WASHINGTON: Without as much as initiating a debate or deliberating at any length,
Donald Trump has virtually announced that he will overturn some seven decades of bipartisan Washington consensus about the Cold War that has resulted in viewing Moscow as an American adversary.
In an astonishing repudiation of long-held American
foreign policy paradigm , one that is certain to shake many world capitals, Trump is now repeatedly asserting that Russia is not an enemy and NATO is obsolete, as he draws a sketchy vision in which China and Mexico (on the trade front), and ''Radical Islam'' (on the political front) are the new enemies of the United States.
''If we could get along with Russia, wouldn’t that be a good thing, instead of a bad thing?'' Trump said at a rally on Monday in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was cheered by a large blue-collar work force of white voters who have lost jobs to Mexico and China. ''If we could get Russia to help us get rid of ISIS…if we could actually be friendly with Russia… wouldn’t that be a good thing?''
Trump also refused to back down on his
praise for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, insisting, ''He said nice things about me. Why would I disavow it?'' In his view, the US should draft both Russia and NATO to fight ISIS rather than use NATO as a bulwark against communism, a Cold War paradigm that is now outdated.
''
NATO is obsolete because it does not cover terrorism…it was meant for the Soviet Union,'' Trump told a receptive Rust Belt audience for whom economic hardship is clearly more germane than geo-political architecture.
Trump has repeatedly pushed the envelop when it comes to Russia, going as far as inviting Moscow to hack into US servers to extract
Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails (He was joking, he clarified later). But his views do not seem to upset or bother his core constituency, even as he has left the Washington commentariat aghast.
Indeed, in Monday’s campaign rally, he challenged pundits (''My IQ is higher than theirs; no contest,'' he boasted), trashing them for (he alleged) repeatedly mischaracterizing his remarks, including one in which he seemed to suggest Russia will not invade Ukraine if he is President.
While Russia has already occupied Crimea, an invasion Trump has indicated he has no problem with (the Crimean people may be more happy under Russian rule, he has argued), the Washington illuminati, long marinated in traditional foreign policy wisdom, is apoplectic at what they regard as Trump’s dodgy, dangerous, and off-the-cuff formulations. The Indian-American commentator Fareed Zakaria is among those who questioned Trump’s grasp of foreign policy, calling him a ''bullshit artist'' who tries to bluff his way out of mistakes when he is caught or called out.
But Trump appears to have
correctly assessed the mood of a post-Cold War Middle America, particularly in the Rust Belt, where disenchantment about economic hardship and loss of jobs overrides the fading fear of communism (also replaced by fear of terrorism). At rallies in Pennsylvania and Ohio, crucial toss up states that he HAS to win to go to the White House, Trump has repeatedly railed against trade agreements while dismissing the importance of traditional American security architecture expressed through NATO and other arrangements to protect allies.
The argument seems to resonate well with not just blue-collar workforce without college degree in Middle America, but also with some young millennials untouched by the Cold War, for whom socialism is not taboo (many of them, notably Bernie Sanders’ fan club, embrace it). That is also the fan base of the hit television drama The Americans, a Cold War saga told largely from the Soviet perspective that sees Reagan’s America as evil. Indeed, in Trump's vision, everything that has happened in America in the last 24 years, including eight years of a Republican Bush presidency, is a disaster.
Such a dramatic redefining of foreign policy priorities has jolted the American establishment in which both Hillary Clinton and John McCain (to name two establishment figures) are on the same side. ''Trump’s willingness to support Putin’s claim on Crimea and other parts of Ukraine, coupled with his lack of commitment to NATO, is good reason for Europe to fear for the future of the alliance if he becomes president,'' the New York Times railed in an editorial that called on Republicans to dump Trump. Even Republican pundits are horrified at Trump's foreign policy iconoclasm.
On his part, Trump mocked the mainstream media, calling CNN ''
Clinton News Network '' and taunting New York Times as a failing entity that won’t survive long.
''They just don’t write good,'' he complained. The audience in Mechanicsburg cheered.