Donald Trump in Foreign Policy
On Energy & Oil:
Claims Paris Accords costly; estimated US cost $170 billion
Trump has said that his withdrawal was motivated by the fact that the accord would be expensive, ineffective, and would cost American jobs. The World Resources Institute estimates it would cost America $170 billion. The US pulling out is largely
symbolic. The world was already moving toward lower carbon emissions. World carbon emissions peaked in 2007 and have been steadily declining since then. In contrast, use of clean energy, such as solar and wind have been on a steady rise.
When answering the question about the impact of withdrawal on domestic greenhouse gas emissions, it's important to separate the withdrawal with Trump's other environmental policies. Even before the pullout, Trump administration had cut funding to
EPA, discontinued the Clean Power Plan, greenlighted both the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines, and allowed extractive operations on public land, all of which would have significant impact on US CO2 emissions regardless of the pullout.
Source: Foreign Policy Magazine on Trump Administration
Jul 13, 2017
On Foreign Policy:
Reimbursement for US military bases in rich countries abroad
As for nations that host US. military bases, Trump said he would charge those governments for the American presence. "I'm going to renegotiate some of our military costs because we protect South Korea. We protect Germany. We protect some of the wealthies
countries in the world, Saudi Arabia. We protect everybody and we don't get reimbursement. We lose on everything, so we're going to negotiate and renegotiate trade deals, military deals, many other deals that's going to get the cost down for running our
country very significantly."Trump then got into a specific example: Saudi Arabia, one of the more important US allies in the Middle East. Saudis "make a billion dollars a day. We protect them. So we need help. We are losing a tremendous amount
of money on a yearly basis and we owe $19 trillion," he said.
Walking back trade deals and agreements that allow the US military to operate overseas is easier said than done. But Trump has tapped into a powerful anti-Washington populist sentiment.
Source: Foreign Policy Magazine on 2016 presidential hopefuls
Sep 28, 2015
On Foreign Policy:
Trump "an utterly disloyal ally," odious to European leaders
Suzanne Nossel, a former senior foreign-policy advisor, said, "Here, we have a controversy that directly implicated international relations and the legitimacy of U.S. diplomacy worldwide.
I think a lot of the world is holding their breath to see whether and how Trump can be taken out of office. If not, the realignments that are already in progress will be cemented, with the U.S. less trusted, less relied upon
and less capable of leading for the foreseeable future."Danielle Pletka, an expert on international relations at the American Enterprise Institute, added, Trump "earned" the trans-Atlantic hostility that he now faces in international
settings. "He has been an utterly disloyal ally, and he has been odious toward a whole series of European leaders," she said.
Source: Foreign Policy magazine on impeaching Trump
Dec 11, 2019
On Health Care:
Cut budget, fired entire pandemic response chain of command
In the spring of 2018, the White House pushed to cut funding for Obama-era disease security programs. White House efforts included cutting the global disease-fighting operational budgets of the CDC, NSC, DHS, and HHS. The Trump administration fired the
government's entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure. The global health section of the CDC was so drastically cut that much of its staff was laid off.[Prior to the Trump Administration], the
Obama administration set up a permanent epidemic monitoring and command group inside the White House National Security Council (NSC) and another in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)--both of which followed the scientific
and public health leads of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the diplomatic advice of the State Department.
Source: Foreign Policy magazine on Trump Administration
Jan 31, 2020
On Principles & Values:
Unlike Clinton, Trump lacks foreign support at time of need
[Comparing Trump's impeachment with Bill Clinton's] "I remember being surprised at how spontaneous, how universal the standing ovation was for Clinton," Robert Orr, a former senior foreign-policy advisor in the Clinton administration, said. "It was a
reminder that the rest of the world was not looking at the impeachment process in the same way Americans were."Thomas Pickering, a former diplomat, said while Clinton was able to turn his close personal relationships with foreign leaders into a
reservoir of political support in difficult times, "Trump's willingness to trample" on allied leaders has resulted in what he described as the "Macron effect"--a gradual defection of an erstwhile political friend at a time of need.
Macron has openly criticized Trump for diminishing trust in NATO's deterrent by reducing the alliance to a commercial proposition.
Source: Foreign Policy magazine on impeaching Trump
Dec 11, 2019
On War & Peace:
Bar Iranian diplomat from addressing UN over assassination
The Trump administration is barring Iran's top diplomat from entering the United States this week to address the United Nations Security Council about the U.S. assassination of Iran's top military official in
Baghdad, violating the terms of a 1947 headquarters agreement requiring Washington to permit foreign officials into the country to conduct U.N. business, according to three diplomatic sources.
Source: Foreign Policy magazine on impeaching Trump
Dec 11, 2019
Page last updated: Jul 21, 2024