How Trump is killing America's alliances
How Trump is killing America’s alliances
Trump’s betrayal of South Korea and trade spat with Justin Trudeau reveals the lasting damage he’s doing to the United States — and the world.
By Zack Beauchamp@zackbeauchampzack@vox.com Jun 12, 2018, 10:40am EDT
The story of the past few days in news has become clear: It was America versus its allies.
After President Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong Un, Trump announced that he would be suspending joint military exercises — “the war games,” as he put it — with South Korea, as a gesture of goodwill toward the North. This seems to have come as a shock to America’s allies in Seoul: South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office released a statement saying “we need to find out the precise meaning or intentions of President Trump’s remarks,” implying they had no idea this was coming.
The weekend before, at the G7 summit, a confab for leaders of seven wealthy democracies, Trump got into a fight with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over trade. When Trudeau criticized Trump’s imposition of new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — saying “Canadians did not take it lightly” — Trump called him “very dishonest and weak” on Twitter. Peter Navarro, one of his top trade advisers, said on Fox News that there was “a special place in hell” for Trudeau.
These two incidents aren’t the only times Trump has infuriated American allies in the past year. Just last month, he pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal — a painstakingly negotiated agreement involving several of America’s top European allies. Last June, he withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. And this all came amid constant carping about how America’s NATO allies needed to pay their “fair share,” and after Trump’s past musings about how he might not defend allies if they didn’t.
Trump’s betrayal of South Korea and eruption at Trudeau are not one-offs, or events you can write off as simple quirks of the president’s personality. It is part of a broader slate of Trump policies and diplomatic efforts that have, put together, fundamentally weakened America’s ties with its traditional allies — in ways that could have potentially disastrous consequences for the world.
America’s alliances depend on the US’s reputation for upholding its agreements and treating its allies fairly. Trump’s blithe disregard for diplomacy and international agreements has damaged the US’s reputation in a way that some scholars worry may be irreparable. And a deep body of research on international relations suggests that the strength of America’s alliances in Europe and East Asia have played a pivotal role in preventing another world war. The more Trump mucks around with American alliances, the more unstable the world becomes — making a large military conflict more imaginable.
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https://www.vox.com/world/2018/6/12/17448866/trump-south-korea-alliance-trudeau-g7
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PUTIN WINS AGAIN! 