Donald Trump’s statesmanship skills could leave the US isolated on the global stage, former congressman Ron Paul told RT, noting how the American head of state marked his G20 appearance with “high school” tantrums.
Such an amateurish approach to diplomacy wherever “threats” are still involved, even when the US leader seemingly makes an effort “to correct the policy,” is hurting US interests, the former Congressman from Texas told RT. Prior to Trump’s arrival in Buenos Aires, the Republican abruptly canceled the much-anticipated fringe meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, citing the Ukrainian crisis as his reason, however unlikely.
“That sounds like high school stuff. ‘I’m not going to talk to you anymore’,” Paul said. “I think diplomacy is lousy … the way he talks and the aggressiveness, ‘I’ll do this, or I’ll give you this, or I’ll put sanctions on you.’”
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While Trump did not shake hands with Putin at the G20, they still eventually greeted each other and, as the US leader put it, will have a proper meeting “at the appropriate time.” Yet Paul believes that Trump might be trying to avoid an “uncomfortable position” at a time when he is being pressured by American lawmakers to act against Russia.
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“Political pressure says that he has to go along with NATO and the Europeans and the sentiment here in this country,” Paul said. “There is a strong sentiment anytime that they can find something that they can construe as being negative towards Russia, they do.”
Overall, Trump’s posture in dealing with world leaders could leave the US isolated, especially when it comes to China and solving the ongoing trade dispute, Paul believes. While agreeing to meet the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20, Trump approached the negotiations from a position of strength, threatening to slap China with an additional $ 267 billion-worth of tariffs, should Beijing fail to meet the US demands.
“You can’t correct economic problems by tariffs,” Paul stressed. “And we throw our weight around and I think that would backfire on us and we could become the nation that got isolated because we haven’t won friends over the years. And we tend to aggravate people.”
Isolation will be painful for us because someday there will be a challenge to the dollar and that would be a big problem for the United States.
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