Barrack, who is the US ambassador to Turkiye and also serves as Washington’s special envoy for Syria, has faced growing outrage in Lebanon since Tuesday, when he told journalists to “act civilised” as they peppered him with questions following a meeting with President Joseph Aoun in Beirut.

The US envoy further said he would stop taking questions if the situation “starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic”, while appearing to compare the exchange to the wider unrest in the Middle East.

Could this administration do any worse at making the US look like Rootin’ist Tootin’ist Bigots we, unfortunately, have become?