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Trump arrives at U.N. struggling to sell his foreign policy record
The president once expected that his brash and disruptive style of foreign policy, while horrifying to Washington elites, would be political asset with American voters.
By NANCY COOK 09/25/2018 05:04 AM EDT
President Donald Trump once expected that his brash and disruptive style of foreign policy, while horrifying to Washington elites, would be political asset with American voters.
Trump envisioned himself alternately standing up to and bonding with world leaders from China to France to Canada, striking a dazzling nuclear deal with North Korea, intimidating Iran’s Islamist clerics and even restoring relations with Moscow. But as Trump prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, his foreign policy record has proven to be a weak selling point ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections, according to interviews with a half dozen current and former administration officials and Republicans close to the White House.
“The president has disrupted things on foreign policy but those disruptions have yet to yield a lot of fruit,” said one former senior administration official. “It’s the reason why the president is not out there touting his foreign policy successes because it’s still a work-in-progress. If you were to give a judgment right now, it would not be a favorable one.”
Trump officials disagree, saying that Trump has proven himself a strong leader who is expanding the military, bending rivals like China and Iran to his will, and building a relationship with the previously reclusive leader of North Korea. But current and former officials and experts describe a much more complicated picture, one that has some voters concerned about their security and America’s image abroad.
A Gallup poll, conducted in August, showed Trump earning the highest marks among voters for his handling of the economy, while 58 percent of the voters surveyed disapproved of his work on foreign affairs and 61 percent disliked his dealings with Russia.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/25/trump-united-nations-foreign-policy-838223
