There's an article in Foreign Policy magazine declaring that President Trump's first year has been the worst ever for US foreign policy. Let's take a look to see how accurate that assessment actually is.
We'll start with the big issues:
ISIS and Islamic terrorism.
1. In his first eight months in office, the President has provided leadership that has smashed ISIS in its main areas in Syria and Iraq. Mosul is no longer in control of ISIS. Most of Raqqa has also been freed. Many other cities and towns have also been liberated. Trump's main change in the fight has been to free up the military from the total control imposed on it by president Obama. This has allowed the military to act much more quickly to destroy ISIS targets once discovered. That speed means that many more ISIS fighters and installations have been wiped out. It seems likely that the Obama micromanagement style would also have ultimately defeated ISIS, but Trump has sped the process up.
2. The President also got nearly all of the Sunni Muslim nations of the world to condemn Islamic terrorism at a meeting in Saudi Arabia last spring. Obama wouldn't even talk about the problem, so this was a step forward.
3. When Trump took office, the "experts" told us that he would be a major recruiting tool for ISIS and the other terrorists. That has not turned out to be true. The terrorists have not disappeared, but there are many fewer of them around the world.
North Korea
1. Upon taking office, President Trump was faced with a nuclear armed North Korea on the verge of having fully operational ICBM's. Obama had done nothing and then called it "strategic patience" so that he could seem erudite to the experts. Trump has had to face the terrible mess left by Obama. So far, the NK's continue to bluster and conduct tests of their weapons systems. Trump has managed, however, to get China to participate in sanctions on the NK's for the first time. The USA has also gotten the Security Council to impose strong measures against the NK's. The tension has been ratcheted up, but this is a necessary part of any resolution that ends with a disarmed North Korean regime.
Western Hemisphere
1. Relations between the USA and Venezuela and between the USA and Mexico are not as good as they were under Obama. One reason for the decline in these relationships, of course, has been that Trump has not just ignored everything that Mexico and Venezuela do. If Maduro takes an anti-democratic step in Caracas, Trump, unlike Obama, actually condemns it. Trump also wants to cut off the free flow of illegals from Mexico into the USA. This is certainly a switch in policy, but it is hard to call it a disaster.
Europe
1. For all the efforts by the media to whip up some sort of confrontation between Europe and the USA, nothing of importance has actually happened.
Russia and China
1. With regard to China, Trump has gotten a much more robust response from the Chinese than Obama ever got. This has had some truly favorable outcomes as discussed above. Russia is another story. Under Obama, Russia took over Crimea. Then Russia invaded eastern Ukraine. Obama did nothing but watch. Trump has been in office for eight months and there have not been any further Russian moves to take over Ukraine or other eastern European countries. It remains to be seen whether or not Trump will do better with Putin that Obama did.
Put all this together and you find that Trump's first year has been quite successful when it comes to foreign policy. The only people who disagree are the "experts" who are blinded by anti-Trump politics.
We'll start with the big issues:
ISIS and Islamic terrorism.
1. In his first eight months in office, the President has provided leadership that has smashed ISIS in its main areas in Syria and Iraq. Mosul is no longer in control of ISIS. Most of Raqqa has also been freed. Many other cities and towns have also been liberated. Trump's main change in the fight has been to free up the military from the total control imposed on it by president Obama. This has allowed the military to act much more quickly to destroy ISIS targets once discovered. That speed means that many more ISIS fighters and installations have been wiped out. It seems likely that the Obama micromanagement style would also have ultimately defeated ISIS, but Trump has sped the process up.
2. The President also got nearly all of the Sunni Muslim nations of the world to condemn Islamic terrorism at a meeting in Saudi Arabia last spring. Obama wouldn't even talk about the problem, so this was a step forward.
3. When Trump took office, the "experts" told us that he would be a major recruiting tool for ISIS and the other terrorists. That has not turned out to be true. The terrorists have not disappeared, but there are many fewer of them around the world.
North Korea
1. Upon taking office, President Trump was faced with a nuclear armed North Korea on the verge of having fully operational ICBM's. Obama had done nothing and then called it "strategic patience" so that he could seem erudite to the experts. Trump has had to face the terrible mess left by Obama. So far, the NK's continue to bluster and conduct tests of their weapons systems. Trump has managed, however, to get China to participate in sanctions on the NK's for the first time. The USA has also gotten the Security Council to impose strong measures against the NK's. The tension has been ratcheted up, but this is a necessary part of any resolution that ends with a disarmed North Korean regime.
Western Hemisphere
1. Relations between the USA and Venezuela and between the USA and Mexico are not as good as they were under Obama. One reason for the decline in these relationships, of course, has been that Trump has not just ignored everything that Mexico and Venezuela do. If Maduro takes an anti-democratic step in Caracas, Trump, unlike Obama, actually condemns it. Trump also wants to cut off the free flow of illegals from Mexico into the USA. This is certainly a switch in policy, but it is hard to call it a disaster.
Europe
1. For all the efforts by the media to whip up some sort of confrontation between Europe and the USA, nothing of importance has actually happened.
Russia and China
1. With regard to China, Trump has gotten a much more robust response from the Chinese than Obama ever got. This has had some truly favorable outcomes as discussed above. Russia is another story. Under Obama, Russia took over Crimea. Then Russia invaded eastern Ukraine. Obama did nothing but watch. Trump has been in office for eight months and there have not been any further Russian moves to take over Ukraine or other eastern European countries. It remains to be seen whether or not Trump will do better with Putin that Obama did.
Put all this together and you find that Trump's first year has been quite successful when it comes to foreign policy. The only people who disagree are the "experts" who are blinded by anti-Trump politics.
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