A strange thing happened when the Trump administration tried to recruit an international coalition of naval forces to protect oil tankers in the Persian Gulf this summer: Nobody wanted to sign up.
Recruiting old allies to help protect the tankers that carry oil to help power the world’s economy shouldn’t have been so hard. But when a president denounces the idea of alliances, slams traditional allies as deadbeats, and changes direction without warning, even old friends hesitate to jump on his team.“President Trump has made it far more difficult to build coalitions and get people on our side when we need them,” Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told me.
And when Trump ordered new sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank on Friday, no other country joined in. The president acted alone. Last year, on a visit to Europe, he repeated his long-held suspicion of NATO, the military alliance that kept peace in Europe for more than half a century: “It is time that these very rich countries either pay the United States for its great military protection, or protect themselves,” he said.
All this was predictable, and predicted, after Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran that had been painstakingly negotiated by his predecessor, President Obama. Trump insisted he would force Iran back to negotiations through stiffer sanctions and made a stronger deal.None of the five other world powers that had signed the accord agreed. They argued that the deal, flawed though it might be, was keeping Iran’s nuclear ambitions in check.
In June, after at least four foreign-flagged tankers were sabotaged in the gulf, Pompeo tried to build a maritime coalition, saying he hoped to recruit at least 20 countries. Then Trump weighed in.
We’ve always had allies. Allies have helped us from the Revolutionary War and beyond. Read our history please. The oil you were trying to protect-those countries didn’t send help either. Wow.
Mn dieu, who could see this cming? What country in their right mind would want to align with anything Trump proposes? Much more sensible to just sit it out, no matter what.
No one should get involved! realDonaldTrump is all about Make America Great Again AT THE EXPENSE & DETRIMENT OF THE REST OF THE WORLD! HE ONLY CARES ABOUT HIMSELF & USA & uses others for personal gain! STAY OUT OF IT! ESPECIALLY YOU BorisJohnson 🇬🇧
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