President Trump's First Foreign Trip

[Getslow]

Now that the president has returned from his first diplomatic trip abroad, we can ask a few questions. How did it go? Did we glean anything new about how the president intends to conduct his foreign policy?

 

For me, it started well enough. I've always been uncomfortable with our relationship with Saudi Arabia but every American president for two generations has gone and paid homage to the lords of petroleum. So whatever. Fine.

 

Visit with Israel seems to have gone well and Mr. Netanyahu certainly seems to feel more closely aligned to Mr. Trump than to Mr. Obama, as Mr. Obama was to Mr. Netanyahu's predecessor. A relationship with the most liberal democracy in the Middle East is always important.

 

The problems for me came in Europe. I think Mr. Trump's views on NATO are flawed but his public insistence on touting the weakness of international institutions is problematic. He demonstrates either a misunderstanding of how the alliance works and why it exists or a hack politician's canny in using misinformation to make a point. I honestly don't know which is worse.

 

He also failed to make a commitment one way or another on the Paris Climate Accord. I'm assuming he's going to withdraw, as the last Republican president did from the Kyoto Treaty. He was noncommittal but his dislike for multilateral agreements alone makes me think he wants out.

 

We'll see.

 

Did I miss out on anything major? Any other indicators of what the president might be thinking on any of the issues arising during the trip?

[tcjkbt]

As in a business deal, when you have leverage, you try to use it to your advantage. The USA is probably stronger than all of Europe put together. Trump is trying to assert this advantage to the USA's benefit. The question remains, however, will this type of attitude work in international political relations especially when you are dealing with countries which are supposed to your friends or allies? I guess we'll find out. Evidently, many countries are ticked off. This probably doesn't matter to Trump. He looks at it as if he were buying 500 hotels and the seller be damned.

[doomer]

Most of these "allies" are in it for the well being of their country and will make decisions and act accordingly. They are quick to criticize when others do the same. What Europeans loved about Obama was that he was a socialist-leaning and weak leader which played music to the ears of Europeans who believed the US would then become more like them. Granted, most of my experience in the past 20 years was in Western Europe, Scandinavia and China, but doesn't anyone find it interesting that the US and its leader is under criticism for environmental support while China and India, the two worst were even exempt from provision of greenhouse gas reductions because they were characterized as "developing nations". Have you been to these places? One can't breathe in some cities.

 

I believe the US needs to be a leader in environmental issues, and I believe it is, and still can do better, but the Kyoto Treaty is a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

[doomer]

I read headlines now where supposedly Trump is in a war of words with Merkel. Don't give this too much traction. Being at odds with the US and spouting German global leadership plays well in Germany for the upcoming elections. As I mentioned before, Germans are all about Germany until they come to work in the US, then they usually want to stay. So we must not be that bad. The US has not been protecting our interests abroad sufficiently for too many years.

[LIPTON BASH]

I read headlines now where supposedly Trump is in a war of words with Merkel. Don't give this too much traction. Being at odds with the US and spouting German global leadership plays well in Germany for the upcoming elections. As I mentioned before, Germans are all about Germany until they come to work in the US, then they usually want to stay. So we must not be that bad. The US has not been protecting our interests abroad sufficiently for too many years.

 

Amen. I believe in a global economy much more than our president. But the last 20 years we have been to focused on that than our own interests.

[Getslow]

I think there are probably some genuine points of disagreement between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Merkel that are worthy of discussion. She grew up under the thumb of East German communism and is now the leader of a Christian Democratic Party that rightly fears the sorts of strongmen that Mr. Trump seems to want to work with. Now tha fear only goes so far as German cooperation with companies like Gazprom has helped them secure cheap natural gas via Russian pipelines.

 

Still, I don't think we should cast aside a lack of shared vision between the largest country in the EU and US casually.

[kypride]

I think there are probably some genuine points of disagreement between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Merkel that are worthy of discussion. She grew up under the thumb of East German communism and is now the leader of a Christian Democratic Party that rightly fears the sorts of strongmen that Mr. Trump seems to want to work with. Now tha fear only goes so far as German cooperation with companies like Gazprom has helped them secure cheap natural gas via Russian pipelines.

