Day 997: Trump has racked up an laundry list of foreign policy disasters that have made the world far more dangerous
In his previous life, Donald Trump was a real estate businessman. Almost all of his other follies — airlines, casinos, steaks and more — have failed. And despite having no bona fides in the foreign policy space, he managed to convince many people that he had enough knowledge and negotiating prowess to be a huge asset to the U.S.
But, after nearly 1,000 days in office, Trump’s foreign policy disasters are accumulating at an alarming rate. In addition to having bizarre interactions with virtually every world leader that he’s come in contact with, and coming up with cockamamie ideas — like buying Greenland — his decisions have been almost universally dangerous.
- Most recently, Trump’s cowardly decision to move a handful of troops from northern Syria has allowed the Turks to begin ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, long-time American allies. As a result, ISIS fighters are returning to the battlefield less than a week after Trump’s order.
- In China, the U.S. is still involved in a trade war that has dragged on for two years that Trump instigated. This has largely caused the world economy to stagnate and wait for any type of resolution. Trump formerly said that trade wars were “good and easy to win.” He seemed to have little understanding how trade deals work after being in office for over two years.
- Trump handed North Korea propaganda video after propaganda video — including saluting a North Korean general — all while falsely swearing that Pyongyang was denuclearizing. In reality, North Korea continues to build launch sites.
- He tore up the Iran deal that kept Tehran from building nuclear facilities. Upon seeing them ramp up production again, tried to pay them billions of dollars to adhere to the deal again.
- While Trump promised on many occasions that Mexico would fund a border wall at the U.S.’s southern border, that has obviously never materialized. Instead, Trump is siphoning off billions of dollars from the U.S. budget, including military projects, to try and pay for it.
- He has taken orders from Saudi Arabia, while helping to cover up their assassination of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
- Trump has gotten played by Vladimir Putin and Russia at every turn. Trump threw U.S. intelligence agencies under the bus by claiming he believed Putin and not them about 2016 election meddling. He placed and lifted sanctions on Russia, seemingly for no reason. As Russia’s economy standing in the world was brought to its knees by Barack Obama, Trump helped pick them up.
- From a global perspective, Trump continues to shout that climate change is a hoax and announced that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris Agreement when eligible to do so. Most nations and virtually all scientists studying the issue believe carbon emissions are leading to a global crisis in the near future. A total of 194 nations and the European Union signed on to the accord. None followed the U.S. out the door.
There are an alarmingly few amount of things that Trump can plausibly claim victory on. The vast majority of dealings have become failures in every sense of the word. Trump’s decisions have ruined lives, caused political and economic instability and generally made the world a far more dangerous place.
997 days in, 465 to go
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