President Donald Trump says his plans for the Paris climate accord will be known “very soon.” Speculation indicates there’s a high chance the U.S. will pull out of the initiative.
President aligns with autocrats, clashes with Europe
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s evolving foreign policy stresses that U.S. interests come first. His manner of seeing to that, however, is having mixed and perhaps counterproductive results.
Trump’s focus on “America First” as a prism for global security, diplomacy and trade has meant questioning or downgrading decades-old strategic alliances and long-held policies, from NATO to Latin America.
While institutional constraints may prevent too radical a shift, the new White House priorities could undermine U.S. global influence, say numerous current and former diplomats. Some allies, especially in Europe, already say they no longer look to the current White House for moral authority or leadership on the world stage.
During his first official trip abroad, the president aligned himself with autocratic leaders such as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Egypt’s Abdel-Fattah elSissi, even as he clashed with the elected leaders of European nations with which the United States has shared core values and interests.
Trump now is considering withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, a landmark environmental agreement, signed by nearly 200 nations, meant to reduce greenhouse gases and curb global warming. On Wednesday evening he tweeted that he would announce his decision from the Rose Garden on Thuirsday.
Since the end of World War II, Democratic and Republican presidents have broadly supported similar foreign policies: a strong commitment to allies, belief in free trade policies and leadership in the world — in contrast to the isolationist movement that briefly emerged in 1940, the last time an “America First” movement was in fashion.
“To throw all of the commitments of the last several decades into question, as (Trump) did with his outright bullying of the Europeans, and now, if he does pull out (of the Paris accord), then we are looking at a real weakening of the leadership and credibility of the United States,” said Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush.
During last week’s summits of the NATO military alliance and the Group of Seven top industrialized nations, Trump dismayed officials in Germany and France, among other allies, when he failed to embrace Article 5 of the NATO charter, which essentially states that an attack on one member is an attack on them all.
Trump repeated his demand that other NATO members spend more on defense.
Trump also has downgraded human rights, parting with many of his predecessors.
The reactions to Trump’s priorities were sharpest in Europe. Without mentioning Trump by name, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week that the era in which Europeans could “rely on others” is over.
“Anyone who accelerates climate change by weakening environmental protection, who sells more weapons in conflict zones and who does not want to politically resolve religious conflicts is putting peace in Europe at risk,” Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer painted a different picture of what happened in Brussels and Sicily.
“He views not just Germany, but the rest of Europe, as an important American ally,” Spicer said Tuesday. “During his conversations at NATO and at the G7, the president reaffirmed the need to deepen and improve” our relationship.
Trump “has revolutionized our ideas of what the U.S. stands for,” Martin Wolf, chief economics columnist at Britain’s Financial Times, wrote Wednesday. “We live in the world the U.S. made. Now it is unmaking it.”
For one, Trump’s past praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin has unnerved Europe. NATO, after all, was created as a bulwark against Russia. Undermining NATO may encourage Moscow to pressure former Soviet republics.
The downshift in U.S. influence is most worrying, according to Burns, the former U.S. ambassador. Quitting the Paris climate deal, for example, would cede leadership to China.
Trump already has pulled out of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade agreement meant, in part, to provide a counter to China’s growing influence in Asia.
“If we retreat on the responsibilities we have, that’s a real danger,” Burns said.