I never understood the "laughing stock of the world" thing.
"Biden made us the laughing stock of the world." "Trump made us the laughing stock of the world."
But who is "the world" here?
Typically it is primarily the UK, France and Germany. But I am 57 years old. Those countries have been insignificant my entire lifetime. They have been "laughing stocks" for almost a century.
There are only a few nations that are significant powers. The US, China and Russia. Politically we could include France, the UK, Germany and Japan. But except for Japan the UK, Germany and France have lost all but political significance.
I think, perhaps, that Trump realizes the dependency of our allies on the US while no reciprocal dependency exists and is trying to capitalize on that situation.