8 ms·
We, the USA, is not going to have any friends left... Seems like Trump is pissing off Canada, Mexico, NATO, and EU.
by digitalzombie 8y ago
We, the USA, is not going to have any friends left... Seems like Trump is pissing off Canada, Mexico, NATO, and EU.
- danmaz74 8y agoI (a EU citizen) still hope that Trump - and his peers over here - isn't going to last long enough as a president to do permanent damage.
- abricot 8y agoI'm getting more and more worried that it doesn't help just waiting for the world to get back to its senses. US is not the only country where leading politicians have seemingly lost their minds - and there I'm not as naive to think that it will be over when the current politicians leave office.
- Chris_Chambers 8y agoOrange man bad.
- vetinari 8y agoIt wasn't Trumps administration that openly spied on Merkel... and she didn't do anything. Five Eyes will be never a friend of continental Europe, no matter what administration.
- simonh 8y agoWestern countries have always spied on each other, jostling for position and influence. That is nothing new. Openly declaring hostile intent against an ally - that's new. I'm not sure if people in the US really understand how horrified everyone, of every political stripe are about Trump's behaviour towards us and the elected Republican leadership's complicity in it. It's not just about Trump anymore. He could be kicked out of office at the next election, sure. But the elected republican leadership, who have their own democratic mandate, are just rolling over and letting all this happen. If they can't be relied on now, they can't be relied on after Trump either. As a conservative Brit, that grew up politically during the titanic partnership between Reagan and Maggie, this is all bewilderingly horrible. I still remember the Falkland war and the way that, while it took the US a while to realise what was happening, in the end here was never any real question over here that we would be able to rely on the US in the end. I don't think that would have been substantially different under any subsequent US president even right up to Obama. But now? I don't think there is any such confidence. Can you imagine a British Prime Minister worrying about what Trump might tweet after we sank the Belgrano?
- fetbaffe 8y agoEU is not really the same as the UK, especially if UK is leaving the EU. Trumps criticism is against the EU, Trump is a nationalist, something he is scolded for by the left, but everyone wants to forget his nationalism when it fits the argument that he is anti-UK (or any other European country) And not to mention, Trumps "foe" comment was in regard to trading with EU, not a military conflict.
- simonh 8y agoI'm perfectly aware he's a nationalist, why do you think I'm forgetting it? I'm concerned principally with what he's doing because of it. Trump's trade actions against the EU, including Britain, and other allies were on national security grounds. He's publicly sided with Putin against his own national security agencies. None of this is encouraging from a European perspective. Nobody is anticipating military conflict between the EU and US, but hostile acts via security agencies? Especially targeting trade and economic activities? Operations on that front that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago cannot be discounted.
- mistermann 8y ago> I'm not sure if people in the US really understand how horrified everyone, of every political stripe are about Trump's behaviour towards us and the elected Republican leadership's complicity in it. Is this a factual statement? What is the source? And I don't mean this in a snarky way, I mean it in a literal, epistemological sense. I regularly read, both in forums and in the headlines, that "everyone" believes certain "things", but whenever I did just a little into the details I almost inevitably find that in reality, there is an extremely wide variety of opinions. After all, life is extremely complicated. So, likewise, I am interested interested in reading a bit deeper into this particular fact so I can be a more informed voter.
- simonh 8y agoFair enough, loose terminology. Trump does have support over here, that's a fact, but bear in mind those quarters tend to be the nationalist end of the spectrum. Where in their priority list do Britain First people put Trump or the US? Not in first place, that's for sure. They're no happier with steel tariffs, cosying up to Putin, etc than anyone else. The best they can say is that he doesn't really mean it. But he's doing it, so that argument is really wearing pretty thin.
- fetbaffe 8y agoAnd Merkel...Oh "Between 1999 and 2006, Germany’s federal intelligence service BND spied on around 2,000 targets at political institutions, international organizations, banks, companies and weapons producers in Austria, said daily Der Standard and weekly Profil." https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-germany-spying/austria-calls-on-germany-to-clarify-spying-allegations-idUSKBN1JC0RU https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-germany-spying/au... "A number of US businesses and government entities were being monitored by the German foreign intelligence agency, according to documents received by the German newspaper Der Spiegel. Between 1998 and 2006, several White House emails, phone, and fax numbers were reportedly tracked using a set of 4,000 keywords." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/germany-spying-white-house-merkel-intelligence-reports-a7803881.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic... Rule of thumb - never trust spy agencies.
