Trump and Our Corrupt Foreign Policy

Trump doesn’t make a point of “picking the other side” in some global struggle. He takes advantage of the corrupt and compromising partnerships that the U.S. has built up for decades.

Josh Rudolph sees Trump’s foreign policy as simply pro-authoritarian:

If the better way to get into Trump’s head is not speeches written by his advisors but rather his own extemporaneous words and unvetted actions, a darker portrait emerges: a would-be autocratic strongman who looks to realign U.S. foreign policy away from democratic allies and toward the dictators whom he clearly admires—and whose ranks he yearns to join. Quite the opposite of isolationism, Trump’s instincts betray a perverse form of internationalism: eagerly picking and choosing the other side in the ongoing global struggle between democracy and autocracy.

Rudolph is right that Trump isn’t an “isolationist,” but it is not quite right to say that Trump wants to realign U.S. foreign policy in this way. There is no question that Trump is comfortable catering to illiberal and authoritarian governments, but in this he is just more brazen in his embrace of the despots and dictators that the U.S. has supported for a long time. Many presidents have cultivated close ties with authoritarian governments, but Trump distinguished himself with the enthusiasm that he showed in backing the likes of Sisi (his “favorite dictator”) and Mohammed bin Salman. Trump doesn’t make a point of “picking the other side” in some global struggle. He takes advantage of the corrupt and compromising partnerships that the U.S. has built up for decades.