"How Trump Changed my Country: By 13 Writers from Around the World" -- am important article re the USA's Relations With the Outside World ...
Mary Jo Murphy, "How Trump Changed my Country: By 13 Writers from Around the World," The Washington Post. [Selected quotations from an important article; please refer to the original article for its individual authors.]
"Today, visionless and rudderless, the United States is a laughingstock to Kremlin mouthpieces like Solovyov — and a source of bewilderment, if not disgust, to the country’s liberal critics of President Vladimir Putin. Embodying that disillusionment is Trump, who seems intent on proving decades of Kremlin propaganda about America’s cynicism and lack of scruples. ... Emerging is a healthy feeling that Russians should go ahead and change their country without waiting for the Trumpian West to sort itself out."
Nigeria:
"If Trump’s words are popular in this deeply religious nation [Nigeria], the most populous in Africa, the man himself is more so, perhaps because of his blunt, tough-guy image. Almost 60 percent of Nigerians believe he is a positive influence on world affairs, according to the Pew Research Center. And Nigeria is among the top five countries that make up his 67 million Twitter followers."
China:
"Chinese Trump fans and reformers alike at first thought he’d drive Xi down the reform path that Deng Xiaoping began almost four decades ago. But then people began to see that Trump’s trade war was only about America — and Trump himself; that it was not really concerned with human rights in China; that it was designed to stunt both the country and the party."
Germany:
"Since Trump’s absolutist view of power means that the United States no longer fulfills its role as a reliable partner, Germany is newly appreciative of — and receptive to stronger ties with — the European Union, a development harshly criticized by the AfD [the far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)']."
India:
"Trump had enthralled well-heeled Indians long before he became president. India, as home to the greatest number of Trump-branded real estate projects outside the United States, sends big paychecks to the Trump Organization for using its name. Ties like these prompted Indians to regard Trump as the ideal president. ... Things did not go as planned. Far from being elevated, the U.S. relationship with India was downgraded: Washington did not have an ambassador in Delhi for the first 10 months of Trump’s presidency."
Venezuela:
"Trump is no Duterte, but they share a suspicion of a free and fair press, and an affinity for 'alternative realities' that throw citizens off the scent. ... Venezuelan Twitter was full of speculation about which Caracas avenue or plaza we’d end up renaming after Trump when it was all over. But the gambit was risky. The United States had played its Trump ace. If it didn’t work, then what? There didn’t seem to be a Plan B. Because there wasn’t."
New Zealand:
"Trump’s effect on New Zealand can be viewed as positive. It is hard to overstate how unpopular he is. He has become a symbol, for many, of what they do not want their country to be."
Israel:
"[I]n December 2017, Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the American Embassy there from Tel Aviv. Palestinians protested across East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The day the new embassy opened, Israeli armed forces killed more than 50 people, with more than 1,400 wounded, as the authorities said direct live fire was necessary to prevent mass infiltration of the border."
Hungary:
"After all, as former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon once put it, Orban was 'Trump before Trump.' ... In 2017, the U.S. State Department announced a grant to support press freedom in Hungary. The Hungarian government protested loudly. The United States pulled the grant.'"
Great Britain:
"In the recent British election, the Labour Party mentioned Trump every chance it got. Its health message warned of 'a sell-out toxic deal with Trump.' Its energy message accused the government of 'an extreme ‘frack-at-will’ policy imported from Trump’s USA.' It didn’t work."
Egypt:
"Trump is delivering a no-questions-asked policy for Sissi at the exact moment Sissi is consolidating power. (At a Group of Seven summit in September, the president called Sissi 'my favorite dictator.') Meanwhile, Egypt’s leader is jailing, torturing and even executing those who disagree with him and labeling them terrorists; some 60,000 political prisoners exist inside Egypt’s gulag."
