Trump Foreign Policy Marches Toward Disaster

President Trump’s flight to Finland came at the end of a long week when Trump had already shaken the foundations of NATO, picked fights with our two most powerful allies (Germany and England), and bullied the entire membership of NATO. Few knew that Trump was just getting started. 

In Helsinki, he ended an already disastrous week by meeting privately with our foremost adversary, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. Later, at a joint press conference, Trump expressed solidarity with Putin and criticized his intelligence services, denied that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and continued to criticize the press using the Stalinist term “enemy of the people.” It may well have been the most disgraceful – and dangerous – foreign policy performance ever by a US president.

But in a broader perspective, this week was just the latest in a series of actions that has severely damaged our position in the world – and will continue to damage us in the future. It is increasingly clear that president Trump is unfit to serve as Head of State or Commander in Chief.

North Korea. Until he walked out on stage with Putin, there was no issue where Trump’s unfitness for office was more obvious than North Korea. In Singapore, Trump gave Kim the stature of a face to face meeting.Previous presidents were unwilling to grant this huge concession, but Trump considered it to be a proud accomplishment. At the meeting, he signed an agreement in which North Korea promised to do precisely nothing.

After the summit, Trump claimed the “agreement” was a major breakthrough and gushed that Kim is a guy we can work with and trust. He surprised the South Koreans, Japanese, and his own Secretary of Defense by terminating our joint exercises (a suggestion he received from Vladimir Putin). He gave away the rest of our leverage when he announced his eagerness to end sanctions and remove US troops from South Korea; in effect, he gave China permission to ease up on sanctions. Most unbelievably, he stated that North Korea’s nuclear threat was at an end and that we could all “sleep well.”

North Korea responded to these unilateral Trump concessions and self-promotions by expanding nuclear research and uranium enrichment and possibly taking steps to hide its program. Trump, of course, derided the report as “fake news.” North Korea’s harsh denunciations after Secretary of State Pompeo’s recent visit pretty much put the talks back to square one, with the US in a far weaker position than it was before the president’s concessions. But Trump continues to insist that he made a great agreement and it’s still on track.

NATO. Under US leadership, a network of alliances and international agreements (Marshall Plan, Bretton Woods, the UN, NATO, the EU, G-7, etc.) redeveloped Europe from the devastation of World War II, waged the Cold War, provided stability after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, and supported the US response to the war on terror. 

Trump has undone much of this in only 18 months. He has repeatedly criticized democratically elected allies; questioned US commitment to the NATO self-defense agreement; withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords and the Iranian nuclear deal; and, most recently, declared ruinous tariffs against our closest allies on the absurd pretext of national security. His boorish behavior carried over from the G-7 to NATO, with an absurd harangue where he claimed Germany was controlled by Russia. Then he finished with a hyperbolic press conference where he claimed credit for funding commitments NATO members made during the Bush and Obama presidencies, a claim that NATO leaders were quick to rebut. 

Next, in his first hour as a guest in the capital city of our closest ally, he slammed prime minister Theresa May’s BREXIT strategy, threatened England’s trading relationship with the US, and said her rival Boris Johnson would make a good prime minister. As he left England, newspapers reported that Pentagon officials were engaged in “damage control” to convince the allies that the US is still a dependable partner. 

Putin. Trump’s visit with Putin aroused the most outrage and fear in the US and western capitals. Putin has always been the one leader who Trump refuses to criticize. But his face to face meeting (unaccompanied by staff) and press conference represented a new low. Even after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials for a wide range of actions to disrupt the 2016 elections, Trump continued to deny that it ever happened and denounced the Mueller investigation as a partisan witch-hunt. He clearly believed Putin’s denial, undercut his own Director of National Intelligence – by name, in public – and refused to order his government to protect us from attacks on the 2018 election. He even took Putin’s suggestion that Russian intelligence officers might “help” us investigate as a serious, helpful suggestion.

Denunciations poured in. Senator John McCain called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” Former CIA chief John Brennan gave an even harsher assessment, saying Trump’s behavior “rises to and exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors’… he is wholly in the pocket of Putin." Trump attempted, as Senator Chuck Schumer described it, to “squirm away” from the worst of his comments, but his laughable explanation for a single word left the submissive and disloyal tone of his Putin press conference unchanged. 

Our western allies now view the US as, at best, an erratic and undependable ally. We are now at odds with our allies on Iran, Russian election meddling, Israel, economic and trade policies, climate policy, and many other issues, while we increasingly often align with Russia. Trump characterized the EU as a “foe” and Germany is reportedly considering a future where the US is regarded as an adversary. As the European Union leader said “Dear America, you should appreciate your allies. After all, you don’t have that many.” As time passes, there will be fewer.

 Leon Reed is a retired Congressional aide and defense consultant. He is a member of the Government Accountability Task Force of the Gettysburg Democracy for America.