An article in Sputnik News offered analysis on the way President Trump is dealing with the rest of the world. Here an analyst, Tom Luongo offers the opinion that the US president is trying to drive the rest of the world away from America:
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly this week, US President Donald Trump urged the world to respect US sovereignty while seemingly threatening to violate the sovereignty of other countries. Speaking to Sputnik, US geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo outlined what he believes is the fundamental contradiction in Trump’s worldview.
Sputnik: What is your take on Foreign Minister Lavrov’s discontent with the West’s “unilateral approach” to world politics which he said hinders the creation of a multipolar world?
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Tom Luongo: I think we’ve taken a very dangerous turn here in the US, with Donald Trump and his neoconservative cabinet trying to dictate to the world exactly what we want at all stages. This just feels to me like this is the final lashings out of an empire that doesn’t understand that everybody else has already moved on, and are just trying to figure out how they can minimize the damage while they do so.
Sputnik: Do you think that this Trumpian unilateralism and resistance to the multipolar nature of the modern world is actually backfiring in some ways and causing countries to move away from the US and forming new alliances?Tom Luongo: Yes, that’s absolutely what’s going on, and part of me almost feels like Trump is doing this on purpose. Donald Trump is a very interesting and mercurial figure, and I’m both happy and sad that he’s my president, because he’s like half good and half bad. I do believe that he feels that the current geopolitical world order that the US has been paying for since the end of World War 2, the post-WW2 institutional order, doesn’t work for the United States anymore.
But I also feel that at a certain level, he doesn’t quite understand that we also don’t have a manifest destiny to tell the world how it’s going to run, and how it’s going to operate, either. That’s a conflict between the practicalities of the real world, and I hate to use the term, but Donald Trump is the quintessential baby boomer in that respect. He really has that kind of messianic American exceptionalism burned into his psyche. And while it’s laudable at a certain level, it can also be really toxic if taken to an extreme.
So I really think that with his personality being the way it is, and his negotiating style, that some of what he’s being doing is real bluster, and some of it is real – his real honest anger.
Mr. Lavrov’s comments are just more of the same of Russian diplomacy, and I think Mr. Lavrov right now is not just the top Russian diplomat, but honestly the top diplomat in the world, and without him, the world would be a much more dangerous place. I have tremendous respect for his ability to bring people together and forge alliances that need to be made in response to aggression on a number of fronts, including not just by the United States, but the European Union as well.
It’s very interesting to see how this is all playing out, and you can see the backlash in the special purpose vehicle that’s being developed by the EU, China, Russia, etc. in order to get around Iran sanctions that are pending in November.
But it’s a bigger issue than that and is also to ensure that there are no sanctions put on the five oil majors and all the contractors helping to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. So if Trump does change his mind about putting sanctions on, there will be a vehicle for everybody to get paid.
These comments came after President Trump said some rather controversial sounding statements. However, the “controversy” lies in the nature of the US president’s view of the United Nations contrasted with the view of many member nations, who have become more and more subscribed to globalism.
In 2017, President Trump made a stunning address to the UN General Assembly, and noted very clearly that his belief was that the UN ought to be composed of strong nation-states, each looking out for the well-being of its own citizens, but working together with other member nation-states to help one another make this happen.
This vision is subtly, but powerfully different than the “globalist” view that has become increasingly popular among the political left, which had a great test in the European Economic Union and the subsequent European Union itself. However, the result of turning Europe into some sort of big single “nation” has run into problems socially and economically, with many countries overrun by Islamic immigrants who refuse to assimilate into European society, but who instead tend to hijack larger and larger regions to bring them into compliance with Shari’a Islam.
This year’s address featured some of the same thoughts:
The United States is stronger, safer and richer than when I assumed office two years ago. We are standing up for America and the American people and for the world.
This is great news for our citizens and for peace loving people everywhere. When nations respect each other, they can work together for prosperity and peace. Each of us here is an emissary of the own culture, history, values that make our homeland like nowhere else on earth.
America chooses independence and cooperation over global government; each must pursue its own customs. The U.S. won’t tell you how to live, work, or worship. We ask you to honor our sovereignty in return. My highest honor is to represent the U.S. abroad. I forged strong alliances with the leaders of many nations.
However, as Mr Luongo noted, much of the rest of the President’s address appeared to be a list of terms for the rest of the world to follow. In effect, Mr. Luongo’s criticism was that Mr. Trump was trying to have his cake and eat it to by proclaiming the universal and distinct sovereignty of all nations, while at the same time dictating terms that other nations must follow… just because the US says so.
Now, this admittedly is how many people viewed it. It may also be that President Trump’s message is simply surprisingly strong and easy to hear in the muted and muffled atmosphere of “globalist agreements.” The real acid test, of course, is whether or not globalism actually works. There are many voices on all sides of this debate, and no doubt some people were greatly cheered and inspired by the President’s address and others were not.
Whether the US wants to drive other nations away from itself or not is probably not the issue. But in today’s political climate, both domestically in the US and abroad, such statements as those made by President Trump are glaring. They stand out. They cannot be ignored. And this is a very good thing because it eventually leads the world’s states to consider afresh what the current directions are, and if they really are worth taking.
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