Donald Trump is now a serious menace to the security of the West
The Republican Convention in Cleveland becomes more bizarre by the hour. Last night a casino-owning friend of Donald Trump bored the crowd with tales of how his friend – Donald – always pays his bills on time. A likely story… Meanwhile, Ted and Heidi Cruz had to be escorted from the arena after the man who lost to Trump declined to endorse his rival in a speech. More Trump children explained how awesome and great their dad is.
It is tempting to regard all this as a bit of a joke, but the Trump show is deadly serious. In the current populist climate, who can say for sure that he will fail in his aim to become President of the United States?
The fashion in some quarters now is to claim that this is all somehow manageable. If you think that, then read the latest interview with Trump on Nato, foreign affairs and defence. Remember how much freedom of manoeuvre a White House has on defence, particularly in emergency situations such as the aftermath of 9/11. In six months the man in the Oval Office could be Trump.
In a terrifying interview he manages to combine deep levels of ignorance with ego-maniac certainty that he knows best.
The highlights?
1) He unpicks Nato, the organisation which has kept the peace in Western Europe for decades. US support for Nato states that are attacked will no longer be automatic. He’ll apply some vague Trumpian test on whether or not they have fulfilled their obligations to the US and then maybe he’ll help. He sounds like a cheap hood demanding respect.
2) He backs Erdogan in the most enthusiastic terms. He loves a strong guy imposing a state of emergency and cracking down on dissent…
3) When asked how he will resolve the complex situation in which the Kurds are allies against ISIS but the Kurds are at war with Turkey, he has one word: “meetings.” He obviously thinks foreign policy is like a meeting about drainage with union leaders on a New York building site.
4) His approach represents an unravelling of the doctrines – painstakingly constructed by generations of patriotic, internationalist policy-makers – that have governed US policy to Europe in the decades since 1945. The idea of the US as a guarantor nation (imperfect but the best we have) interested in keeping the peace is dead if Trump wins. Think of the excitement in Moscow about the possibilities.
Trump is now a clear and present danger to the security of the West. Judge the man by his own statements, not by some fancy ironic attempt to excuse his positions as just the words of a show-off. Imagine him with power.