 | By Max Strasser International Editor, Opinion |
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A quiet exit isn’t really President Trump’s style. He’s more of a “set the house on fire on the way out the door” kind of guy. That’s certainly what he’s doing to America’s democratic norms as he refuses to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden. What is he going to do when it comes to America’s international relations in his last days in the White House? |
Maybe a lot, write Robert Malley and Philip H. Gordon in their Op-Ed today: “Mr. Trump, who has already undermined the international order and isolated the United States, now appears determined to use his final 10 weeks in office to pursue a scorched-earth foreign policy that will only make Mr. Biden’s job harder and leave the world even less stable on Jan. 20.” |
Among the scenarios that Phil and Rob envision are the president issuing a travel ban on members of the Chinese Communist Party, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, or even conducting a military strike on Iran. Any or all of these scenarios would make Biden’s first days in office even more difficult than they are already — most definitely — going to be. But it’s the kind of behavior that Trump seems capable of. |
Biden has promised to undo much of Trump’s foreign policy: He wants to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal; to embrace the allies America has spurned for the last four years and remain part of international institutions like the World Health Organization. |
The reality is that even if the Trump administration doesn’t scorch the earth on the way out, it’s not going to be easy to go back to a pre-Trump status quo when it comes to international relations. The world Joe Biden will inherit as president is very different from the one he left behind as vice president four years ago. Even after Trump leaves the White House, we’ll still be living in the world he remade. |
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