[ad_1]
HELSINKI – Many US presidents have created turmoil in their travels abroad, but not as much as President Donald Trump.
The tumultuous trip of the president across Europe has destroyed the conventions of American leaders on the world stage.
Trump 's approach to foreign policy, "America first," made him seem to accept the word of a hostile power on his own intelligence agencies, insulting his allies and sowing doubts about his commitment to the NATO alliance. a president was going abroad and was not only lecturing our NATO allies, but also embarrassing them, "said Russian expert William Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center. "We have never had our president to tour internationally and categorize our allies as enemies.And our president has never organized a joint press conference with a Russian leader for which he blamed both parties, but in fact, he spent most of his time blaming the Justice Department and the US intelligence services. "19659005] While former presidents have had difficult journeys to the United States. foreign and have been criticized for their highs with Soviet leaders, Trump's behavior has few parallels, according to presidential historians and long-time observers of Russia
Franklin Roosevelt Joseph Stalin at the Yalta conference in 1945 John F. Kennedy and his collaborators admitted that he was not prepared for his 1961 summit in Vienna with Nikita Khrushchev, the Reykjavik summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 was seen at the time for having resulted in failure; and George W. Bush was mocked for telling reporters in 2001 after meeting Putin that he had "looked man in the eye" and "found him very frank and trustworthy. . "
Trump's trip was different.
"Frankly, I do not think these American presidents went in pursuit of the security interests of the United States because they were supported by the Soviet leader they met," said Alina Polyakova, Foreign Policy Officer at the Brookings Institution. "I think even the meeting of President George W. Bush, where he had this famous quote to look in the eyes of Putin and see in his soul – this summit eclipses that of a thousand thousand."
Indeed, even before leaving Washington, Trump had made it clear that he wanted to fight. He criticized NATO members, the military alliance decades ago for not having spent enough on defense and suggested that he would no longer be interested in "paying" for the protection of Europe "
. In Brussels, he went after German Chancellor Angela Merkel, claiming that Germany was "totally controlled" by Russia and later asked on Twitter, "What is NATO." The summit ended with a proclamation by the president that NATO was stronger than The tragedy continued as Trump headed for his next stop, the United Kingdom. His first official visit was eclipsed by the fallout from the rhetorical grenade he had commanded. He was lobbed by British Prime Minister Theresa May before arriving. In a tabloid interview, he criticized May's Brexit plans, said that he might no longer be open to a trade deal with the UK, and said that one of the political rivals of May would be an excellent prime minister.
Then came yet another interview, this one from one of his golf courses in Scotland, in which Trump categorized the European Union as a geopolitical "foe".
Nothing, however, had prepared the world Trump's comments in Helsinki after hours of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the government, US intelligence officials have concluded, interfered with elections in 2016, hacked e-mails from the Democratic Party and disseminated them. Beside the scene with the man accused of complicity in an attack on the very foundation of American democracy, Trump said that his intelligence "think it's Russia." I have the president Putin, he just said it was not Russia, I would say I see no reason to do that. "He also went to his Justice Ministry, calling his investigation into Russia's efforts and its potential collusion with Trump's campaign of "disaster for our country"
An astonishing comment from an American president – the one that he partially tried to go back 24 hours later accusing him of a grammatical problem.But he did not withdraw from a number of his other comments giving credence to Putin's denial of electoral interference
"Trump 0 – Putin 1 ", launched the first page of the Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti
Doug las Brinkley, a presidential historian. Trump compared Trump to "a bull carrying his own porcelain shop with him.
"Just standing up and selling your country down on foreign soil in front of your opponent – there is no precedent for such shameful and irrational behavior" Pumpanz said that Trump himself had done some damage Politics suggesting that both sides were responsible for the Russian investigation that harmed the relations between the United States and Moscow – as Trump did when he blamed the two camps – protests in Charlottesville, in Virginia.
Pomeranz said the damage caused by Trump in describing the EU "
" I think that's what will be remembered this week, "he said
___
Follow Colvin on Twitter at https: // twitter.com/colvinj
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved This material may not be published or broadcast , rewritten or redistributed.
[ad_2]
Source link