Japan:
"The risk Trump poses to Japan will become even more pronounced if he secures reelection next year. Japan would face dual threats of entrapment (enmeshed in an intensified confrontation between the United States and China) and abandonment (as the president continues to agitate against America’s presence in the Asia-Pacific, leaving U.S. allies in the region even more exposed)."
image from article
Russia:"Today, visionless and rudderless, the United States is a laughingstock to Kremlin mouthpieces like Solovyov — and a source of bewilderment, if not disgust, to the country’s liberal critics of President Vladimir Putin. Embodying that disillusionment is Trump, who seems intent on proving decades of Kremlin propaganda about America’s cynicism and lack of scruples. ... Emerging is a healthy feeling that Russians should go ahead and change their country without waiting for the Trumpian West to sort itself out."
Nigeria:
"If Trump’s words are popular in this deeply religious nation [Nigeria], the most populous in Africa, the man himself is more so, perhaps because of his blunt, tough-guy image. Almost 60 percent of Nigerians believe he is a positive influence on world affairs, according to the Pew Research Center. And Nigeria is among the top five countries that make up his 67 million Twitter followers."
China:
"Chinese Trump fans and reformers alike at first thought he’d drive Xi down the reform path that Deng Xiaoping began almost four decades ago. But then people began to see that Trump’s trade war was only about America — and Trump himself; that it was not really concerned with human rights in China; that it was designed to stunt both the country and the party."
Germany:
"Since Trump’s absolutist view of power means that the United States no longer fulfills its role as a reliable partner, Germany is newly appreciative of — and receptive to stronger ties with — the European Union, a development harshly criticized by the AfD [the far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)']."
India:
"Trump had enthralled well-heeled Indians long before he became president. India, as home to the greatest number of Trump-branded real estate projects outside the United States, sends big paychecks to the Trump Organization for using its name. Ties like these prompted Indians to regard Trump as the ideal president. ... Things did not go as planned. Far from being elevated, the U.S. relationship with India was downgraded: Washington did not have an ambassador in Delhi for the first 10 months of Trump’s presidency."
Venezuela:
"Trump is no Duterte, but they share a suspicion of a free and fair press, and an affinity for 'alternative realities' that throw citizens off the scent. ... Venezuelan Twitter was full of speculation about which Caracas avenue or plaza we’d end up renaming after Trump when it was all over. But the gambit was risky. The United States had played its Trump ace. If it didn’t work, then what? There didn’t seem to be a Plan B. Because there wasn’t."
New Zealand:
"Trump’s effect on New Zealand can be viewed as positive. It is hard to overstate how unpopular he is. He has become a symbol, for many, of what they do not want their country to be."
Israel:
"[I]n December 2017, Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the American Embassy there from Tel Aviv. Palestinians protested across East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The day the new embassy opened, Israeli armed forces killed more than 50 people, with more than 1,400 wounded, as the authorities said direct live fire was necessary to prevent mass infiltration of the border."
Hungary:
"After all, as former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon once put it, Orban was 'Trump before Trump.' ... In 2017, the U.S. State Department announced a grant to support press freedom in Hungary. The Hungarian government protested loudly. The United States pulled the grant.'"
Great Britain:
"In the recent British election, the Labour Party mentioned Trump every chance it got. Its health message warned of 'a sell-out toxic deal with Trump.' Its energy message accused the government of 'an extreme ‘frack-at-will’ policy imported from Trump’s USA.' It didn’t work."
Egypt:
"Trump is delivering a no-questions-asked policy for Sissi at the exact moment Sissi is consolidating power. (At a Group of Seven summit in September, the president called Sissi 'my favorite dictator.') Meanwhile, Egypt’s leader is jailing, torturing and even executing those who disagree with him and labeling them terrorists; some 60,000 political prisoners exist inside Egypt’s gulag."
Japan:
"The risk Trump poses to Japan will become even more pronounced if he secures reelection next year. Japan would face dual threats of entrapment (enmeshed in an intensified confrontation between the United States and China) and abandonment (as the president continues to agitate against America’s presence in the Asia-Pacific, leaving U.S. allies in the region even more exposed)."
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