Trump’s gut-check leadership can get results, but just as often backfires
America’s friends are often left to puzzle over what exactly Trump is trying to do.
The president, for instance, said Wednesday that Canada hadn’t done enough to stem the flow of fentanyl over the border – but only minuscule amounts of the drug are involved. Sometimes the White House complains about the flow south of undocumented migrants – but these numbers are also small. Trump also wants manufacturing to leave Canada and move south. No wonder some officials in Ottawa have concluded he’s trying to weaken their country to make it easier to annex.
Still, the president can point to some successes with his threat-based foreign policy. For instance, his fury that a Hong Kong-based firm owned two ports at either end of the Panama Canal is precipitating a purchase by US investment giant BlackRock. The president had falsely claimed these ports meant China controlled the vital waterway built by the US, but the change of ownership may still improve the US strategic position.
And Trump might be downgrading the transatlantic alliance that has kept world peace for 80 years – but he’s set off an unprecedented rearmament program among NATO allies that other presidents have demanded for years.
But just as often, it’s as if Trump is more interested in brute force personal power than working off any long-term playbook.
Michael Froman, a former US trade representative who chairs the Council on Foreign Relations, told Jim Sciutto on CNN International Wednesday that while the cost of imposing tariffs often outweighs the benefits, they can be a tool that gets other nations to the negotiating table. This is true in the case of Mexico with which the US has far wider border issues than Canada. But, Froman added, “you have to know what it is you want them to do for that leverage to be useful.”
