This makes sense once you remember that ostentatiously signaling one’s virtuous opposition to Trump is the highest calling of a leftist politician right now. The police commissioner can handle the aftermath of the shooting of Miosotis Familia and the MTA can deal with the city’s deteriorating subway system. But who’s going to manage the very important task of grandstanding about the president to foreigners at a G20 protest halfway around the world? Most Democrats won’t travel more than a few hundred miles to register their anti-Trump dissent. De Blasio’s willing to cross the ocean. That’s commitment.

It’s been a banner week for tri-state-area politicians putting their own interests ahead of their constituents’.

De Blasio’s Thursday night departure follows the early Wednesday morning slaying of Officer Miosotis Familia, a mother of three who was gunned down in her command unit as she wrapped up her shift. He leaves behind a city grappling with the emotional pain of the execution as well as questions about how the alleged killer, Alexander Bonds, was able to slip through the cracks of the mental health system despite seeking psychiatric help just four days before the murder…

“A member of the NYPD was murdered, a homeless crisis continues to worsen and our subway system seems to be on the verge of collapse and Mayor de Blasio has been criss-crossing the country pushing his national agenda, and now this,” [Republican Nicole Malliotakis] said. “Taxpayers deserve to know how much this is costing them and why the mayor refuses to do his job.”…

De Blasio was not always so cavalier about the whereabouts of the city’s top official. As mayor-elect, he ripped then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg for being in Bermuda during a Metro North derailment.

“It’s important that American leaders confront head-on, locally and around the world, the damaging rhetoric and policy stances of the Trump Administration,” said his press secretary. We’ve all but abandoned the idea that politics should end at the water’s edge — Trump himself was tweeting about John Podesta from Germany this morning — but I think that’s the first time I’ve heard the opposite ethic proposed. Not only does politics not end at the water’s edge, you have an affirmative duty to cross the water and criticize your country’s president to remind the world that not everyone back home agrees with him. Huh.

Is this tool thinking of running for president in 2020? Normally I wouldn’t ask that about a mayor but Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles and Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans are reportedly considering it. Pre-Trump, a mayor would calculate that he needs to win statewide office before running nationally; post-Trump, there’s no need to have held public office at all before becoming president. The Democratic race is as wide open as it could be and De Blasio has been angling to position himself as an heir to Bernie Sanders, pushing the left’s “Bernie would have won” claim after the election. How he’d beat a bigger progressive name like Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris in a national primary, though, I have no idea. Maybe he’s positioning himself to replace Andrew Cuomo as governor down the line, possibly sooner rather than later if Cuomo runs for president in 2020. First he has to win reelection as mayor but that shouldn’t be difficult, his middle finger to the city this week notwithstanding.

By the way, contrary to rumor, he’s not missing Familia’s funeral to do this Germany trip. The funeral is Tuesday. De Blasio plans to return to New York on Sunday night. Even he’s not so tone deaf as to snub a fallen officer in order to gladhand German leftists.