As everybody with any awareness knows, Donald Trump knows very little.
Until yesterday, he thought cricket was a cell phone company.
But then his beleaguered Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly, told him that voters in Pakistan have chosen a former cricket star to be their next Prime Minister.
Pakistan, the world’s fifth largest nation by population, has had a very troubled history, with the Army holding sway much of the time. It’s been hard for the Islamic nation, which has existed only since 1947, to hold fair elections. And it’s got nukes.
Along comes 65-year old عمران احمد خان نیازی (Imran Khan), a rocket star cricketeer, who has been a politician since 1996, when he founded the Pakistan Movement for Justice, a centrist political party. He was elected to a seat in the National Assembly in 2002.
Trump, who has only occasional moments of truthfulness, firmly believes that all Muslims are terrorists.
Associate solitary reporter Johanna Jones was with Trump yesterday when his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, entered Trump’s Oval Office to suggest that the sensible and diplomatic thing to do would be to call Khan to congratulate him.
“Nothin’ doin,’ Mike,” Trump said. “If I were to do that, I’d lose all credibility with my base — and I’m nothing without my base."