 

Still, I don't think we should cast aside a lack of shared vision between the largest country in the EU and US casually.

 

My #1 problem with Trump. He does too many things quickly and casually.

[LIPTON BASH]

I think there are probably some genuine points of disagreement between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Merkel that are worthy of discussion. She grew up under the thumb of East German communism and is now the leader of a Christian Democratic Party that rightly fears the sorts of strongmen that Mr. Trump seems to want to work with. Now tha fear only goes so far as German cooperation with companies like Gazprom has helped them secure cheap natural gas via Russian pipelines.

 

Still, I don't think we should cast aside a lack of shared vision between the largest country in the EU and US casually.

 

What do you mean lack of shared vision. I hope a leader of this country does not share the economic vision of Germany or the EU for that matter. The vision they hold is anti-American . The labor laws in Germany are so overreaching. I have a friend who works for a large manufacturing firm based out of England. He works here though. But he has been in charge of shutting down all plants of Germany because the cost of labor is so ridiculous , but even the cost and red tape of closing is crazy. He also tells me this is a trend in his industry. That is just one example.

 

I am actually glad we do not share a vision with Merkel. I never have.

[FarBeyondDriven]

What do you mean lack of shared vision. I hope a leader of this country does not share the economic vision of Germany or the EU for that matter. The vision they hold is anti-American . The labor laws in Germany are so overreaching. I have a friend who works for a large manufacturing firm based out of England. He works here though. But he has been in charge of shutting down all plants of Germany because the cost of labor is so ridiculous , but even the cost and red tape of closing is crazy. He also tells me this is a trend in his industry. That is just one example.

 

I am actually glad we do not share a vision with Merkel. I never have.

Excellent post.

[Getslow]

What do you mean lack of shared vision. I hope a leader of this country does not share the economic vision of Germany or the EU for that matter. The vision they hold is anti-American . The labor laws in Germany are so overreaching. I have a friend who works for a large manufacturing firm based out of England. He works here though. But he has been in charge of shutting down all plants of Germany because the cost of labor is so ridiculous , but even the cost and red tape of closing is crazy. He also tells me this is a trend in his industry. That is just one example.

 

I am actually glad we do not share a vision with Merkel. I never have.

 

My "shared vision" comments were more to the point of security rather than economics.

[LIPTON BASH]

My "shared vision" comments were more to the point of security rather than economics.

 

I don't think Merkel has grounds to talk on security policy with her immigration agenda.

[Getslow]

With that said, we can't keep putting America at such financial disadvantage, pay more than our share to NATO while other countries don't pay their share, and be expected to Police the World (someone has to Police the World) all on our dime.

 

Guru posted this in another thread and it reminded me of this trip, in which Mr. Trump appeared with European leaders and NATO Members and discussed this lack of fairness.

 

What do we think is our fair share?

[Hellcats]

Guru posted this in another thread and it reminded me of this trip, in which Mr. Trump appeared with European leaders and NATO Members and discussed this lack of fairness.

 

What do we think is our fair share?

 

NATO Defense Spending Requirements: Who Meets Them? | Time.com

 

We are the leader. We pay more. Other countries need to get up to the 2% established.

[UKMustangFan]

NATO Defense Spending Requirements: Who Meets Them? | Time.com

 

We are the leader. We pay more. Other countries need to get up to the 2% established.

 

Wow. We pay more than double what everyone else combined pays?

 

Yeah, that absolutely needs to change. I don't know what the right $$ is, but it certainly isn't that.

[Getslow]

Wow. We pay more than double what everyone else combined pays?

 

Yeah, that absolutely needs to change. I don't know what the right $$ is, but it certainly isn't that.

 

You have to think about it in real terms. The GDP of the United States last year was over 18 trillion dollars. The largest economy of another NATO member is Germany, which was just over $3 trillion. Even if all these countries met the 2% of GDP threshold, the USA would STILL vastly exceed the military spending of the rest of NATO due to the relative sizes of our economies.

 

Take out the number two economy, China, and the American economy is bigger than the next 8 on the list combined, most of which are NATO allies.