What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[grumbler]

Trump posted a tweet Tuesday saying: "We have a massive trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay far less than they should on Nato and military. Very bad for US. This will change."

I thought it was good if one pays less than one should for something.  Isn't that part of "the Art of the Deal?"  Didn't Trump get all boasty abut paying less for the F-35?

[viper37]

Didn't Trump get all boasty abut paying less for the F-35?

the funniest part, is he didn't get any better deal.  Lockhear simply announced the planned reduction as being a result of negotiations, but it was always planned this way.

[viper37]

http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/donald-trumps-farewell-tour/

What changed? The world has a much better measure of the man now. They see him as inconsistent—even if you convinced him on Monday to support the Paris deal, he will quite likely repudiate it Tuesday morning in a tweet. He has also proven so ineffective in controlling the bureaucracy and even his own party, it is unlikely that a repudiation will change much any time soon.

And beneath all of that is Trump's unprecedented ignorance—Merkel at one point was reduced to showing him a map of the former Soviet Union to explain Russian objectives in Eastern Europe. What is the point of trying to get his support on one issue or another when he has literally not even read the summary of the relevant briefing note?

Trump's first world tour may well end up also being his farewell tour. Not because it will be his last, although with the accelerating pace of the Russian scandal that is not impossible. But rather because it marked the official end of the American century—when Air Force One took off and finally headed back to Washington, it left behind a new world where the United States no longer counts, where America has effectively abandoned the field to Europe, China, and Russia. Wheels up.

[garbon]

http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/donald-trumps-farewell-tour/

What changed? The world has a much better measure of the man now. They see him as inconsistent—even if you convinced him on Monday to support the Paris deal, he will quite likely repudiate it Tuesday morning in a tweet. He has also proven so ineffective in controlling the bureaucracy and even his own party, it is unlikely that a repudiation will change much any time soon.

And beneath all of that is Trump's unprecedented ignorance—Merkel at one point was reduced to showing him a map of the former Soviet Union to explain Russian objectives in Eastern Europe. What is the point of trying to get his support on one issue or another when he has literally not even read the summary of the relevant briefing note?

Trump's first world tour may well end up also being his farewell tour. Not because it will be his last, although with the accelerating pace of the Russian scandal that is not impossible. But rather because it marked the official end of the American century—when Air Force One took off and finally headed back to Washington, it left behind a new world where the United States no longer counts, where America has effectively abandoned the field to Europe, China, and Russia. Wheels up.

Silly overstatement. America is still important regardless.

[Grey Fox]

Less & Less everyday.

[Syt]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/for-the-us-european-alliance-everything-has-changed/2017/05/28/5b42e5dc-43b9-11e7-a196-a1bb629f64cb_story.html?utm_term=.5590350dc21f

For the U.S.-European alliance, everything has changed

Just returned from Europe. Trip was a great success for America. Hard work but big results!
— Donald Trump, Sunday morning

For more than four months, the White House has confirmed no European ambassadors, filled no high-level diplomatic jobs and given no indication that it ever will. Occasional envoys, the vice president and defense secretary among them, have floated across the Atlantic, carrying messages of general reassurance. They have reconfirmed America's commitment to NATO, spoken of old ties and old alliances, hinted and winked that nothing has changed.

Europeans listened and pretended to believe them. Sure, one of them told me after hearing the vice president speak in February in Munich, "all of that's true until the guy's next tweet." But in the space of two short days last week, President Trump himself ended those months of uncertainty without a tweet. Now we know: The envoys were unreliable. And everything really has changed.

What actually happened in Belgium and Italy? Having declared in Saudi Arabia that he would not "lecture" Arab leaders about human rights, Trump arrived in Brussels and began to lecture America's closest allies, accusing them of owing "massive amounts of money" to NATO and U.S. taxpayers. This made no sense: NATO is not a club like Mar-a-Lago with annual dues. But it was a clear sign, at last, of what many had suspected all along: Trump prefers the company of dictators who flatter him to democrats who treat him as an equal.

A few hours later, at a meeting on trade, Trump complained that Germany is "bad" because of the "millions of cars they are selling to the U.S." and appeared to want to rewrite America's trade deal with Germany. This made no sense either: As a part of the European Union, Germany does not negotiate its own trade deals. Also, German companies make "millions of cars" inside the United States, about the same number as they sell. But the comments made it clear: The days when the United States led the world in trade are over too.

