A Brief History of Trump’s Foreign Policy Bluffs
Loud saber-rattling has become a key feature of Trump’s presidency
For President Trump, it’s bloviate first and blueprint later.
From his reaction to the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields this past weekend to his flip-flops on whether Mexico will pay for the border wall, Trump relishes a confrontation on the world stage with a rival leader. And often enough, it’s only a matter of time before he reneges on whatever threat he’s made — or, in classic Trump fashion, denies he’d ever issued any threat in the first place. (See: His feud with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un.)
Trump’s penchant for vacuous saber-rattling is a key feature of his presidency (much to his base’s delight), even if undermines of decades of U.S. policy and endangers his country’s credibility overseas (not to mention the economy, national security, and global stability). Below, five times where Trump backed out on his foreign policy threats.
Attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields
The latest presidential ping-pong came over the weekend, when Trump sent Washington into a panic by saying the U.S. was “locked and loaded” to defend Saudi Arabia. His comments followed an attack on Riyadh’s oil facilities, launched (according to…
