Is American diplomacy crumbling? Ambassador Chas Freeman weighs in.

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]And uh the United States is totally incompetent at it.

[00:00:03]Do you know that um we have at 115 embassies now without ambassadors?

[00:00:10]Uh really out of 182, I believe. Uh we just don't we No, there was no professional diplomat involved in the Trump visit to Beijing as far as I can tell.

[00:00:22]There were no sherpas preparing the summit.

[00:00:26]Uh it was thrown together at the last minute. I mean uh the the Scott [clears throat] Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, went to South Korea for a last-minute meeting with his Chinese counterpart on trade issues.

[00:00:39]This was the day before the Trump arrival in Beijing. I mean, this is amateur hour.