President Trump’s campaign is complaining that the last debate will cover a wide array of topics, rather than focusing on foreign policy as originally expected. Instead of complaining, Trump should be breathing sighs of relief.
Granted, Trump does have a few significant accomplishments in foreign affairs, almost all related to Israel. Primarily, his team stopped former President Obama’s habit of getting in the way of an ongoing rapprochement among Israel and some of its Arab neighbors, resulting in new, formal agreements between the Jewish homeland and, respectively, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. He also merits credit for the killing of Iranian terrorist chief Qasem Soleimani, and his team successfully concluded a territorial eviction of ISIS that had been nearly complete in the final days of the Obama administration.
After that, Trump’s cupboard in some places is bare, and in other places features a growing rot.
Trump’s pullout from Syria was ill-advised, precipitous, and ham-handed, and it played right into Russia’s hands. His vows to evict corrupt crypto-communist Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela’s presidency have left an omelet on Trump’s face. Trump has dithered in Afghanistan, strengthening the Taliban in the process. He embarrassed the United States by saying he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had “fallen in love,” only to accomplish not a single significant restriction on Kim’s aims.
Again and again, Trump has paid homage to authoritarians while insulting allies, with special attention to polishing Vladimir Putin’s boots at every opportunity. Trump has been a disaster for the cause of human rights, refusing to recognize the key role that rhetoric has in protecting rights worldwide and, worse, refusing to understand that defense of human rights has practical benefits for U.S. interests. And when the Saudi regime viciously murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump actually gave verbal cover to the Saudis.
Trump put NATO at risk by seriously considering abandonment of its key pledge of mutual defense. He is withdrawing troops from Germany less because of any strategic advantages than because of his personal pique at German chancellor Angela Merkel — and he caught Pentagon officials unaware when he announced it, in opposition to contrary military advice.
This is just a partial list of Trump’s diplomatic blunders, but no such list could be complete without acknowledgment of the ethical violations and idiocy, and almost certainly legal violations as well, of Trump’s doings in the Ukraine-related scandal for which he was rightfully impeached. It matters not that Trump’s opponent Joe Biden also had acted unethically regarding Ukraine: Trump put U.S. interests and prestige in a bad light while pursuing his private, political interests.
Anyone who thinks the U.S. is more liked or admired worldwide than it was before Trump took office, or even more respected in some grudging way that improves American prospects, or that U.S. interests are more secure, is misguided. Russia, Turkey, and the Taliban are resurgent, ISIS and al Qaeda continue to offer sporadic horrors, Bashar Assad still rules in Syria and Maduro in Venezuela, and Trump’s vaunted trade wars have only increased, not reduced, our trade deficits.
Now, perhaps even that sorry record would prove a net plus for Trump when compared with Joe Biden’s even worse record on foreign and defense matters. Trump’s failures, though, are more recent and thus easier for viewers and voters to grasp, so a debate only on foreign policy could put him very much on the defensive. He should be thankful he’s not getting what he asked for.
