Daily Times

More than a year and a half has passed since Donald Trump entered the oval office pledging to “Make America Great Again”. Since the Republican took the reins of America, the whole world is in a state of ambiguity and insecurity. Evidently Donald Trump has a limited number of diplomatic skills, as he has failed to engage the international community. The USA seems to have lost its own reverence and glory owing to some absurd decisions taken by Donald Trump. The international community has started portraying America as a fickle country because Donald Trump has turned its back on a lot of them on numerous occasions. A series of inept judgments he made during his stint in the Oval office reveal Trump’s incompetency.

No sooner did he assume charge as the forty-fifth president of the United States, he used his executive powers to impose bans on the immigration of people from six Muslim countries; Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from being allowed to enter America. “Making America safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet,” Mr. Trump said. This decision left the nationals from these countries dumbstruck, even the people of the US condemned the ban.

Moreover his rash decision regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which took place between Iran and the P5 states — undid monumental foreign progress. This treaty aimed at lifting US sanctions on Iran, and in exchange Iran would halt its nuclear activities. This nuclear deal was a breakthrough for its signatories. With the assistance of the treaty, Iran experienced a boon in its economy. The persistence of the deal was jeopardized when Trump came into power in May 2018 and the US unilaterally scrapped the deal. Trump described the deal as “decaying,” international inspectors. He also claimed that Iran is unable to meet its obligations. Even though every other nation party to the agreement said that Iran had met its obligations. Recently Trump further targeted Iran through tweets saying that he is going to impose the worst sanctions in history on them.

Next he targeted Pakistan whose role in the US War on Terror has been crucial to American efforts. Whenever the USA asked for help, Pakistan gave the nod with delight. Consequences of this cooperation now plague Pakistan, in the form of terrorism and sectarianism, while the US President is dispensing an unappreciative approach towards Pakistan. His claims are that they are squandering money on Pakistan with zero returns. Really? In January the white house has reduced the amount of money it gave to Pakistan in the form of aid. Recently the USA has also suspended training to the Pakistani military.

Consequences of this cooperation now plague Pakistan, in the form of terrorism and sectarianism, while the US President is dispensing an unappreciative approach towards Pakistan

The USA went into another controversy when it entered a trade war with China. Trump imposed the tariff on imported steel from China. Reciprocally China imposed tariffs on US imports. This step of sanction came into action because Trump wanted to bring employment back in the USA. The trade wars could trigger a “significant” economic slowdown, according to a report of a major international financial regulator. “One possible trigger of an economic slowdown or downturn could be an escalation of protectionist measures.”

Exchange of threats on twitter between Trump and Kim-Jong-Un drew attention world-wide. Both the leaders kept slinging mud on each other through twitter. His noxious tweets undermine his presidency. Instead of engaging Kim-jong-Un diplomatically, Trump treated him unprofessionally. But thanks to China’s diplomacy, Xi Jinping overtures helped Kim-Jong-Un to rise above. Here Trump was miserably sunk to sort the North Korea enigma.

Mr. Trump last month attended the NATO summit, which proved to be a disaster.  In the summit, Trump expressed his outrage onto member countries. The apprehension of Trump was that member countries do not spend their due share on the NATO budget. He warned Germany and other signatories of the NATO alliance to augment their spending on NATO. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, described the summit as “very intense”. Trump repeatedly singled out Germany over the two days. The US spends 3.5 percent of GDP on defence, compared with Germany’s 1.2 percent. Owing to this, ties between USA and Germany went sour.

Another surprise he gave to the world was the withdrawal of America from the Paris Climate agreement. This agreement promises to change the climate of the world. The Paris Agreement was entered into force on 4 November 2016. The Agreement aims to respond to the global climate change, but the irony is that Mr Trump deems climate change as a hoax. This deed leaves an impression on the world that the USA is non-serious in keeping promises.

The presidency of Trump has been a consistent fiasco, so much so, that America has become the laughing stock of the entire civilized world. Trump has proven to lack common knowledge of political and US history. If he keeps moving the same trajectory, he will push his country towards isolation which is detrimental to his country and to the world as well.

The writer is freelance columnist and he can be reached at usman-ghani@outlook.com and tweets @iamusmanghani

Published in Daily Times, August 16^th 2018.