Trump Has Made America Less Safe
August 26, 2020
Keith Kellogg just claimed that Trump has shown “leadership” on national security. Trump has made America less safe by tearing up our alliances and creating crises, while failing to resolve critical foreign policy issues.
Trump has failed to resolve foreign policy issues and manufactured new crises abroad.
CNN: “North Korea, despite Trump’s embrace, is not denuclearizing. Iran is moving closer to building a nuclear bomb after Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal. China is rising fast and Russia is resurgent after interfering in US elections. That’s a problem as Trump contemplates a lackluster record and goes in search of iconic achievements — and longed for baubles, such as a Nobel Peace Prize — ahead of the 2020 election.”
USA Today: “Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is deriding President Donald Trump as foolish for trying to oust him. Kim Jong Un is testing Trump’s ‘love’ – and his resolve – in the North Korea negotiations. And Iran’s leaders are finding new ways to threaten the U.S. and to defy the president’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign. In short, Trump’s foreign policy agenda is hitting the diplomatic rocks, with potentially disastrous results.”
America’s global standing has plummeted under Trump, weakening our influence.
Gallup: “U.S. leadership remains unpopular worldwide”
Pew Research Center: “As has been the case throughout his presidency, U.S. President Donald Trump receives largely negative reviews from publics around the world. Across 32 countries surveyed by Pew Research Center, a median of 64% say they do not have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, while just 29% express confidence in the American leader.”
New York Times: “Souring World Views of Trump Open Doors for China and Russia”
Trump jeopardized national security in service of his personal interests and to grant favors to authoritarian leaders.
New York Times: “Mr. Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed a willingness to halt criminal investigations ‘to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,’ citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. ‘The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept,’ Mr. Bolton writes, saying that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr.”
Trump has torn up international agreements and alienated our allies that help keep us safe.
CNN: “Like everything in Trump’s foreign policy, there is a political explanation for the latest storm that rocked the White House. Trump’s first term, while succeeding in traumatizing US allies and causing global disruption, is largely bereft of the big wins the great dealmaker promised back in 2016.”
New York Times: “With American cities burning and the coronavirus still raging, killing more people than in any other country, President Trump also has growing problems overseas. He has never before been so isolated and ignored, even mocked. In Europe, after years of snubs and American unilateralism, America’s traditional allies have stopped looking to him for leadership, no longer trust that this president will offer them much, and are turning their backs on him.”
The Hill: “Here are the US allies that have been caught in Trump’s crosshairs”