silk Road.”

Trump’s small stick is China’s biggest dream.

With each social media post by Trump, China responds with a meticulously crafted diplomatic message designed to curry favor with the nations Trump is bullying or disrespecting. Some Sun Tzu quotes come to mind here, like:

• “Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake.”

• “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”

• “If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him.”

China smells weakness.

Our broken corporate media perpetuates Trump’s inverted and contorted view of strength.

Whether it’s highlighting Trump’s YMCA dance, his cartoonish handshakes, or using language to convey power or virility when describing his actions, the media actively showcases weakness masquerading as strength. This is weakness our adversaries are exploiting.

I am writing this to use our platform at MeidasTouch as an SOS warning call about Trump’s behavior.

I hope to give you the tools to use in your conversations with family, friends, and others to describe what is actually happening and its international consequences.

During Trump’s first term, he was able to coast on the relative stability handed to him by Obama until COVID hit, and he handled it disastrously (an understatement).

During Trump’s first term, he had mostly qualified people leading major departments, even if I strongly disagreed with them ideologically. This is not the case now.

I predict things will implode quickly for Trump as our adversaries exploit his micro stick.

Things are going to move fast.

We will be there every step of the way with you. Hang in there. We’ll get through this together, but I am confident Trump’s behavior will quickly cause him to unravel in ways no one is talking about.