In a remarkable speech, we saw the clearest overview of what the Trump doctrine could be described in foreign policy on an unforgettable journey.
The current US President does not tend to indulge in the conversation with Grand Theory, but he effectively interpreted one in Saudi Arabia.
It could be summarized than: less moralized, more money.
In other words, the pursuit of prosperity has priority over high rhetoric in relation to democracy. This is a recipe for peace and stability in his story.
The speech on Tuesday in Riyadh was, of course, there was no question that the last Republican President George W. Bush would have given the first trip abroad of an term of office by the President.
There was also no question that Barack Obama held in his first Presidential address into the Arab world when he spoke in detail about democracy with university students in Cairo.
Trump spoke to a business quantity. And in contrast, he reduced western dog or who travel around the world and try to spread democracy.
He left the CEOs on his feet when he welcomed the leadership of the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
This is the same Mohammed bin Salman, which was briefly treated as persona non grata In Washington for his alleged role in murder and hacking into pieces of a columnist for the Washington Post.
“Trade, no chaos,” Trump described the Saudi guide’s profit approach before he turned to criticize western business.
“It is crucial for the broader world, this great transformation (in Saudi Arabia) not to come from western interventionists or flying people in beautiful aircraft who give them lectures on the life and management of their own affairs,” he said.
“No, the shiny miracles of Riad and Abu Dhabi were not spent on Kabul, Baghdad and so many other cities by the so-called national farmers, neo-cons or liberal non-profit organizations such as those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars.”
The US President Donald Trump complied with economic obligations from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday during his tour of Gulf States. The two countries signed a US defense agreement of almost $ 142 billion. Chris Browns CBC attract Trump’s visit.
Trump mocked so -called national builders, who, as he said, destroyed more nations than they built and entered into complex companies that they did not understand.
The speech “could have been the clearest articulation of how Trump sees foreign policy,” said Stephen Wertheim, a historian of the US foreign policy at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace.
“He worked openly for transactionism.”
What does this mean for the rest of us
The address helped to bring loose threads together in apparently non -related events of his presidency.
Gaza? According to Trump’s view, it Should be a Resortrich in hotels and US investors. Ukraine? President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was burned in the White House, but has signed A since then US Ukraine minerals deal And is back in Trump’s better grace.
Trump announced hundreds of billions in Business in Saudi Arabia and the VAE, including A massive investment in a spacious data center. During the trip he also increased sanctions on Syria and pulled a standing ovation listed by the Saudi guide.
Does this approach make the world safer? The foreign policy thinkers surveyed for this story took some advantages and disadvantages and expressed that they did not know.
“To be determined,” said Wertheim, who sees some advantages – a lower risk of a certain kind of war and less accusations of the hypocrisy of the United States, while promoting democracy, but selectively selecting which autocrats are supposed to allies. On the other hand, it is a potential recipe for instability that autocrat free free free enables a potential recipe for instability.
“Nobody knows. Absolutely nobody,” said Daniel Immewahr, a historian of US foreign policy at Northwestern University. He agrees that the structure of nation was destructive, but deals with a world in which dictators abuse their citizens and threaten neighboring countries without being afraid of the United States that resemble in the early 20th century.
Trump’s value-light approach certainly has the potential to make less than less predictable matters.
No further search than all over allies and opponents and are now confused about where they stand. Take a look at how he is blown hot and cold on NATO, in Ukraine and in China. Tariffs impressive and removeand ravage back and forth when restricting the trade High-tech products.
It can be difficult to plan that. Especially for the countries that are closest to the United States, especially one, Canada, about which he repeatedly talks as a target takeover.
Perhaps Canadian could be limited to a rare thing that Trump said he would do in principle: defending Canada if it had penetrated.
“We protect Canada militarily and we will always do it. It’s not a money matter,” said Trump with Prime Minister Mark Carney during his white house.
Trump’s approach to foreign policy gives an objection. Even his critics admit that. Two former Obama employees, in their podcast from the foreign factor this week, welcomed some things that Trump does in the Middle East.
They said the traditional attitudes for foreign politics in Washington are sometimes not transactional enough; They praised Trump for ignoring criticism, also from Ally Israel, and the reopening of relationships with Syria.
“I think Trump deserves a lot of recognition,” said Tommy Vietor in his podcast Pod save the worldAnd added that he likes the fact that Trump doesn’t care what Washington’s foreign “blob” thinks.
The Reporters of the New York Times in different parts of the Arab world have recorded the mixed reactions In one piece with the title “: “Trump’s promise to the Middle East: No more lectures on life.”
A human rights lawyer told the newspaper that this was less hypocritical than the United States who are constantly talking about rights and democracy, and then selectively ignoring these things in places and moments that correspond to it. At least now, he said, the Americans are clear. Or are you?
A consistent philosophy? Unadorned
There is still hypocrisy or at least inconsistencies. The United States speak to autocrats and communists on several continents, but partly for domestic political reasons Venezuela And Cuba.
This is one reason not to read too much in the question, says Wertheim. It is not an iron philosophy. In addition, Trump is not as radical change agent as he presents himself.
For example: the neoconservative impulse to spread democracy out of fashion years ago. It is true that Joe Biden supported Ukraine and sent weapons. But Wertheim added, he refused to interfere with Bush style and actually withdrew from such a mission in Afghanistan.
As for the potential effect of Trump’s attitude towards human rights, times also spoke to people in the Middle East who are worried about what it could mean.
One was the son of a 75-year-old US Saudi dual citizen who was forbidden to leave the kingdom after being arrested, then releasedAbout critical social media contributions. He said past US administrations might have raised this with the Saudis. But he said he hadn’t managed to get someone in the Trump government to speak to him.
In their podcast, the ex-Obama employees said there was a third approach. A middle ground between military adventure and democratic outside point and on the other end of almost complete indifference to democratic values.
“We should not allow (Trumps) to believe that the only alternative of American interventionism believes that the only alternative is a group of, be he, a few … white American CEOs and a bunch of royals who sitting around and deciding everything for themselves,” said Ben Rhodes.
“There must be a voice for people in these discussions in this part of the world.”
The Podcast episode had the title “Con Man Air: Trump’s Cash Grab”, which reflects a yellow -sized view of this Midose trip A gripping For Trump and his family.
It could have been an indication of the animating philosophy of Trump’s foreign policy.
In contrast to Ronald Reagan, who spoke of America as shining city on a hillTrump speaks of a different shine – a golden age that is encouraged by a simpler, clearer philosophy: follow the money. Where ideals fail and the art of the business is.
