“We need a President who isn’t a laughing stock to the entire World,” tweeted Donald Trump in 2014. “We need a truly great leader, a genius at strategy and winning. Respect!”

Four years later, the world literally laughed at him, as he addressed world leaders at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. 

The punchline: that he was doing a good job, a better job than almost any president in United States history. Laughter immediately ensued. 

“In less than two years, my administration has accomplished almost more than almost any administration in the history of our country,” the president boasted. But when this bold claim was met with laughter from the audience, he responded with some shock: “Didn’t expect that reaction.”

It’s not uncommon for this president to make completely false, unsubstantiated claims, but often when he makes them, it is front of adoring crowds wearing red hats and MAGA shirts. 

Julie Smith, who served as deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, told the Washington Post that while it was hard to see the U.S. president clearly mocked on the world stage, it was also an opportunity to bring him back to reality.

You kind of feel good that Trump was finally escaping the bubble of political rallies that continually gives him the impression that everyone agrees with the false claims he is making,” Smith said. “There was a moment I thought to myself, ‘This is good that the president is being exposed to how the rest of the world sees him.’ ”

While this one moment surely displayed how other world leaders viewed the president, it is likely that Trump and his supporters won’t care, that they will even just boast that it’s because of envy, or intimidation, or whatever. One of the most startling claims that the president made was his rebuke of globalism. 

“America is governed by Americans,” Trump said. “We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”

These remarks were nationalistic and frightening, as our world and allies have become closer and stronger over the decades, it is very clear the president’s foreign policy agenda is isolation. He is pushing away our closest allies as he cries, “America first!”

While his campaign tactics didn’t fool the rest of the world, it will be incredible to see his supporters’ defense of this national embarrassment.