President Donald Trump spent the end of the week in Buenos Aries, Argentina at the G-20 meeting with other major conferences, but he reportedly doesn't enjoy them. It's for that reason some think the president keeps canceling international assemblages in the wake of the Democratic takeover that happened as a result of the November elections.
A Washington Post report quoted Latin America expert Ted Piccone, saying, “He doesn’t like these meetings, he doesn’t like the format and he doesn’t like multilateralism."
The contemporary meetings are a stark contrast to the president's connectivity to foreign leaders in 2017. In November, the president made one of the longest trips of any president in 25 years as he made his way through Asian countries. Since then, however, Trump skipped three Asia summits, sending Vice President Mike Pence instead.
The choice of Pence was an interesting approach as the president has been questioning the vice president's loyalty. In November, New York Times reported, "in one conversation after another he has asked aides and advisers" if Pence is loyal.
Still, the president's question about Pence's devotion isn't deep enough for the president to take international matters into his own hands.
“Someone said recently that ‘The Apprentice’ was full of twists but no plot,” said Thomas Wright, a Europe expert at the Brookings. “That’s the question of Trump’s foreign policy. There will be twists, but is there a plot, is there a direction?”
Other presidents took a different approach after elections they lost and turned to foreign policy. Trump has done things differently after it became clear his domestic agenda would stall in a divided Republican Congress. The president has tried and failed to erase President Barack Obama's legacy accomplishments with executive orders and failed Congressional bills. What the GOP hasn't stopped, courts have struck down.
So, the president turned to issues like trade and denuclearization efforts for North Korea.
"Foreign affairs analysts said some capitals have grown wary given Trump’s sharp-elbowed performances," The Post said.
“The problem at the moment is he has no agenda,” Wright explained. “He ticked through his bucket list of everything he wanted to do and declared victory on all fronts. What does he do now? They’ve not really thought it through.”
Trump has participated in multilateral summits but he's much more interested in international meetings where he is the focus and can give a speech and be "center stage."
“It’s easy to see which ones Trump himself is driving toward versus the traditional responsibilities of office,” Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security told The Post.
It's unclear if the president intends to spend the next two years campaigning for 2020 instead of governing or if he thinks that somehow he'll have more luck passing legislation with Democrats.
