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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI wish I could write as well as David Frum
Trumps Reckoning Arrives
The presidents unpredictability once worked to his advantagebut now, it is producing a mounting list of foreign-policy failures.
Gradually and then suddenly. That was how one of Ernest Hemingways characters described the process of going bankrupt. The phrase applies vividly to the accumulating failures of President Trumps foreign-policy initiatives.
Donald Trump entered office with more scope for initiative in foreign policy than any of his recent predecessors.
In his campaign for president, Trump had disparaged almost every element of the past 70 years of U.S. global leadership: nato, free trade, European integration, support for democracy, the Iraq War, the Iran deal, suspicion of Russia, outreach to China. Trumps election jolted almost every government into a frantic effort to understand what to expect. Other countries uncertainty enhanced Trumps relative powerand so, perversely, did Trumps policy ignorance and obnoxious behavior. After eight years under the accommodating Barack Obama, the United States suddenly turned a menacing face to the world. In the short run, that menace frightened other states into attempted appeasement of this unpredictable new president.
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The bark orders, impose punishments, and bully friends and enemies into surrender to the mighty, imperial me approach to foreign policy is unlikely enough to work even when applied to relatively weak states like North Korea and Iran. When simultaneously applied to the entire planet, allies and adversaries alike, it produces only rapidly accelerating failure.
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All this is only the beginning. Deficits are rising fast. Military commitments are rising fast. Americas friends are turning their backs fast. (Only 17 percent of South Koreans trust Trump to do the right thing, according to the Pew global surveyin 2017, well before the latest chaos. Obamas trust rating in South Korea bounced between a low of 75 percent and a high of 88 percent over his presidency.) At a time of relatively low military casualties and strong job growth, the presidents popularity at home roughly matches that of George W. Bushs during the worst months of the Iraq war, 20052006, and Barack Obamas during the most disappointing months of the weak recovery from the recession of 2009. The presidents options are narrowing even before the midterm elections.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/trumps-reckoning-arrives/561209/
BigmanPigman
(51,569 posts)I remember Obama when he returned from a visit with our allies (former allies now I suppose) he said that the other countries' leaders were "rattled" by the moron being elected. I thought that was a thoughtful way to say "extremely worried".
Thekaspervote
(32,716 posts)InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,708 posts)I wonder what the latter would make out of Trump.