Tag: Trump foreign policy

Journalist explains how Trump diminished the United States on the world stage

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When the Associated Press and other major media outlets reported that Joe Biden had won the United States’ 2020 presidential election, it didn’t take European leaders long to congratulate him — from U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to French President Emmanuel Macron. But journalist Vincent Bevins, in an article published by The New Yorker this week, warns that President Biden has his work cut out for him when it comes to U.S.-Europe relations.

“Major European leaders breathed a collective sigh of relief when it became clear that Joe Biden would actually take over as president of the United States,” Bevins observes. “But the continent is not about to act as if the past four years didn’t happen. The European Union is seeking to be less dependent on, and less deferential to, Washington than it has ever been before. The idea that Europe should pursue a fundamental shift in transatlantic relations predates Trump, but his administration — by attacking allies, tearing up agreements, and threatening democracy itself — helped convince many more Europeans that it is a good one.”

Former President Donald Trump was overtly hostile to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during his four years in office, whereas Biden campaigned on saving and strengthening NATO. But according to Bevins, “Europe now sees the United States as a relatively unreliable friend and a diminished power and therefore, wants to create some distance and set its own geopolitical priorities.” Continue reading.

Trump, US face pivotal UN vote on Iran

The Hill logoThe Trump administration’s Iran strategy will face a key test this week as the United States calls for a vote at the United Nations on its resolution to extend an arms embargo against the Islamic Republic.

If the resolution fails — which experts say is the most likely scenario — the Trump administration has threatened to invoke snapback sanctions, which supporters of the Iran nuclear deal fear will be the agreement’s death knell.

The gambit also risks further alienating the United States from its allies, which continue to support the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal and have rebuffed the Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure campaign against Tehran. Continue reading.

Foreign policy experts struggle to explain Trump’s devotion to Vladimir Putin

AlterNet logoAmericans who are old enough to remember the Cold War find it ironic that President Donald Trump has such a favorable view of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump’s relationship with Putin is the focus of an op-ed that Jim Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent, wrote for its website — and according to Sciutto, their relationship is one that foreign policy experts and former members of Trump’s administration have a hard time explaining.

“When interviewing current and former Trump administration officials for my upcoming book, ‘The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World,’ I found that explaining Trump’s deference to Russia was one of the most difficult questions for them to answer,” Sciutto explains. “And even they acknowledged the record fails to back up the president.”

Sciutto asked Susan Gordon, former principal deputy director of national intelligence, what Trump believes he needs Putin for — and she responded, “To not be an adversary. To not drive up (Trump’s) need to respond militarily. To not force (him) to spend money in places (he doesn’t) want to. To not have someone who (he) won’t deal with. To not create another front where (he has) to engage militarily. (Russia) are so powerful that to have them as an enemy is not in (the) best interest of what he’s trying to achieve globally, and from a U.S. perspective.” Continue reading.

Trump Still Defers to Putin, Even as He Dismisses U.S. Intelligence and the Allies

New York Times logoSay this about President Trump’s approach to Moscow: It’s been consistent.

WASHINGTON — On the eve of accepting the Republican nomination for president four years ago, Donald J. Trump declared that he would pull out of NATO if American allies did not pay more for their defense, waving away the thought that it would play into the hands of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has spent his career trying to dismantle the Western alliance.

Asked about his deference to the Kremlin leader, Mr. Trump responded, “He’s been complimentary of me.”

This week, as his renomination nears, Mr. Trump announced that he was pulling a third of American troops from Germany. He declared in recent days that he had never raised with Mr. Putin, during a recent phone conversation, American intelligence indicating that Russia was paying a bounty to the Taliban for the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan, because he distrusted the information from his own intelligence agencies. Nor has he issued warnings about what price, if any, Mr. Putin would pay for seeking to influence the 2020 election or pushing disinformation about the coronavirus. American intelligence agencies say Russia is trying both. Continue reading.

Experts warn Trump treatment of international students hurts U.S.

The Hill logoThe Trump administration’s course reversal on allowing international students to stay in the U.S. and take classes online was a victory for universities and advocacy groups that had condemned the initial policy proposal.

