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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion oped

EDITORIAL: Trump disappoints world leaders at NATO summit

President Donald Trump had a chance to prove his capacity for foreign diplomacy – beyond his late-night tweets – to world leaders last week, but, ultimately, he failed to do so.

Last Thursday, at the highly anticipated NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, Trump failed to reassure our allies of America’s commitment to the organization. He continued to press the issue of financial contributions, citing “chronic underpayments” of member states, and brought the bulk of his “America first” theme to Europe, according to the New York Times.

As a member of the military alliance, it appeared Trump’s singular goal was to convince fellow NATO members they were in good hands under his leadership. Instead, he left members “visibly unsettled” and “unsatisfied,” according to the New York Times and the Washington Post, providing no evidence that he was an effective foreign diplomat.

The recent NATO summit, held at its new headquarters in Belgium, was expected to arouse controversy. Trump spent a memorable portion of his 2016 presidential campaign chastising fellow NATO members for not meeting the defense spending target of two percent of a country’s GDP. Only a small portion of the 28 countries in the alliance currently meet this threshold, prompting Trump to remain vocal about this criticism after his election.

Relationships between countries must be maintained to sustain peace and healthy alliances. Regardless of political differences, a newly minted president would be wise to be civil with America’s historic allies, if not for diplomacy’s sake.

Trump did no such thing.

While his fellow NATO members have vastly more foreign policy expertise, Trump made sure to stand out by pushing them aside in photo-ops, for instance, as he did with fellow NATO member Dusko Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro.

After the G-7 leadership summit in Italy on Saturday, in which Trump refused to endorse the Paris Climate Change Accords, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke publicly about the diminishing role of the United States as an ally under President Trump.

“The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over,” she said to her supporters.

With nationalism and xenophobia becoming more prevalent in the Western world, Merkel’s statement is not surprising. What’s jarring, however, is that the consequences of being a belligerent diplomat are finally being realized after months of Trump’s incomprehensible foreign policy tweets and incoherent speeches.

We knew this day would come, but it’s still painful.

Stable ally relations and good reception by foreign leaders are crucial for the success of the presidency and the country at large. Overseas diplomacy is no time for an encore of worn-out campaign hits.

Leading a nation requires more than trying to gather support at home. And given Trump’s 38 percent approval rating, according to Gallup, he’s struggling to do that, as well. A well-rounded leader needs to be a competent diplomat by balancing domestic support against long-held promises with other countries.

For now, Trump seems to be no more than a tweeter-in-chief. His unacceptable behavior in Europe will have longstanding results for our nation’s relationship with other countries.

Due to his irresponsible and embarrassing behavior, several years’ worth of trust between America and its allies crumbled in a weekend.

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