Trump outlined his foreign policy achievements in his SOTU speech HERE. The two he seemed most proud of was North Korea and Venezuela. Both are making the news this week and will continue to develop in the two days before our meeting. I will get the latest videos available on Thursday morning.
For the meeting, we will start with North Korea and Venezuela. If there is any time left we will cover the other issues Trump boasted about in his speech, which includes trade negotiations with China, the USMCA replacement for NAFTA, getting other NATO countries to pay more, the end of the INF treaty with Russia, troop withdraws from Syria and Afghanistan, and exiting the Iran nuclear agreement.
----------------------------------------- Updated 2/28/19 ---------------------------------------
Here are the videos shown at the meeting:
- Trump - Kim Jong Un summit ends abruptly with no deal
- Despite no deal at 2nd summit, is Kim Jong Un playing a long game
- Violence in Venezuela Raising Concerns Among Critics of US Policy
- Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó plans to take over as president when he returns
- How should the US depose Maduro in Venezuela
- White House says several hundred troops will remain in Syria
- Afghan government says US withdrawal will not affect security
Trump’s foreign policy is not unlike his policies across the board in that it seems to be driven primarily by his own ego needs, which themselves appear to be conveniently woven into a simplistic black and white, right and wrong, worldview in which might makes right. If this assessment is accurate, if it serves Trump it must be good. In North Korea what seems to serve Trump is his affinity for the kindred spirit of an egotistical autocrat who wants and needs headlines as much as he does. In Venezuela, on the other hand, it’s difficult at this point to discern any motivation other than a visceral reaction to anything that fails to fully support US business interests, particularly, in this case, the oil business. One glaring irony in the administration’s approaches to these two countries is that Bolton has identified Venezuela as part of a “troika of tyranny,” (seemingly because it has dared to clumsily toy with socialism) while Kim’s North Korea, one of the last bastions of dictatorial communism, has moved from the “axis of evil” to the “bosom of bromance.” We are accustomed to US foreign policy promoting corporate interests masquerading as freedom and democracy, and of course leaders’ ego needs are always a factor to some degree, but the overwhelming personal needs of this president seem to have taken us into uncharted foreign policy territory. Who knows where we might end up?
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