The Lasting Damage Of Trump's Disastrous Diplomacy

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The Lasting Damage Of Trump’s Disastrous Diplomacy

Robert Kuttner
June 12, 2018
How much damage is Trump inflicting, and what will it take for Republicans to rein him in?


It’s hardly a surprise that Donald Trump blew up the Group of Seven summit. In his warped view of the world, America’s closest allies are enemies, and nations that represent dangerous threats are friends.

Thus Russia is to be welcomed back, while Canada, about as benign a neighbor as exists, is a menace for taking advantage of the United States on trade. (Fact check: The U.S. government’s own data suggest the United States ran a small trade surplus with Canada in 2017.) The European Union, whose subsidy and open-market policies are on a par with our own, is seen as a bigger threat than mercantilist China. And North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Un gets warmer words than the leaders of Europe.

Has the world gone mad? No, only Donald Trump.

Trump’s bullshit in a china shop can best be understood on three levels. First, sheer ignorance. Second, thin-skinned petulance and pique. After barely papering over differences at the actual summit, Trump destroyed whatever shred of goodwill remained in a tweetstorm triggered by the effrontery of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s criticisms.

But the third reason is the most dangerous of all—corruption and opportunism. Trump gave China a pass on the national-security risks of the telecom company ZTE as an apparent thank you for Chinese gifts to his business empire and that of his daughter Ivanka.

He keeps cutting Russian President Vladimir Putin slack after years of Russian bailouts for Trump’s business empire. He is now in danger of being taken to the cleaners by North Korea, because Kim is better at sucking up to Trump than, say, Trudeau or French President Emmanuel Macron, and because Trump desperately needs a symbolic win.

In the wake of the G-7 fiasco, the pressing questions are these: How much irreversible damage is Trump doing, and how long will it take for Republicans to rein him in or push him out?


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http://prospect.org/article/lasting-damage-trumps-disastrous-diplomacy