Kerry, at Davos, sends Trump a one-word message: Resign

John Kerry has had enough of President Trump, and the feeling is mutual.

Speaking at a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the former U.S. secretary of state was asked what his message to Trump would be if he was sitting across from the president.

“I can’t play that,” began Kerry, who appeared to be surprised by the question. “He doesn’t take any of this seriously. He doesn’t have an ability to have that kind of conversation.”

Pressed on what he would say to Trump if given the opportunity, Kerry then delivered a blunt response: “Resign.”

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president who served as secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s second term, has been a relentless critic of Trump over his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement. In September, he told the BBC that Trump ranked as “the worst president in U.S. history.”

Trump has also not held his tongue when it comes to Kerry. In response to reports in May that the former secretary of state was continuing to try to keep the Iran nuclear deal in place, the president lashed out on Twitter.

Months later, the president’s anger boiled over again regarding Kerry’s statement in September that he had met with Iran’s foreign minister “three or four times” since leaving office.

Citing the ongoing partial government shutdown, Trump canceled his administration’s delegation to Davos, and on Tuesday expressed frustration with unnamed media organizations he claimed were criticizing him for not attending.

In an interview Saturday with CNN, Kerry did not fault Trump for failing to show up at Davos, but once again unloaded on what he sees as the president’s isolationist tendency to shrink from the challenges facing the United States and the world.

“This is a man who claims to be the world’s greatest negotiator. What is he negotiating? He pulled out of [the trans-Pacific trade pact] TPP. Did he fix it? Did he do something for workers, did he make it better? No, he just pulled out. Ceded power in Asia. Pulls out of Paris and gets absolutely nothing on climate change accords, gets absolutely nothing for pulling out of Paris,” Kerry said. “Pulls out of Iran. He pulls out of Afghanistan. Pulls the rug out from his own negotiator, who is about to sit down and negotiate with the Taliban. Pulls out of Syria without leveraging out of Syria an agreement, something for the Kurds, something with respect to Russia and Iran, in order to have an agreement as to the future of Syria and Iraq and the region. None of these things take place. This is the pullout, walk-away presidency, and it is not enhancing the interests of the United States of America.”

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