Isolated Rogue States

The United States hovers near the bottom of the list of nations with a positive global image. Slightly above Israel and somewhere on par with Russia. Despite the spin here in the United States, where Israel is viewed with sympathy and as a solid and reliable partner in the Middle East, as evidence of its global unpopularity, Israel consistently draws overwhelmingly negative votes in the United Nations General Assembly whenever it comes to any Palestinian issue… from expansion of Israeli settlements into the Palestinian-held West Bank even to whether or not the United Nations should allow the Palestinian flag to join the flags of other nations over its headquarters in New York (out of a possible 193 votes, 119 voted for the flag to fly, 8 against [including the US and Israel] with 45 abstentions).

Israel doesn’t do particularly well at the U.N. Security Council either, but the United States is quite willing to use its veto power to support virtually of Israel’s actions vis-à-vis Palestinians, most recently on June 1^st: “The United States vetoed on Friday [6/1] a Kuwaiti-drafted UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians, underlining Washington's differences with friends and foes alike over the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

“Later, a second, US-drafted resolution that blamed Hamas for the violence and upheld Israel's right to defend itself failed to attract any other country's support when it was put to vote in the 15-member council.” english.manoramaonline.com, June 2^nd. Not one other nation? And only Guatemala joined the U.S. in moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Russia has generated global opprobrium over its annexation of Crimea, attempts to acquire additional territory (e.g., rather direct support of a Russian separatist movement in Ukraine), its support for a brutal and murderous dictator in Syria, its political hacking/disinformation campaign against Western democracies, and its apparent willingness to assassinate its opponents living in other countries. North Korea clearly made the bad-boy list, but Kim Jong-Un’s overtures to South Korea and the United States have softened that image at the expense of Donald Trump. Which of course brings me to the plunging power and influence of the United States almost everywhere.

Based on a very twisted reading of the “national security” requirements in the enabling statute, Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on long-term national security-friendly allies, like Canada and Europe, has drawn outrage from his intended targets. His constant castigation of NATO allies has driven a growing wedge between the United States and that essential coterie of strategic partners. His failure to accept the Paris climate accord or his withdrawal from the six-party Iranian nuclear protocol have further strained relations with traditionally strong allies. European leaders are increasingly looking at Trumpian America has one more negative force in the world and not as a dependable friend. You can watch as Europe circles the wagons against the U.S.

European leaders are no longer containing their ire at American rhetoric and what they feel are completely hostile and unjustified attempts by the United States to bully them into kowtowing to the Trump agenda. As Trump castigated Europe for giving the United States a purported raw deal, “French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday [6/7] threatened to join with other world leaders to issue a rare rebuke of the United States at a global summit [in Quebec, Canada] this weekend [starting 6/8], drawing an immediate and sharp reply from President Trump.

“Macron threatened to exclude the United States from the joint statement issued every year at the end of the Group of Seven summit of industrial democracies, as part of an international pushback against Trump efforts to change trade rules.

“‘The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be,’ Macron wrote on Twitter. ‘Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force.’” Washington Post, June 7^th.  

Trump is slated to leave the G-7 meeting early, before the discussion on climate change, energy policy and oceans. Though he apparently did not have the courage to make this demand at the G-7 meeting, on June 8^th he stated publicly that Russia, thrown out of the G-8 when it invaded Crimea, should be reinstated… something which the European leaders have said they would not accept unless Russia materially changed its ways. At the actual meeting, Trump instead simply flattered Macron and his leadership. But wait, there’s more.

As Europe has issued new privacy laws (General Data Protection Regulations) to protect its own peoples, which rules rankle America social media/Internet conglomerates, Trump replied that the EU is “charging the U.S. massive tariffs and creat[ing] non-monetary barriers” in response. Europe rolled its collective eyes. The United States has become a nation that Europe no longer understands.

Europeans are equally aghast at the economic reconfiguration of America into a plutocracy. Our income polarization, the worst in the developed world, is viewed as a symbol of our failing democracy headed by a fact-averse, self-centered autocrat (as reflected in the above Time Magazine cover). Even the United Nations has condemned the skew of rich Americans getting increasingly rich (making “averaging” statistics look good) at the expense of everyone else.

“Philip Alston, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, published a damning report [in late May] on poverty in the United States, condemning President Trump’s administration for exacerbating the problem of inequality by rewarding the rich and punishing the poor.

“‘The American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion,’ Alston states in the report. ‘The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class white workers.’” Los Angeles Times, June 4^th. This also lowers the prestige and influence of the United States around the world.

We are deeply unpopular in most of the world. Rogue state. Bullies. Untrustworthy. Won’t honor our commitments. America First regardless of the consequences. So how does the Trump administration deal with this tsunami of negativity? By using words to tell everyone how much better the United States is regarded since he was elected, even if the opposite is in fact the case.

“Asked on Monday [6/4], President Trump’s 500th day in office, what he considers his top foreign policy achievement, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders quickly replied: ‘The strengthening of relationships with a number of foreign leaders.’ The State Department said the same with a tweet: ‘After 500 days in office, U.S. leadership is back on the world stage as the result of @POTUS’s policies.’

“It’s no surprise that top administration officials have alighted on that claim. The president has been making it at every opportunity — during a rally last week in Nashville, at the U.S. Naval Academy commencement ceremony and in off-the-cuff remarks to White House reporters Friday [6/1], just to name the latest audiences… ‘We are respected again, I can tell you that. We are respected again,’ Trump told the Navy cadets. ‘A lot of things have happened. We’re respected again.

“The evidence — both in nonpartisan polls and in the increasingly critical remarks of exasperated allies — suggests otherwise… After 16 months, however, leaders of long-standing allies like [Japan’s PM] Abe, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May — all initially deferential to Trump and his famous ego — have grown frustrated and at times disapproving.

“Significantly, so have their citizens, increasing the pressure on foreign leaders to distance themselves from Trump’s America. Across 134 countries, the median approval of U.S. leadership dropped 18 points in Trump’s first year, to a record low of just 30%, according to a Gallup survey released in January. That was before Trump’s decisions to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and impose tariffs on a number of allies, which further alienated many of them.

“The finding echoed a Pew Research Center survey last year that found in all but two of 37 nations polled, Trump got far lower marks than President Obama; the exceptions were Russia and Israel… ‘In the main, it’s a preposterous claim to say the U.S. is better regarded in the world when we haven’t had for many decades this many crises with our allies,’ said Nicholas Burns, a career diplomat under several presidents — serving as ambassador to NATO and Greece and as undersecretary of State — and now a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.” Los Angeles Times, June 7^th.

While Trump’s base, and at least on the surface many in the GOP, might buy into Trump’s unilateral description of how much he has accomplished in the international arena, there are literally very, very people in that international arena who would say much other than the United States has plunged in global influence, power and credibility pretty much across the board. The damage may take decades to reverse… if the foreign powers ever trust us again (we reversed decades of policy in the first 500 days of a single new president… and that could happen again).

I’m Peter Dekom, and that not remotely enough Americans understand international economics or politics, or are aware of how deeply our daily lives are impacted by the world around us and our relationship to it, have given rise to a populist president who has turned the United States into a global pariah.