Now, the Orange dunce, Private Bonespurs-Spectacle, Look-at-me-Me-ME-Damnit,
with his benighted PR stunt managed to create a bit of an international ruckus with, of all countries, usually-docile Australia.
The Australian government will open an investigation into U.S. law enforcement assaulting an Australian news crew covering protests in Washington, D.C., highlighting the growing diplomatic fallout for the United States with its closest allies from its long-standing problems with police violence and racial injustice.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the country’s embassy in Washington was directed to open an investigation into police officers in riot gear striking an Australian 7NEWS journalist and cameraman while they were live on air. The footage appears to show they were attacked by U.S. Park Police during protests near the White House. Law enforcement used tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse protesters from the area ahead of a photo opportunity for President Donald Trump on Monday.
“I want to get further advice on how we would go about registering Australia’s strong concerns with the responsible local authorities in Washington. This is obviously a very troubling period in the United States and a very tough period at so many levels,” Payne said in an interview on Tuesday with Australia’s ABC Radio National.
It's getting better, still:
“Freedom of the press is a right Australians and Americans hold dear,” Trump’s ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse Jr., said in a statement on Tuesday morning. “We take mistreatment of journalists seriously, as do all who take democracy seriously.”
Yet across the United States, press freedom advocacy groups have tracked more than 125 incidents in three days of journalists facing attacks from police and protesters and other press freedom violations, including incidents with foreign journalists from Germany, Britain, and Australia. “The reported arrests and incidents are very concerning – journalists all around the world must be free to do their job and to hold authorities to account without fear of arrest or violence,” a British Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson told Foreign Policy.
“We are horrified by the continued use of harsh and sometimes violent actions of police against journalists doing their jobs. These are direct violations of press freedom, a fundamental Constitutional value of the United States,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, a program director with the nonprofit advocacy group Committee to Protect Journalists.
There is an apt expression for that - Banana Republic. Paint it orange, so as to highlight its shame.