Donald Trump’s actions are frequently “rash, ignorant and chaotic,” but a new report by the Council on Foreign Relations concludes his individual policies toward world nations may be better than critics realize.
The general focus on White House churn or presidential announcements delivered on Twitter distracts from successes, such as alerting policymakers to the threat from China, pursuing talks with North Korea, and strengthening relationships in the Middle East, according to Robert D. Blackwill, Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the think tank.
The result is a rare endorsement from the foreign policy establishment.
“All the chaos generated by this flawed president does produce actual policies, the substance of which in many cases is likely to be more consequential than the ways by which the policies arrived and the character of the man who formulated them,” he writes in the report, which is titled, “Trump’s Foreign Policies Are Better Than They Seem.”
“What matters most is the effectiveness of U.S. policy over time and its consistency with U.S. national interests, not the personal qualities of its leaders.”
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Blackwill offers a string of positive grades for policies on Saudi Arabia (B+), Syria (B+), North Korea (B), China (B+), Afghanistan (B+), and Venezuela (B+).
Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and Syria both represent a realistic reading of the battlefield, writes Blackwill, who served on the National Security Council and as ambassador to India under President George W. Bush.
He also concludes that the U.S. stance on Venezuela has been carefully conceived in coordination with local partners.
Those grades stand in contrast to the assessment of the way the president operates, ignoring much of the national security, diplomatic, and military expertise at his disposal. So for “policy process,” “issues of character,” “promotion of U.S. values at home and abroad,” and “approach to allies” Trump scores straight F’s.
[Also read: Trump to Mueller: Investigation a ‘punch in the solar plexus’ for US foreign policy]
Blackwill concludes: “This report, heavily influenced by the president’s realistic approaches to China and the greater Middle East, gives him an overall foreign policy grade of D+, a substantially higher mark for his foreign policies than found on the Sunday talk shows, in the editorial pages of the New York Times and Washington Post, or among many U.S. national security experts.”
Or, he could have added, Republican senators who criticized Trump’s plans to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
Although Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in a foreword that Blackwill has managed to make a case that flawed individuals can make good policy, “Like Wagner’s music, [Blackwill] argues, Trump’s foreign policy is better than it sounds.”
“But I would give President Trump a lower grade on how he has handled Iran, North Korea, and Syria,” Haass continued. “In addition, it is hard to see what the Trump administration has received in exchange for its uncritical embrace of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.”
