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When it comes to dealing with foreign policy, Donald Trump has a lot to learn.

- JOANNE BLACK

An American friend has tried to explain something he’d read that suggested Donald Trump’s apparently erratic outbursts on foreign policy are actually a brilliant strategy designed to make other countries come to the negotiatin­g table because they are unsure what he will do next. I wish that were true, but in my many years of reporting on politics and observing it at close hand, I know that elaborate theories such as this turn out to be true in only about one in a thousand cases.

It’s more likely that Trump’s pre-Christmas tweet – that “The US must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes” – was the petulant outburst of a person with a limited understand­ing of diplomacy who thought he’d dreamt he was about to become US President and then woke up to find it was true.

As Trump’s inaugurati­on draws closer, let’s hope he’s too distracted to text. And if he had been following the example of those whose New Year resolution was to spend less time on social media, then that recent tweet could have been among his last.

After reading it, I briefly considered becoming an activist, but then I returned to thinking that the world had come to its senses regarding nukes and considered they were a bad idea – or at least that countries should hold fewer of them. Even Ronald Reagan, who called the

Soviet Union an evil empire, thought so, and agreed on it with Mikhail Gorbachev in a series of face-to-face meetings. It’s hard to imagine what a meeting between Trump and President Vladimir Putin would be like, but I’m sure it would set a record for combined ego in a single room.

Mind you, diplomacy as we know it has a lot of shortcomin­gs, including prevaricat­ion and too much kowtowing to despots who should be told to naff off – to borrow a phrase the Princess Royal was fond of. The problem is, I don’t think we can rely on Trump to know which leaders to tell to naff off and which to befriend.

My family is about to have a short holiday in New York City – a first for our kids. My husband and I, who were raised on British children’s TV shows and literature, will be interested to see how the kids – whose cultural references are often American – find it.

I will always remember my first visit to London and my amazement that it was even more London-ish than the city of my imaginatio­n. Having seen it so many times in everything from EH Shepard’s Winnie-the-Pooh illustrati­ons to royal weddings, I knew it better than any city outside New Zealand.

My kids are likely to have a similar feeling in New York, but theirs will be heightened because as well as being familiar with the landmarks, galleries and famous shops, they probably already know via the internet what is for sale at each of them.

It will be a shame if the rich virtual lives we lead diminish the experience of “being there”, but I probably don’t need to worry. I expect the years the kids have spent seeing the Big Apple online and on TV – while ignoring the background soundtrack of me saying, “You watch too much rubbish” – mean it will resonate with them. That part I will understand.

A meeting between Trump and Putin would set a record for combined ego in a single room.

 ??  ?? “I do think your problems are serious, Richard.
They’re just not very interestin­g.”
“I do think your problems are serious, Richard. They’re just not very interestin­g.”
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