Trump's foreign policy is a window into his management style (and soul): he ignores information and expertise; he routinely contradicts himself after a day or two, undermining his own negotiating positions. He doesn't care about the country; he only cares about what'll get him the most media coverage (and bribes). Ilan Goldenberg on Twitter:
Continued:
North Korea: first he undercuts Tillerson’s negotiating effort. Calls Kim Jung Un “Little Rocket Man,” and escalates for no reason. Then out of nowhere with no consultation with advisors he agrees to a summit that everyone thinks is a bad idea & is a big concession to the North Koreans sending his advisors scrambling. Then without consulting Japan or South Korea, he unilaterally walks isolating us from our allies. But his letter to KJU is so pathetic & clearly shows a desire to do the summit that even while trying to look tough and walking away, he manages to weaken the US position. All the while he refuses to take actual briefings on the details of North Korea’s nuclear program, which after all is a central subject of the summit.
Israel/Palestine: he talks for months about doing the ultimate deal. Gets Kushner, Greenblatt and a whole team working on it at the White House. He meets with Abbas at the UN in September and privately tells him that he can get him a great deal. He can get him 1967 lines with swaps that give him better land than the land he is giving up. Total nonsense for anyone who knows anything about the conflict. And then boom. Out of nowhere. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem with no political concessions for the Palestinians. He blows everything up. Again, doing it all last minute with little consultation with his advisors. Palestinian senior delegation was at the White House 2 days before the announcement and Trump’s team didn’t even raise this possibility. No wonder they were so angry. And since then just making it worse. Choosing the day Palestinians commemorate the “Nakba” (catastrophe) as the day to move the embassy & needlessly throwing fuel in the fire while cutting off aid to UNRWA further destabilizing Gaza.
Iran: announcing time and again that he will only stay in the deal if he gets concessions from Europe & Congress to “fix” the deal. Intense negotiations followed and The Europeans made significant concessions that could have allowed Trump to declare victory & push Iran. But when Macron & Merkel came to visit Trump in April & try to convince him to stay in the deal, they came away with the impression he wasn’t even familiar with any of the details of the negotiations. Two weeks later Trump unilaterally walked away. Now Iran is working with the other powers to save the deal while isolating the US even as Pompeo has laid out an achievable list of demands with no plan on how to achieve them.
China: he pushes us into new trade negotiations by threat of sanctions and tariffs. But then he refuses to engage in any detail and give his negotiators guidance. So they all disagree amongst themselves & the Chinese see it & try to split the negotiating tram. Then he publicized through twitter major US concessions causing immediate Hill backlash & reducing his negotiating space. To compensate, administration then leaks the major Chinese concessions which of course causes the Chinese to walk them back & negotiations blow up.
Syria: he undercuts our position & leverage by announcing out of nowhere we are pulling out of Eastern Syria. If we were to do that the big winners would be ISIS, which would have new opportunities to come back & Iran which would have greater battlefield flexibility. Cuts off all support for opposition groups in Southwest Syria who have played key role in keeping a buffer that protected JOrdan & Israel. And even held $200 million for things such as the White Helmets - a group that bravely digs Syrians out of the rubble after air strikes. By doing all that he’s dramatically reduced US leverage, creates opportunities for Russia/Iran/Assad/ISIS. And it will inevitably draw us in deeper when it blows up in his face.
In all of these cases there has been no strategy. No plan. No consultation. The President wakes up and decides on his own & everyone scrambles. This is not a “playbook.” It is pure ignorance, ego & stupidity. Fortunately we have yet to have a REAL foreign policy crisis like an Ebola outbreak or a genuine military standoff. Terrifying to think what happens at that point.