Trump accused of betraying the Kurds: Here are other instances when the US president may have let down his allies
President Donald Trump is never afraid of treading the forbidden path. Last Sunday, October 6, Trump came up with such a step once more when he dumped the Kurds in Syria and paved the way for Turkey to take them on militarily. The president was criticized all over, even by his own party, for abandoning the Kurds who have helped Washington to defeat the Islamic State in the past.
The latest decision to withdraw the American troops from Syria in the name of reducing the US’ involvement in Middle East conflicts is not the first time that Trump has let down an American ally abroad. Ever since he came to power in January 2017, the real estate tycoon-turned-president has come up with policies and moves that are unconventional. Political observers have analyzed Trump’s moves as populist that center on the ever-saleable commodity called ‘nationalism’ and his critics have flayed him saying he is leaving a lasting damage on America’s capacity as a leading power. It has to be seen whether Trump’s policies mark a permanent shift in US foreign policy in times to come but at this moment, he is certainly conducting things in ways that challenge the traditional wisdom.
Here we list some of the cases where Trump betrayed the countries’ allies abroad as well as international missions.
South Korea, June 2018:
Donald Trump has an obsession with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and has met him thrice in person besides sending delegates and exchanging letters. South Korea, the US’ close ally in the Far East, has played a key role in facilitating the US-North Korea talks. South Korean President Moon Jae-in was instrumental in making the maiden Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore in June 2018 a reality. However, Seoul was left stunned to see Trump saying after meeting Kim that he would be suspending joint military exercises with South Korea as a goodwill gesture to the North. President Moon’s office even released a statement saying “we need to find out the precise meaning or intentions of President Trump’s remarks.” For Seoul, such a statement was astonishing since it depends on America’s alliance for its own security against regional foes like North Korea and China.
G7, June 2018:
Just ahead of meeting with Kim, Trump was in Quebec, Canada, to meet the G7 leaders although it was always a job he hated to do. There, he got involved in an argument with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the imposition of new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and even called him “very weak and dishonest”. Matters turned for the worse when Trump, who had left the summit for Singapore to meet Trump, asked his representatives not to endorse the joint communique that Canada had released for he was not okay over backing down on the tariffs.
Iran, May 2018:
Trump was always cynical about the multinational peace deal that was signed with the Iranian regime in 2015 when Barack Obama was in power. According to the president, it was Iran who was gaining undue advantage under the deal (formally named JCPOA or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and he wanted to scuttle it. In May 2018, he said that the US would impose sanctions on Iran’s oil sector that had been lifted under the deal and it would mean Washington was no longer abiding by the deal. Trump called the deal “decaying and rotten” and pulled his country out of it. This unilateral move left the deal paralyzed, if not dead, but Iran felt betrayed and threatened the West that it could also care less about the deal and focus on nuclear programs if the economic hardships imposed on it like the ban of oil trade were not lifted.
Betraying the fight against climate change, June 2017:
This was not betraying any particular ally but the entire world’s trust. As the world’s biggest economy, the US has a major responsibility in the fight against climate change but Trump trashed it in his first major foreign policy move. In June 2017, months after assuming office, Trump pursued his “America First” agenda by pulling the US out of the important Paris climate accord signed in April 2016. He said the accord was unfair to the US and helped developing countries like China and India. Trump’s move left the world shocked as the Paris agreement has been embraced almost universally.
Humiliating Nato, July 2018:
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) is another tested ally Trump has denounced more than once. In July last year, Trump lashed out at the Nato allies over defense spending and singled out Germany calling it a “captive” to Russia. The president said the US was spending more than any other member country which he felt was unfair. He also targeted the European Union saying it had trade surplus with the US and putting “big trade barriers on US goods”. In fact, a New York Times report said that Trump expressed his desire to quit the bloc a number of times last year on private occasions. The American president’s disdain for Nato made many suspect that he was working in favor of Russia, a force that the West-led alliance has acted as a counter-weight against.
Betraying Palestine, December 2017:
The US’ love for Israel is not new but Trump took it to the extreme. In December 2017, less than a year after he took office, Trump took a drastic step of recognizing the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, leaving the Palestinians fuming. This was seen as a death blow to the US-facilitated peace talks in one of the most volatile regions on the planet and the hope of Palestine finding itself as a separate state. Trump had his own calculations of backing Israel to the hilt but that came at the cost of dumping the Palestinians. The American Embassy to Israel was shifted to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and inaugurated in May 2018. Trump felt the move was “long overdue” to work towards lasting peace but in effect, it marked a drastic shift in America’s age-old policy towards the sensitive region.