Donald Trump's disorienting foreign policy is setting the U.S. on a path without regard for the rest of the world, according to a new analysis.
The first four weeks of the president's second term have made it clear Trump and his administration have no regard for alliances of anyone threatened by U.S. adversaries, and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said their attitude can be summed up as "who cares?"
"Who cares if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin gets to keep the wide swath of Ukraine’s territory he seized in a brutal, unprovoked invasion?" Robinson wrote.
"Who cares if the newly contemptuous U.S. stance toward the democracies of Europe makes them feel abandoned and vulnerable?" he continued. "Who cares if the leaders of wealthy, technologically advanced nations such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy — effectively demilitarized, beneath the U.S. umbrella, since the apocalypse of World War II — decide they now have no choice but to massively rearm?"
"Who cares if the Palestinians are permanently denied their dream of an independent state?" Robinson added. "Who cares if children die in regions of Africa ravaged by war, famine and disease? Trump promised to cut federal spending, and although foreign aid is just 1 percent of the budget, the U.S. Agency for International Development is an easy target for Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency.”
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Trump has targeted neighboring allies Canada and Mexico with taunts and threats of tariffs and territorial annexation, which he's also done to Panama and Greenland. Robinson said the president threatens to undo decades of work to ensure U.S. security.
"Trump promised to make America great again, but he is doing the polar opposite," Robinson wrote. "His bellicose chest-thumping makes this nation smaller, weaker, more isolated — and negates the concept of American exceptionalism. Bullying is a behavior that can intimidate, as anyone who has spent time in a schoolyard knows. But it does not project genuine strength. It reveals insecurity, weakness, overcompensation for some deficiency. Trump’s foreign policy is that of a paper tiger, not a real one."
Robinson lamented Trump's abdication of American leadership in the world, which he said would invite China to fill the void the president has created.
"Trump is leading us not toward greatness, but toward surrender," Robinson wrote.
