Originally published by Ian Bremmer on LinkedIn: Winners and Losers - A Bad Week for Kellyanne Conway, Drones, and Pineapple on Pizza
The Week in Out of Place People
Winner: Barack Obama—some enterprising French citizens have launched a petition to try to get Obama to run for the French presidency. #OuiWantObama
Loser: Louis J. Marinelli—the founder of the Californian independence movement… lives in Russia. And goes on Russian state media about once a week to talk about it. That’s what passes for commitment these days.
The Week in Foreign Policy and Animals
Winner: France—the French military is training eagles, named after the Three Musketeers, to take down weaponized drones. Stupid names aside, that’s a pretty good use of eagles.
Loser: America—The Washington, D.C., zoo loses Bao Bao the panda to China on Trump’s watch. This is Trump’s greatest foreign policy failure to date. #OneChinaForOnePanda
The Week in Nordic Politics
Winner: Swedish politician Per-Erik Muskos—a councilor in a small Swedish town made headlines this week when he proposed that municipal employees be allowed to have sex on government time. To be fair, those municipality’s workers already get an hour a week to do fitness or wellbeing activities. #BetterThanDeskLunch
Loser: Icelandic President Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson—on a trip to a school in northern Iceland, Johannesson was asked by a student if he liked pineapple as a pizza topping. Not only did he say “no,” he said that if he had the power, he would pass a law banning pineapple on pizza. #IPreferPuffinPizza
The Week in Not Shooting the Messenger
Winner: US Secretary of Defense James Mattis—Goes to Iraq and tells them point blank that the US military is "not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil." Not that this was really an issue, but these days even standing up to Trump’s off-the-cuff ramblings so bluntly requires the courage of a four-star general.
Loser: US Senior Advisor Kellyanne Conway—did anyone else notice that the week Kellyanne was off the air coincided with a noticeable downtick in PR scandals? #JustSaying
The Week in Headscarves
Winner: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—this week the Turkish government lifted the ban on female army officers wearing the Muslim headscarf. For those keeping score, Turkey’s military was once charged with defending the country’s secular constitution. #SimplerTimes
Loser: French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen—on a trip to Lebanon, the far-right leader showed up to a meeting with Lebanon’s grand mufti, but refused to wear a headscarf, thereby canceling the meeting. Which would have been perfectly fine… except she was told of the requirement beforehand, and still showed up.