The art of breaking presidential agreements

Did voters expect President Trump to make or break deals? Let’s count the deals he has made and kept versus the ones he has broken. He said making deals with politicians would be easy. Let’s see how he has done.

achievements

1. Executive Orders. President Trump has enthusiastically signed executive orders at public events in the Oval Office to undo Obama’s policies. Republicans in Congress had complained when President Obama addressed issues they were unwilling to address by signing executive orders they called illegal and even tyrannical. The same Republicans now applaud this president for executive action on issues they would rather not have to vote on.

2. Tax Reform. Calling it a middle-class tax cut, President Trump celebrated a bill that rewarded wealthy donors and big corporations as the national debt rose. Congressional Republicans viewed this as a major achievement that they had worked for many years.

3. The Budget. A national budget was passed with the support of the Democrats. Republicans who opposed costing items Democrats wanted now support President Trump on withholding spending; in other words, failing to honor an agreement.

Broken promises and deals.

1. Repeal and replace Obamacare. Candidate Trump promised to replace Obamacare with better, less expensive, all-inclusive health care. Once in office, it became clear that there was no replacement plan. The failure to develop a replacement played a role in defeating legislative repeal efforts. Now Obamacare is slowly being undermined in many ways, each of which harms thousands of Americans without providing alternatives that help.

2. Political agreements. In a meeting with the four top congressional leaders, President Trump made a deal with Democrats for a “clean” DACA bill, much to the amazement of Republicans at the meeting. Shortly afterward he backed off and blamed the Democrats. He later arranged a televised discussion with several members of Congress, promising to support any bipartisan bill the group proposes as long as it represents a “love letter.” When a bipartisan group of senators presented him with a compromise, the president shouted it down and insulted African countries.

3. Multilateral Agreements. President Trump has unsettled NATO allies with his insults, his hesitation to affirm the defense commitment that holds the alliance together, and even expressed reservations about defending the Baltic states threatened by Russia. The Paris climate accord and the Iran deal were rejected despite the fact that they were significant internationally backed achievements that worked. Traditional peaceful relations with Canada and Mexico have been disrupted by attacks on NAFTA and petty remarks directed at friendly neighbors. The refusal to join a Pacific trade agreement also broke commitments with Asian trading partners, leaving them at the mercy of Chinese economic power.

4. Defense of the Pacific. The only clear achievement of the summit with North Korea in Singapore was a betrayal of defense agreements with South Korea and Japan. Two previous administrations engaged in denuclearization talks with North Korea and obtained early-stage written commitments that were specific and required verification. At an advanced stage, North Korea resisted honoring the agreements. Previous US administrations had negotiated with the participation of our allies from South Korea and Japan and failed to deliver much-desired military concessions from China and North Korea.

But President Trump believes that making a deal with North Korea is not that difficult. He launched the diplomatic process by having a personal meeting with Kim Jong Un. The summit included a private discussion between the leaders with only translators present so that no one could make a transcript of their conversation. Records were not needed, according to President Trump, due to his fabulous memory of whatever was discussed. The result of the summit was a short statement that was less specific than any previous diplomatic agreement with North Korea.

At a news conference at the end, the president announced a commitment to halt the military exercises and eventually withdraw US troops from North Korea. All of this was based on Kim Jong Un’s verbal assurances that North Korea would eliminate nuclear weapons and hand over the bodies of American casualties from the Korean War.

Without consulting with South Korea and Japan, and also without a specific brief that includes verification, President Trump jeopardized defense agreements with allies and announced, based on his personal trust agreements with Kim Jong Un, that the problem of nuclear weapons in North Korea had been resolved.

Conclusion.

After a year and a half in office, President Trump tore up political deals, pulled out of multilateral agreements, and threatened multilateral trade and defense treaties. Why has the negotiator become a destroyer of agreements?

The answer is demonstrated to the American public every day of his tenure. If Trump didn’t make the deal, it’s worthless. Multilateral agreements that involve equality and give and take between the parties are not up to Trumpian standards. As seen in other situations, everything is always about him. Instead of multilateral pacts based on fairness, now all participants in the agreements must revolve around a Trumpian sun. A secret talk with Kim Jong Un resolved the North Korea issue despite allies and the world seeing no hard evidence of what was agreed upon. We must trust Trump, who swears that we can now trust Kim Jong Un. If Trump makes the deal, we must believe it’s a good one.

Finally, dear voter, take a look at what American bankers and those involved in business said during the presidential campaign: he doesn’t pay his bills. Trump bragged about taking advantage of bankruptcy to get ahead in business. Donald Trump’s real specialty is cutting deals in ways that benefit him individually, regardless of who gets hurt. If the North Korean and Russian propaganda media sing the praises of Donald Trump, he thinks the United States is finally gaining respect regardless of the damage to our allies or world democracy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *