Trump’s Art of Diplomacy Has Europe Siding with Iran against US -The iPINIONS Journal

A US-led conference in Warsaw this week that was intended to isolate Iran has ended up isolating America instead — highlighting one of the central problems of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. …

This annoyed European allies, many of whom sent only low-level diplomatic staff — or no representation at all — to attend the meeting. The discord on the issue of Iran dates back most recently to last May, when the US withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and European allies like France and Britain agreed to remain in the accord.

(Vox, February 15, 2019)

Frankly, the only “global officials” who bothered to show up were from

developing countries that would like to goad him into giving them millions to support any foreign misadventure his crazy little heart desires;
Israel that would like to goad him into fighting their looming, existential war with Iran; and
Sunni states (led by Saudi Arabia) that would like to goad Trump into dealing a decisive blow in their 1400-year internecine battle with Shia states (led by Iran).

But anyone who knows anything about the Iran nuclear deal knew the other signatories (namely China, France, Russia, United Kingdom—plus Germany) would dis this conference. Yet, listening to US Vice President Mike Pence hail its success, you’d think he got those signatories to join the United States in withdrawing from it too.

But Trump himself set the precedent for this self-deluding artifice. After all, here is how he hailed the success of his first summit with North Korean President Kim Jong Un:

Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2018

Except that here is how the heads of his own intelligence agencies exposed his big lie not only about having success with North Korea but also about having just cause to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal Iran:

A new American intelligence assessment of global threats has concluded that North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear stockpiles and that Iran is not, for now, taking steps necessary to make a bomb, directly contradicting the rationale of two of President Trump’s foreign policy initiatives.

(The New York Times, January 29, 2019)

Despite that, Trump is hyping another summit on North Korea for later this month – hot on the heels of this ill-fated conference on Iran. More to the point, this dangerously deluded dotard is showing no hint of irony or concern that he’s only promising to do at this second summit what he proclaimed he did at the first one.

Granted, none of this should be surprising. After all, he forced a 35-day government shutdown in a vain attempt to get Congress to pay to begin building a wall on the US-Mexico border, which he (falsely) claims is already mostly built, hence his Orwellian sleight of slogan from “Build the Wall” to “Finish the Wall.” Not to mention that he promised he would get Mexico, not US taxpayers, to pay for it.

In any event, I explained why racism is motivating his fool’s errand in this case in “Trump Decertifying Iran Nuclear Deal more MALO than MAGA,” October 13, 2017:

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Trump’s my-way-or-the-highway attitude towards international relations is isolating enough. But he’s turning friends into enemies by repeatedly calling all parties to this deal with Iran ‘incompetent fools’ (a.k.a. clinical projection). This is utterly baffling; not least because he’s expecting these same parties to join him in negotiating a new nuclear deal with Iran and a similar one with North Korea. Only his un-diagnosed autism explains Trump thinking that hurling insults is the best way to win friends and influence people. …

There’s no denying the dark force that is provoking nearly everything Trump does. That force is the enviable legacy of his predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama. Nothing has defined Trump’s beleaguered presidency quite like his unabashed efforts to nullify or undermine Obama’s achievements.

Frankly, whatever Trump’s ambition to Make America Great Again (MAGA), it is no match for his pathological intent to Make America Loathe Obama (MALO). Only this explains his Mad-Hatter efforts to repeal and replace (or failing that to undermine) Obamacare, President Obama’s signature domestic achievement.

In any case, it’s impossible to overstate the danger inherent in Trump decertifying this Iran nuclear deal, Obama’s signature foreign-policy achievement. … As it was with healthcare, climate change, international trade, and others:

Trump’s executive orders seem drafted to either whitewash or undermine Obama’s accomplishments. You could be forgiven for thinking that Trump has predicated his presidency on vindicating his birther conspiracy; you know, the one he peddled about Obama being an illegitimate interloper (a.k.a. an uppity African) who does not belong among the ranks of American presidents, certainly not in the top 10 – as Obama seems destined to be ranked.

(“Trump’s First 100 Days,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 1, 2017)

Congressional Republicans have been goading and enabling Trump in his Faustian quest to effectively decertify Obama’s presidency. But no Republican has had anything on Netanyahu with respect to goading and enabling him to rip up the Iran nuclear deal.

Nonetheless, I am certain that, just like Obamacare, this deal will remain in force.

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Sure enough, all of the other signatories responded to Trump’s withdrawal by declaring their intent to stick with the deal, leaving him even more isolated on the world stage than ever before. It speaks volumes that the joint statement of rebuke his European allies issued is the kind they usually reserve for Russian President Vladimir Putin:

It is with regret and concern that we, the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, take note of President Trump’s decision to withdraw. … Together, we emphasise our continuing commitment to the JCPoA [Iran nuclear deal]. …

We urge the US to ensure that the structures of the JCPoA can remain intact, and to avoid taking action which obstructs its full implementation by all other parties to the deal.

(Gov.uk, May 8, 2018)

Remarkably, the Europeans are now helping Iran circumvent US-led sanctions the way the Chinese (and Russians) have been helping North Korea circumvent them. Therefore, sanctions (in both cases) are bound to prove even less effective than America’s embargo against Cuba, which is nearing 60 years of futility.

Yet the manifest fecklessness of these sanctions seems completely lost on Trump and his foreign-policy advisers.

In any event, if that unprecedented rebuke left any doubt about how European leaders feel about Trump, the way they reacted to Vice President Pence’s speech at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday surely erased it:

‘I bring greetings from the 45th president of the United States of America, President Donald Trump’ Pence said, before being met with a lengthy silence.

(The Hill, February 16, 2019)

The cringeworthy video of Pence waiting, head bowed for the applause that never came has gone viral. So too, though, has the laudatory video of that same audience applauding German Chancellor Angela Merkel throughout her speech, and giving her a sustained standing ovation when she finished. This is especially noteworthy because she spent most of her speech criticizing Trump for his misguided policies on everything from the Iran nuclear deal to his fraternization with strongmen like Putin.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Trump has dispatched Pence to be his skunk at an international gathering. I commented – in “PyeongChang Olympics: Diplomatic Brinkmanship Upstages Opening Ceremony,” February 9, 2018 – on a similar spectacle that played out at last year’s Winter Olympics.

But, hey, at least Trump has just cause to boast that he’s demonstrating the art of diplomacy like nobody has ever seen before. #Idiot!