It's always about him.
Even when he's discussing my ancestral home of Italy, Trump makes a fool of himself.
During a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Gentiloni, while praising their great culture and artistic accomplishments, President Trump said, "Through the ages your country has been a beacon of artistic and scientific achievement."
No argument there.
Trump continued and offhandedly said, "That continues today. From Venice to Florence to Verdi to Pavarotti – friend of mine, a great friend of mine."
The legendary Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti passed away in 2007. Everybody in Italy knows this except Trump.
I know his English is really bad, Trump expresses himself in fractured sentences, but this is beyond the pale to a country that values its opera stars like no other.
By the way, if he was so close with Luciano, why did his widow and his three daughters tell him to stop playing her late husband's most famous aria?
"We learned today that the aria 'Nessun dorma' performed by Luciano Pavarotti is being used [on] the Donald Trump campaign soundtrack," Nicoletta Mantovani wrote in a letter co-signed by three of the late superstar's daughters.
"We remind you that the values of brotherhood and solidarity that Luciano Pavarotti upheld throughout his artistic career are incompatible with the world vision of the candidate Donald Trump," it added.
As an aside, Nessum Dorma is possibly my favorite song of all time.
(h/t Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1)
