The Chaos and Failure of Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy

America’s reputation on the global stage has suffered tremendously as a result of Donald Trump’s aggressive approach to foreign policy. Following the ideology of an ‘America First’ isolationist stance on foreign relations, Trump has successfully managed to alienate the majority of international powers and American allies.

The ways in which Trump has accomplished such a task spans a colourful and diverse range of impulsive uninformed decisions. Whether it be through his retraction from UNESCO or his aversion towards NATO, it’s safe to say Trump is scaling back America’s involvement in global affairs. However in our current age of climate emergencies, a raging worldwide pandemic and an all-encompassing sense of uncertainty, the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization, from the Paris Agreement, and his lack of cooperation with the World Trade Organization truly reign supreme on the list of Trump’s catastrophic attempts at conducting foreign policy.

The United States and the World Health Organization

• The threat of COVID-19 spread throughout the globe in unison with Trump’s growing contempt towards the WHO in light of how they handled the virus in its initial stages
• Subsequently, Trump filed for official withdrawal from the WHO in July 2020. While the legality of this decision is still being considered, the ramifications of this action can’t be ignored
• The financial stability of the WHO will be deeply impacted as a result of Trump’s withdrawal, as will be their ability to handle future healthcare crises
• While Trump has received little to no support from international allies or his own Republican congress, he shows no plans to nullify the impending withdrawal

The United States and the Paris Agreement

• At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, all present 195 countries, including the United States under Barack Obama’s administration, agreed to partake in the Paris Agreement. A treaty which aims to monitor and limit greenhouse gas emissions
• America’s cooperation in the treaty was crucial because along with China, the U.S. emits one of the highest recorded levels of greenhouse gases
• However, in June 2017, Trump announced his plans to withdraw from the agreement on the basis that it would drain federal spending and damage the U.S. economy
• Coupled with Trump’s aversion towards the Green Climate Fund, America’s impoverished and ignorant stance on climate change sparked critique and controversy from virtually all major European powers
• Namely from Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who threatened to impose significant tariffs on all American exports to Europe

The United States and the World Trade Organization

• The USA was a founding member of the WTO and a primary beneficiary of a rules-based trading system
• However, Donald Trump has refused to allow the appointment of new members of the Appellate Body
• This makes it impossible for trade related disputes to be resolved in a proper manner. The organization and a rules based global trading system are in crisis, at least partly because of the USA’s actions.

Trump’s blundering and senseless actions continue to baffle the onlooking world, and has led America’s international allies to question the legitimacy of the United States as an evolved country. While Trump’s foreign policy schemes have largely involved dealings with multilateral systems and wider international organizations, his bilateral communications with individual countries and world leaders have proved to be equally as devastating. The ramifications of this cannot be ignored and will be explored further in the future.

This perception is reiterated by the Pew Research Center, whose figures in 2018 confirm that global perspectives of America’s interest in foreign policy has risen to 72% in the category of unfavorable. The number has not been this high since 2007, during the Bush administration.

Foreign policy is a fundamental piece of the presidential puzzle of obligations, and it is one of the tasks which Trump has failed at most spectacularly. America’s relationship with international organizations and global markets is at risk of permanent fracture, as is America’s legacy as a country once celebrated for the protection of rights and liberal democracy.

What can you do? Vote! Let us join together and ensure that come November, a blue wave will sweep across the country and wash away the rubble and wreckage of Trump’s destructive path.