My Take | Trump symptom of pathological imperialism of US foreign policy
He says or does something outrageous knowing he can get away with it and, by extending that principle to global politics, because America can
Threatening to retake the Panama Canal and forcibly buy Greenland from Denmark. Warning Nato members he will withdraw US military protection unless they commit to spending 5 per cent of their gross domestic product on defence and start buying more American oil and gas at inflated prices. Insulting Canada by calling it the 51st state of the United States and its prime minister a state governor.
Is it just Donald Trump being Trump? Previously, the president-elect also threatened to bomb fentanyl labs and deploy special forces to take out cartel bosses in Mexico, which may be construed as a warning to invade another sovereign country and ally.
His latest antics even before his return to the White House have galvanised his “Make America Great Again” fans. Others are amused, thinking it’s more sound bites than bullets and bombs, though they can never be sure.
The foreign policy establishment in Washington is reportedly aghast. These are the people used to rhapsodising about the US-led rules-based world order and “taking care” of friends and allies.
Mainstream US pundits, both liberal democrats and old-style conservatives, warn Trump is undermining the pillars of American foreign policy, presumably policies and stances they themselves have advocated and now look set to be overturned.
“Trump’s erratic foreign policy to meet ‘a world on fire’,” runs a Reuters headline.
“Favouring Foes Over Friends, Trump Threatens to Upend International Order”, says another in The New York Times.
