Almost immediately following Trump’s sparsely-attended inauguration, he pulled the US from the carefully-negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, the Paris Climate Accords and the Iran Nuclear Agreement. Not because they were flawed. But merely because they were legacies of the Obama administration. Moreover, despite his reputation of deal-making Trump has no time for negotiation. No willingness to compromise.
In that regard, Trump is the ideal person to lead today’s GOP.
Since Newt Gingrich took the gavel as Speaker of the House in 1995, the GOP has refused to compromise on virtually any legislation; virtually any international accords. GOP members of Congress have chosen, instead, to vote as a unified bloc. Except for the late Sen.John McCain and, occasionally, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, they followed orders fearing that they would be primaried – their opponents backed by millions of dollars in campaign donations from the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and other right-wing billionaires.
The inevitable result of this mentality is that the GOP has been willing to do anything to win. Once it gained power, it gerrymandered districts and suppressed votes to ensure that its candidates could win elections. It ignored the wishes of the majority of Americans in order to pass legislation based on its narrow-minded fundamentalist ideologies. It pandered to donors, lobbyists and multinational corporations by passing tax cuts to redistribute wealth upward. It increased funding for the Pentagon in order to build unneeded weapons in GOP-held districts in order to maintain jobs for constituents and to increase the profits of military contractors. GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bent long-standing Senate rules to rapidly confirm judges who share the GOP ideology. The GOP has enabled Trump and his administration to corruptly fill their pockets with taxpayer money and to pillage our natural resources. And, in the ultimate win-at-any-cost mentality, the GOP enabled our greatest geopolitical foe to interfere in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump and other conservative candidates.
Certainly, all of this poses a serious threat to our democracy. But when it comes to our international relationships, the GOP bully mentality is even more dangerous.
Under George W. Bush and, especially now, under Trump, the GOP’s negotiating technique has become “our way or the highway” – “you’re either with us or against us.” We saw this with Bush’s “axis of evil” and in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. Based on Richard the Dick Cheney’s “Plan for a New American Century,” the GOP has chosen to use our economic and military power to force other nations to submit to our wishes. And now we have one of the architects of the Iraq War and one of its biggest cheerleaders – John Bolton – as Trump’s national security advisor.
What could possibly go wrong?
By pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement and ramping up sanctions and threats against Iran, Trump has only encouraged Iran to restart its nuclear program. By sending a aircraft carrier group to the region and dropping hints that it has plans to send 120,000 US troops to the region, the administration has inflamed the situation putting us on a path to war based on the slightest of provocations. Remember Gulf of Tonkin, anyone? In case you don’t, the Gulf of Tonkin incident was an imagined attack on the US fleet that led to a massive expansion of the Vietnam War and tens of thousands more deaths.
By pulling out of the TPP, Trump only strengthened China’s place in international markets. And by unilaterally placing tariffs on imports from our largest trading partner, Trump has created a trade war that will add hundreds of dollars to the annual purchases by US households. At the same time, it has punished US farmers and other industries whose products are now too expensive for many Chinese people. Now that the Chinese have found other sources for soybeans to replace those grown by American farmers, they may abandon US-grown crops entirely. Since Chinese leaders do not have to face re-election as US leaders must, they likely have little incentive to kowtow to the Trump administration’s demands. So the trade war could last for some time. Moreover, the trade war with China and other nations may encourage them to seek currency other than the dollar as the international standard. That would have an enormous impact on the US economy.
Such bullying tactics may have worked for the Donald in his real estate business, since there were always other vendors willing to take a chance on getting paid by Trump after completing their work. And there were always new “marks” who could be conned. Even when he failed, and according to a NY Times report, Trump was a spectacular failure in the 1980s and 90s, Deutsche Bank always seemed to step up with new loans. When those weren’t enough, Trump’s apparent willingness to launder money for Russian oligarchs kept his businesses afloat. However, Trump’s bullying is unlikely to work with powerful international foes like China and Iran unless he’s willing to use the threat of nuclear weapons.
That raises the questions: How far is the crime boss in the White House willing to go? And how long will the GOP support him?