But a week of chaos following the policy announcement has put a spotlight on larger problems surrounding a declining international student body, with experts warning the trend has both immediate and long-term consequences for the U.S.

International students contribute an estimated $41 billion to the economy and support half a million jobs. And while 1.1 million foreign students are currently studying in the U.S., that represents an 11 percent decline since 2016. Continue reading.

Trump signs Hong Kong sanctions bill in blow for China

Signing the sanctions bill into law marks the Trump administration’s latest move to punish China for its new national security law.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law a bill to impose sanctions on Chinese officials, businesses and banks that help China restrict Hong Kong’s autonomy, a move that is likely to worsen already-strained diplomatic ties and prompt retaliation from Beijing.

“This law gives my administration powerful new tools to hold responsible the individuals and the entities involved in extinguishing Hong Kong’s freedom,” Trump said in a Rose Garden appearance.

Signing the sanctions bill into law marks the Trump administration’s latest move to punish China for its new national security law that U.S. officials, lawmakers and legal experts say effectively ends the former British colony’s separate legal system. Continue reading.

Trump’s two main foreign foes plan a major pact

Washington Post logoThe autocratic regimes in Beijing and Tehran are feeling the heat from Washington. The former is locked in a bitter, damaging trade war with the United States; the latter has seen its country’s economy mauled by sanctions reimposed by the Trump administration after it broke from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. But the tariffs and sanctions have yet to yield President Trump the acquiescence from both parties he seeks. And recent developments suggest these two putative American adversaries may be finding greater common cause.

Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged in a parliamentary session that his government is, “with confidence and conviction,” in negotiations with China over a 25-year strategic partnership that could involve about $400 billion in Chinese investment through various sectors of the Iranian economy. An outline of the accord’s details surfaced in an 18-page leaked document online, whose provenance is unclear though it roughly aligns with mooted plans previously announced by the Iranian government. According to the New York Times, a version of the document dated in June that its reporters obtained is a draft of a pending agreement with China. Continue reading “Trump’s two main foreign foes plan a major pact”

North Korea says it has no plans for talks with U.S.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korea on Saturday reiterated it has no immediate plans to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States unless Washington discards what it describes as “hostile” polices toward Pyongyang.

The statement by North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui came after President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, told reporters in New York Thursday that Trump might seek another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as an “October surprise” ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who had lobbied hard to help set up the now-stalled negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, also expressed hope that Trump and Kim would meet again before the election in a video conference with European leaders on Tuesday. Continue reading.

How North Korea’s Dictator Scammed Trump

Donald Trump had a bad week. He went to West Point to make himself look like a strong leader but raised doubts about his health when he struggled drinking water and descending a ramp. His first Supreme Court appointee wrote the opinion in a case upholding gay and transgender rights.

The court also struck down Trump’s effort to deport undocumented foreigners brought here as children. His former national security advisor wrote a book painting the world’s most powerful person as an ignorant sleazebag who was guilty of the impeachment charges and more.

Trump had to reschedule a Tulsa rally planned for Juneteenth, but he insisted on holding it the following day — risking lives in a state suffering a surge of the coronavirus. New polls showed him trailing Joe Biden by landslide margins. Continue reading.

Trump’s mortifying North Korea gambit is turning out to be one of his biggest failures

AlterNet logoWith all that’s going on in the world, it is understandable that most of us missed the second anniversary of Trump’s photo-op with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on the demilitarized border between North and South Korea. But nothing demonstrates Trump’s utter failure as a president more than his posturing on that issue.

It all started with a lot of chest-thumping about six months after the inauguration. Trump told reporters that “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” That was followed by a lot of name-calling and insults, ending in a verbal competition over who had the biggest nuclear button.

Kim Jong Un then invited Trump to a meeting in Singapore, which took place in mid-June 2018. All of a sudden the blustering stopped, with Trump saying that the North Korean dictator was “very smart” with a “great personality.” He went on to tell Greta van Susteren that Kim “loves his people.” The meeting ended with the two leaders signing an agreement, which was nothing more substantial than a promise to negotiate. The whole event was described as a propaganda victory for Kim Jong Un. Continue reading.