Trump speech will amaze you after his interview today
Trump who was interviewed by the New York times on Wednesday
will amazed by his response to their questions
ABU DHABI
// Donald Trump’s acceptance speech as the Republican US presidential nominee
offered a contradictory vision of America’s role in the world and did little to
address questions by Washington’s traditional allies about his commitment to
the global security order it has led for decades. Mr Trump portrayed a US under
attack by terrorists, beset by immigrant criminals and forced to carry an
unfair burden abroad, while calling for an isolationist foreign policy and a
more muscular strategy with regional allies to destroy ISIL.
He
devoted a large part of his speech to the Middle East, blaming everything from
the rise of ISIL to the upheaval in post-Arab Spring countries on the decisions
made by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state.
While
some of his criticisms of Middle East policy under president Barack Obama echo
the sentiments of some Gulf leaders, any points Mr Trump may have scored will
have been undermined by the underlying message of retreat. Trump,
Trump,
With no
signs of a shift towards the political centre, his lack of detail,
unpredictability, continuing xenophobia and attacks on Muslims, will also
colour leaders’ views of his candidacy, and fears that he is fuelling the
extremist narrative. “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo,” Mr Trump
told the Republican convention on Thursday. “As long as we are led by
politicians who will not put America first, then we can be assured that other
nations will not treat America with respect – the respect that we deserve. The
American people will come first once again.”
The
speech followed an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday in which Mr
Trump said that under his administration the US would go to the aid of Baltic
Nato member states if they were invaded by Russia only “if they fulfil their
obligations to us”. The remark fuelled outrage in Europe, and seemed to
indicate that Nato’s mutual defence guarantee may be ignored by a president
Trump. Beyond Nato, the message to Asia, and to US partners in the Gulf with no
alliance treaty with the US, is that they will be less secure and will have to
rely less on Washington. The position will exacerbate concerns by GCC leaders
who already feel the US is more ambiguous than before about its commitments to
them. But even Mr Obama has said an invasion of a GCC country would be a US red
line, and Mr Trump’s insinuation that such policies may have to be renegotiated
will be deeply troubling.
Mr Trump
also said he would do away with free trade agreements with blocs of countries.
GCC countries already prefer to engage bilaterally with the US, their most
important ally and a major trade partner, and do not have multilateral trade
deals with Washington, but an isolationist trade policy is unlikely to be
viewed positively.
On
fighting ISIL, Mr Trump said: “We must work with all our allies who share our
goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now,
doing it quickly.”