Opinion: The world rushes to court Trump

Editor’s note: Frida GitisHe is a former CNN producer and correspondent and world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to the Washington Post, and a columnist to the World Politics Review. Her views expressed in this comment are her own.view more opinions On CNN.

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The streets of Washington, D.C., have been decorated with Japanese flags in recent days, as the United States bestowed one of the rarest honors on the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a lavish state banquet, highlighting the ties between the two countries. It was an opportunity to reconfirm and strengthen. Two important allies.

Meanwhile, a parallel gathering of forward-looking pseudo-diplomacy is unfolding at Mar-a-Lago, where British Foreign Secretary David Cameron visited to discuss US foreign policy with former President Donald Trump. .

Cameron’s visit – which he defended as “totally appropriate” – comes as America’s allies prepare for what could be the most destructive return of a US president in memory, and perhaps history. It was just the most visible element of preparations underway.

As reported by CNN, European diplomats are desperately trying to forge connections with figures associated with Trump to understand what a possible victory for Trump in November will entail. .

It’s not just Europe. Countries around the world are preparing for what’s to come as the world’s most powerful nation approaches an election that could bring about a major shift in U.S. foreign policy.

President Trump’s strong poll results surprised many Europeans. They are now working urgently on two fronts: proving foreign policy and defense to President Trump, and minimizing the potential fallout from a Trump victory.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) have strengthened their defenses, making it possible that their top foreign policy priority, preventing Russia’s defeat in Ukraine, will remain intact even if Trump, a pro-Putin president, wins. Both NATO and the European Union are trying to come up with large-scale funding mechanisms to increase gender equality. It is necessary to help Ukraine, even though Kiev’s ammunition stockpile already dwarfs Moscow’s by far. The EU, along with the current US administration, is considering a plan to give Ukraine access to about $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, and NATO is considering a $100 billion fund to help Ukraine.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has recently engaged with Trump allies and the traditionally conservative but now pro-Trump Heritage Foundation in an effort to influence current and perhaps future Trump-centered Republican policy. They held talks and emphasized the strength of NATO.

Less than two weeks later, President Trump announced that if he were re-elected president, he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever it wants” to NATO countries that don’t spend enough on defense. ” he declared. The statement reportedly accelerated European efforts to bring him back.

Of course, Ukraine is not the only problem. Europeans are concerned about the survival of NATO and the U.S. commitment to the defense of their allies, and fear that the deep ideological, economic, diplomatic, and security ties that have underpinned U.S.-European relations may be affected. Are concerned. The very concept of “the West” seems fragile. Many fear that a second term for Trump will severely disrupt democratic ideals and embolden far-right authoritarian politicians around the world.

For authoritarian leaders, the arrival of the new Trump administration is a welcome one. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose country’s rapid erosion of democracy has sparked a clash with the EU, also visited Mar-a-Lago, with President Trump calling him “fantastic” and “undisputed.” praised. He explained his admiration by outlining the contours of authoritarianism, declaring that if Orban “says, ‘This is how it will be,’ it’s over.”

The former and possibly future president’s global courtship complicates President Joe Biden’s own foreign policy agenda. As other countries seek to co-opt President Trump, some countries have already expressed support for Biden’s own policies at a pivotal moment in world history, with two dangerous wars raging in the Middle East and Europe. It’s quite possible that it’s down.

What makes the situation even more unusual and even more unethical is that Trump has effectively started his own shadow foreign policy, actively undermining Biden’s policies. That’s what I’m letting you do. The former president has not only used his control over the Republican Party to block U.S. aid to Ukraine, but has also interfered in U.S. foreign policy in other areas.

Richard Grenell, a former ambassador and top intelligence official in the Trump administration, is currently traveling the world meeting with far-right leaders and offering his support. It’s annoying enough that some people think Grenell is acting on his own, but Trump calls Grenell “my special envoy.”

When far-right forces tried to block Guatemala’s democratically elected anti-corruption president from taking office, sparking sharp international criticism, including from Washington, Grennell flew to Guatemala to join a group of hard-liners trying to prevent the new president from taking office. I met with the faction. He gave them verbal encouragement. Mr. Grennell defended the coup plotters who occupied the ballot box in an attempt to overturn the vote. U.S. officials have argued that Grenell is undermining U.S. interests by trying to advance Trump’s interests.

Interfering with U.S. foreign policy is bad enough, but there’s also an unseemly financial aspect.

When news broke that President Trump’s son-in-law and former Trump administration official Jared Kushner was negotiating a major real estate deal with Serbia, and that Grenell was part of the team, Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić The president denied it was part of a plan to co-opt Serbia. This is in case Trump returns to power, as the opposition has argued.

Whatever was behind the deal, the very fact that the opposition viewed it in such terms underscores the perceived urgency of standing alongside Trump.

Last time Trump won, the whole world was surprised. Days after the election, Japan’s late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rushed to New York to become the first foreign leader to meet directly with President-elect Trump. The Trump Tower meeting, incomprehensibly attended by his daughter Ivanka Trump, then a private businesswoman, became one of the most memorable images of the time.

This time, no one wants to be caught unprepared. But in an effort to lay the groundwork for what many of America’s allies see as the possibility of unwelcome change, starting with President Trump’s distaste for multilateral alliances, these countries are at risk of losing the very alliances they are in danger of losing. It weakens the incumbent president who has rebuilt the country and puts him at risk of losing his position. Unprepared for what could be another election surprise.

I recently heard a respected Middle East analyst declare as if it were a fact that Biden is a one-term president. While this view may be shared by some, it is far from certain.