- yardie 8y agoI’m not sure what she could do, openly. Demand an apology? Or work silently so that it wouldn’t happen again. I feel the later is the more likely action taken.
- vetinari 8y agoFrom Willy Wimmer interview in 2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faL4zRUdQTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faL4zRUdQTA, segment from 1:03:28, very loose translation): --- Ken: Mr. Wimmer, can you imagine headlines "Vladimir Putin has listened to cellphone of the German chancellor for ten years"? Wimmer: That would lead to revolutionary situation in Germany. Ken: And if they would say "China runs a flat spy operation in Germany"? Wimmer: They are accused of that anyway. Ken: But why nothing happened after NSA affair? At first they said "we don't do such thing", then "we do it a will do it further". Wimmer: That's a question of national dignity. Ken: Do we still have it? Wimmer: You already answered that. Ken: Did I? Wimmer: By asking the question. If it happened anywhere else, we would definitely cut the contact. But the reality is, as you just described. Business as usual. --- Based on information from interviews like this, I think that nothing has happened, and no action was taken. US (correctly) assessed, that Germany can do nothing, and did what they wanted/needed/whatever. Germany can't do anything from it's position of weakness. If Germany wants to change that, the steps necessary do not take into account the past, current or future US administration. Only German interests.
- Udo_Schmitz 8y agoKen Jebsen is an anti-American, right wing conspiracy theorist Both he and Willy Wimmer toe the Kremlin line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KenFM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KenFM https://www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/juergen-elsaesser-und-sein-compact-magazin-ein-netzwerk-fuer-putin-und-pegida/12194382.html https://www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/juergen-elsaesser-und-sei...
- vetinari 8y agoTagesspiel is a part of the Lügenpresse network. See how easy is to label someone? Address the points, do not ad-hominem the messenger. Wimmer spent decades in CDU, with results to show. He "toes the Kremlin line" because he disagreed with the wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we cannot have that.
- josefresco 8y agoSorry to break it to you, but with control of the Supreme Court, the GOP has done real, significant damage to the United States long term, even if they're (the politicians) all voted out in Nov 2018 or 2020. Trump isn't the problem, he's just the populist enabler that is allowing the GOP to undermine American institutions. Even if Trump and his cronies are thrown in jail (wishful thinking), remaining in power will be the republicans who have actually done the most damage and will continue to do so as long as American's stay silent.
- wyldfire 8y agoI fear he already has done permanent damage. We in the US will need to work hard to repair the damage done.
- serverlesscloud 8y agoYou are definitely not a Chinese bot. 100% right. And I am a Russian bit for making this comment.
- jimjimjim 8y agotrump is shaping the country towards his view of the world. A view where there are no such things as friends. Either people are there to inflate your ego while trying to get power or people are there to be used and have their power subjugated. For countries, regardless of how brash and abrasive international relations go, weaker countries will try to win favor by showing support and powerful countries (that were friends) are now being pummeled and face the decision to ride out the crassness or break ties. you can live a life with that world view but what a hollow hollow inhuman life. and those people will desert you the moment you cease to have power.
- vixen99 8y agoYou should write for the NYT.
- fit2rule 8y agoThe USA has been callously dropping bombs on innocent people for decades. Don't kid yourself that this is all Trumps' fault - he's just the latest rung in a very long ladder into oblivion...
- jimjimjim 8y agoMany have always been annoyed but there was still a united front against the "opposition" parts of the world, whether militarily, economically or culturally. That united front is being actively dismantled.
- krapp 8y agoI think it's slightly more subtle than that ... he's playing to a feeling amongst certain demographics that their share of America's political, cultural and economic "birthright" has been stolen from them by "globalists" and their foreign allies, and that this need to be pushed back against to return the US to some (apocryphal and mythical) golden age. He's not trying to negotiate as an equal but assert his dominance. He's turning over the tables of the moneychangers and running at the world with a sourge... or at least in his head and the hearts of some of his supporters, he is.
- googlryas 8y agoWhat realistically has changed with the relationships? Renegotiate a few trade deals, chastise countries for (probably) not meeting guidelines they agreed to, slap countries on the wrist when they try to side-step international trade norms...these aren't earth-shattering things, and have all happened in the past. The only difference was that there was not the hysterical air in the media surrounding POTUS.
