Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine called President Trump’s scrapes with foreign leaders this week “amateur hour” and said Trump is making the country look foolish.
Kaine said on CNN that Trump’s reported arguing with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a previous agreement to take some refugees into the U.S., his reported statement to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto that he’s willing to send American troops into Mexico to deal with “bad hombres” and his saber-rattling with Iran is all a black eye for the country.
“If he doesn’t like the [refugee] deal, that’s his right, but to have a contentious conversation and name-call the prime minister of a country that’s one of our greatest allies in Asia is foolish,” he said. “To suggest to the president of Mexico that we may need to send troops into Mexico is foolish.
“He’s doing kind of amateur hour stuff on matters of significant national importance.”
Kaine said Trump’s tough talk on Iran, repeatedly saying the Islamic Republic is “on notice” following its ballistic missile test last week, is all well and good, but Trump is playing into Iranian hands with his statements about Iraq.
Kaine, who is a proponent of stricter sanctions on Iran, said Trump’s tweet about Iran gaining influence in Iraq gets at a real problem. However, Tehran’s influence in Baghdad grew when Trump temporarily banned Iraqis from coming to the U.S. in his controversial executive order and repeatedly says the U.S. should “take the oil” from Iraq.
“He’s complaining that Iran is gaining too much influence in Iraq and wants to be tough about it,” Kaine said. “But what is he doing? He’s said he wants to go in and take Iraq’s oil and he’s banned Iraqi citizens, even those who have worked with our American military, from coming into the United States. Anyone who knows the region knows that strengthens Iran.”