At no point did the president seem to understand his role of alliance leader. Pressed to commit to a climate-change treaty, he tweeted, "I'll be making my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!" — almost as if this were a television series that relied on cliffhangers to keep people watching. Proving that he still sees the world through the eyes of a property developer, he complained to the Belgian prime minister about European regulations that had slowed down the construction of one of his golf courses. Before the NATO summit photograph, Trump shoved aside the Montenegrin prime minister to put himself in front, because that's what boorish celebrities do.

At no point did the president even appear to understand the issues at stake either. During his NATO speech, he failed to mention Article 5, the clause that commits NATO members to defending one another if attacked. Later he declared that his trip would pave the way for "peace through strength," though it was clear he had no idea what that phrase, used by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, actually means: "We're gonna have a lot of strength, and we're gonna have a lot of peace," he explained.

After the visit ended, presidential aides rushed in to explain what the president meant to say. H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, immediately declared that Trump had supported Article 5. But this time no one pretended to believe him.

As a result of this trip, American influence, always exercised in Europe through mutually beneficial trade and military alliances, is at its rockiest in recent memory. The American-German relationship, the core of the transatlantic alliance for more than 70 years, has just hit a new low: On Sunday, the German chancellor told a sympathetic crowd that Germany could no longer depend on America, given what she had "experienced in the last few days." The Russian government, which has long sought to expel the United States from the continent, is overjoyed: On Russian television, Trump was said to have turned NATO into a "house of cards."

A "great success for America"? If that was "success," then I'd hate to see failure.

Apparently Merkel also previously showed him a map of the former USSR to try and explain Russia's goals and interests in Eastern Europe: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/05/trump-nato-article-five-israel-saudi-arabia/528393/

In his March 17 meeting with Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, he confessed he had never heard of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or the G-20. She made him a colorful map of the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, which he apparently liked.

[Valmy]

Well that stuff is pretty difficult for me to get my head around. I am not sure what the implications will be.

[garbon]

Less & Less everyday.

Our economy hasn't imploded and nor have our military. I get the front that we can be counted on less but if anything, as a wildcard actor, our importance is not lessened.

[grumbler]

http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/donald-trumps-farewell-tour/

What changed? The world has a much better measure of the man now. They see him as inconsistent—even if you convinced him on Monday to support the Paris deal, he will quite likely repudiate it Tuesday morning in a tweet. He has also proven so ineffective in controlling the bureaucracy and even his own party, it is unlikely that a repudiation will change much any time soon.

And beneath all of that is Trump's unprecedented ignorance—Merkel at one point was reduced to showing him a map of the former Soviet Union to explain Russian objectives in Eastern Europe. What is the point of trying to get his support on one issue or another when he has literally not even read the summary of the relevant briefing note?

Trump's first world tour may well end up also being his farewell tour. Not because it will be his last, although with the accelerating pace of the Russian scandal that is not impossible. But rather because it marked the official end of the American century—when Air Force One took off and finally headed back to Washington, it left behind a new world where the United States no longer counts, where America has effectively abandoned the field to Europe, China, and Russia. Wheels up.

Silly overstatement. America is still important regardless.

This is Macleans.ca.  Obvious clickbait.

[garbon]

I don't know what it is.

[Valmy]

I don't know what it is.

I, for one, am impressed by grumbler's knowledge of Canadian clickbait.

[CountDeMoney]

Less & Less everyday.

Our economy hasn't imploded and nor have our military. I get the front that we can be counted on less but if anything, as a wildcard actor, our importance is not lessened.

The modern international order does not like wild cards.  Wild cards increase the likelihood of conflict.  As a global superpower, the global anchor of the post-war collective security model and leader of the western liberal democratic system, the US cannot be a wild card.

[Grey Fox]

Less & Less everyday.

Our economy hasn't imploded and nor have our military. I get the front that we can be counted on less but if anything, as a wildcard actor, our importance is not lessened.

A Wild card power is irrelevant. No one will turn to the US for leadership, help or advice if today's word is only guaranteed for today. All that will remain is the want of access to the US market. Everything else, Trump is destroying at an amazing pace.

[Barrister]

I don't know what it is.

I, for one, am impressed by grumbler's knowledge of Canadian clickbait.

Macleans is Canada's newsmagazine (like say Time or Newsweek), which like most magazines, is struggling to transition to the digital world.  Never would have accused it of being clickbait.

[Syt]

Things became strained under GWB. I wonder if this is the logical conclusion. Then, the U.S. wanted to lead, and not everyone was willing to follow, leading to serious friction (this forum being testament to it). This time the Trump U.S. says, "fuck it all."