- hef19898 8y agoI think it's two-fold. One thing is the message, regardless of your personel point of view any government has the right to adress any topiuc they wish with other countries. And then there is the communication part. There are long established diplomatic standards which are ignored and even violated on a constant basis. The last part is in itself a serious problem, flawed reasoning behind the messages are a compounding factor.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- addicted 8y agoA lot has changed. People simply don’t see the US as a reliable ally anymore. And this isn’t just the same as before. Past Presidents don’t claim that NATO partners owe the US money based on a misunderstanding of how NATO works (they have complained about NATO partners not pulling their weight which is why all of them have set concrete targets for increasing involvement which are set to take place over a few more years, for which of course Trump will try to take credit ignoring that these were negotiated by Bush/Obama). They also didn’t pull out of treaties such as the Iran deal or the Paris climate accord the way Trump did, or constantly threaten countries about pulling out of treaties that the US pushed for and drive such as NAFTA or TPP. They also didn’t try to wreck other countries’ economies based on the fact that they need to placate their base such as with NATO ally Turkey. They also didn’t spread lies and misinformation about partner countries based on the latest Fox News conspiracy without first checking with the largest intelligence operations in the world which is available to them like he did with falsehood about London and the U.K. before visiting. They also didn’t have allied intelligence agencies basically stop sharing sensitive information with their US intelligence counterparts because they leaked (inadvertently or deliberately) it to Putin. There is a lot more than just “media hysterics” that make things different.
- rezeroed 8y agoEbb and flow. I'm elsewhere in the world, but I imagine whoever is next in the position will fix what Trump got wrong, and there will be some things which prove to be better, even if by luck. I think of it as a bit of tree shaking, pen testing, chaos engineering, maybe anti-fragility. Considering the term is only four years I've not understood all the fuss, an awful lot of which seems to have been aimless hysteria, achieving nothing, distracting people from getting on with things.
- simonh 8y agoOk so the next president fixes up relations, but what about the president after that? The US just demonstrated that they can become a declared hostile power in the scale of a couple of years, and does not have the popular, political or institutional will to stop that happening. Who is going to trust their security infrastructure to US interests in a world where that has already happened?
- rezeroed 8y agoWell that was part of what I was referring to with chaos engineering. But I think your "declared hostile power" is part of the hysteria I was referring to.
- mulletbum 8y agoIf a country isn't with you, they are against you. So if the U.S. doesn't want to stay on good terms with the EU, the EU should assume they are going to be on good terms with their enemies. Russia is destabilizing democracy, that is a fact that the EU already knows. Now they see that the US isn't willing to stand with them. Thus they are a hostile power.
- mikeash 8y ago"I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now you wouldn't think of the European Union but they're a foe.” Is it hysteria to believe his words?
- fit2rule 8y agoIt was happening way before Trump. He's just giving you guys cause to think about it, finally.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- malvosenior 8y agoTrump just signed a new NAFTA deal with Mexico and has improved relations with N. Korea more than any other president in history. His domestic policies might be a wreck but he's actually doing pretty good with his handling of foreign policy.
- jaegerpicker 8y ago2 small ineffective wins, that basically mean nothing weighed against a Trade War with China, almost entirely destroying relations with the EU and Nato, deeply damaging relations with the 5 eyes countries - who are the US's closest allies. Worsening relations with Iran. And of course a FAR too familiar relationship with Russia. How is that doing ok?
- malvosenior 8y agoI wouldn't call N. Korea a "small ineffective win", I'd also put improved relations with Russia high on the list of good things but I know how unpopular that sentiment is with the left. Putting pressure on our allies? Good. No relationship should be above examining and reevaluating. The EU has been imposing its will on the entire internet, I'm glad the US president is not in lock step with them.
- hef19898 8y agoYou're right, it was a big win. For the Koreans, finally having gotten the international recognition they wanted for three generations.
- malvosenior 8y agoAnd they got that recognition not through threats or displays of might but by opening up diplomacy and talking to the US and China. North and South Korea are actually talking about a united country and all of the neighboring countries see this as a positive step. It may not mean much to westerners (although it should, nuclear non-proliferation is a big deal), but large portions of the world see this as a good thing.