What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Eddie Teach]

Nations that kept peace with Hitler have no room to criticize.

There is plenty of room to criticize at this point.

Not for Sweden. If everyone had acted like them we'd be living in a dystopian nightmare Donald Trump could never dream of.

Beside which, childish insults only serve to entrench those behaviors you deem worthy of criticism.

[Eddie Teach]

He has really achieved a lot over eighteen months. Western multilateralism that has defined the entire post-war period is more or less dead. The Europeans should take heed and not just hope for a return of this bygone era.

I never suspected how fragile this all was.

It wasn't even that fragile. But there's only much you can do for a relationship when your partner gets a voluntary lobotomy, tears up all your stuff and starts picking fights with everyone.

What has Trump actually done that you feel this alliance is irrevocably dead?

[Zanza]

The Guardian article I linked has a good enumeration of things he did to actively harm the Western alliance.

The irrevocable aspect comes from questioning whether anything Trump or a successor promises is really commitment I.e. America is no longer reliable,  and the at least tacit support from much of the GOP for his foreign policy.

[Eddie Teach]

Nobody is reliable. America is still more in line with Europe's values than Russia or China.

[The Brain]

Nations that kept peace with Hitler have no room to criticize.

There is plenty of room to criticize at this point.

Not for Sweden. If everyone had acted like them we'd be living in a dystopian nightmare Donald Trump could never dream of.

Beside which, childish insults only serve to entrench those behaviors you deem worthy of criticism.

If everyone had been peaceful and respected their neighbors we would be living in a dystopian nightmare? I see.

Our path to war with Germany was the same as America's: a German DoW against us.

[Zanza]

Nobody is reliable. America is still more in line with Europe's values than Russia or China.

Of course. But that's not reflected in current policy.

And the reference to China and Russia betrays a zero sum view of diplomacy. The Western alliance generated value that cannot be replicated by having closer relations with other powers. Europe does not need a partner, it is just that its partnership with America was very beneficial.

[Valmy]

Nobody is reliable. America is still more in line with Europe's values than Russia or China.

Nobody is reliable? I guess on some ridiculously extreme platonic level, but not in the way the word is used normally in diplomacy.

[Oexmelin]

The USA spending its precious diplomatic capital to fight unjust resolution on the crucial issues of our time: breast-feeding.

American officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that called on governments to "protect, promote and support breast-feeding" and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.

When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.

The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.

The showdown over the issue was recounted by more than a dozen participants from several countries, many of whom requested anonymity because they feared retaliation from the United States.

Health advocates scrambled to find another sponsor for the resolution, but at least a dozen countries, most of them poor nations in Africa and Latin America, backed off, citing fears of retaliation, according to officials from Uruguay, Mexico and the United States.

"We were astonished, appalled and also saddened," said Patti Rundall, the policy director of the British advocacy group Baby Milk Action, who has attended meetings of the assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, since the late 1980s.

"What happened was tantamount to blackmail, with the U.S. holding the world hostage and trying to overturn nearly 40 years of consensus on best way to protect infant and young child health," she said.

In the end, the Americans' efforts were mostly unsuccessful. It was the Russians who ultimately stepped in to introduce the measure — and the Americans did not threaten them.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Nobody is reliable. America is still more in line with Europe's values than Russia or China.

Well, half of America, at least.

[Syt]

The USA spending its precious diplomatic capital to fight unjust resolution on the crucial issues of our time: breast-feeding.

The only rationale I can think of here would be that they tried to protect economic interests of American baby food companies? Thought the threats do seem a tad extreme. Also gives Russia an easily avoidable little PR win.

[Oexmelin]

Yes, that's the working hypothesis. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html

[Eddie Teach]

Nobody is reliable. America is still more in line with Europe's values than Russia or China.

Well, half of America, at least.

/facepalm

[Jacob]

Nobody is reliable. America is still more in line with Europe's values than Russia or China.

Well, half of America, at least.

/facepalm

Indeed.

[crazy canuck]

Nobody is reliable. America is still more in line with Europe's values than Russia or China.

Well, half of America, at least.

Well to be fair more than half judging from the popular vote vs the electoral college and there is still the highly professional career military and diplomatic employees within the US government and so there is still hope if this current regime comes to an end.  But the worrying thing is that it will not end any time soon, and the US will be dramatically changed as a result.

[Tamas]

Our path to war with Germany was the same as America's: a German DoW against us.