John T. Bennett | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call
Much Sturm und Drang has surrounded some of Donald Trump’s picks for national security and foreign policy positions, but the president-elect has made clear that all matters of war and diplomacy will run through him.
President Joe Biden, who huddled with other G7 leaders Friday morning, has had a message for Trump since he won a second term last month: Resist your instinct to turn away from America’s allies.
John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, described Friday’s G7 session as focused on the leaders’ “shared support to Ukraine,” including the use of a World Bank fund to deliver billions in economic aid to the war-torn country. He also told reporters Thursday that Biden had “made clear, we’re going to continue to provide additional packages right up until the end of this administration.”
But in a sweeping interview published Thursday, Trump signaled a much different foreign policy when he takes office.
The soon-to-be-47th president has always been skeptical of — and sometimes combative with — international entities. And he hardly has committed to continuing U.S. economic and military aid to Ukraine, including during his “Person of the Year” interview with Time magazine.
“I’m going to try and help Ukraine but Europe has to get there also and do their job. They’re not doing their job,” the incoming commander in chief said. “Europe is not paying their fair share. … But they’ve taken advantage of us, both on NATO and on Ukraine. We’re in for billions of dollars more than they’re in in Ukraine. It shouldn’t be that way.”
On Capitol Hill in recent weeks, throngs of reporters and television cameras have followed Trump’s picks for Defense secretary, national intelligence director, secretary of State and other global affairs-focused posts. Senators have peppered them with policy questions during private meetings, eager for their views on foreign relations and national security matters.
But one word stood out again and again during Trump’s interview with Time: “I.” His answers suggest his nominees likely would be in the business of implementing his policy desires, rather than making their own.
“I hope it can be pointed out [that] during my term, there were stories that Iran didn’t have the money to give to any — there was very little terrorism. We had none. I had four years of — we had no terrorism,” he said. “We didn’t have a World Trade Center knocked down. You know, [George W.] Bush used to say, ‘Well, we’ve been a safe country.’ I said, ‘They knocked down the World Trade Center in the middle of your term.’”
(Fact checkers have termed Trump’s claims of no terrorism under his presidency as false.)
“And we got rid of ISIS, 100 percent,” Trump added, also falsely, before blaming Biden because “now they’re starting to come back.”
‘I built the embassy’
Trump, signaling he would soon usher in a more forceful tone as diplomat in chief toward friends and foes alike, suggested he would offer more constructive criticism to Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I think that Israel has done one thing very badly: public relations. I don’t think that the Israel Defense [Forces] or any other group should be sending out pictures every night of buildings falling down and being bombed with possibly people in those buildings every single night, which is what they do,” he said.
On the Iran nuclear accord negotiated under President Barack Obama: “I ended that deal.” On his administration moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem: “I did the embassy and in Jerusalem. Jerusalem became the capital.” On a new main American diplomatic facility there: “I built the embassy. I even built the embassy.”
It seems in Trump’s view during his second transition, the “I’s” have it.
That includes issuing a few warnings for Netanyahu, whom Biden has granted wide latitude in conducting the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Well, I had a bad experience with Bibi. And it had to do with Soleimani, because as you probably know by now, he dropped out just before the attack,” Trump told Time, referring to his claim that Netayahu’s government had agreed to help U.S. forces in an operation that ultimately killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who led the elite Quds Force of the country’s Revolutionary Guard. “I was not happy about that. That was something I never forgot. And it showed me something.”
He also said Israelis who blame Netanyahu for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on their soil were correct, adding that he would be able to work with other top Israeli officials such as Benny Gantz, a former IDF general who was previously the country’s defense minister and deputy prime minister.
“I think Benny Gantz is good, but I’m not prepared to say that,” he said when asked if he could “work better” with him than with Netanyahu in a second term.
“But you have some very good people that I’ve gotten to know in Israel that could do a good job,” he said. “And I will say this … Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on October 7.”
‘People like it’
Eight years ago, during his first campaign for president, the transition period and his first inaugural address, Trump’s underlying message was that he was the only person who could repair the “carnage” that he said was caused by Democrats like Obama and Nancy Pelosi and even some Republicans, including former President George W. Bush.
That list also included internationalists from both parties whom Trump blamed for sending American jobs overseas and bungling the U.S. response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
This time, Trump has told interviewers and posted on social media that the current perceived mess was caused by one person: Biden.
“[We] have an incompetent fool that’s allowing people to come into our country,” he said. “We have an incompetent fool that drove energy prices so high over such a short period of time. And by the way, you know, he’s gone to a lot of my policies now.”
Asked if he understands why some recoiled at his pledge to be a dictator on “day one,” Trump, who received more than 77 million votes and swept all seven battleground states, replied: “I think a lot of people like it.”
The post Trump signals foreign policy will run through him despite nominee noise appeared first on Roll Call.
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