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Trump’s Perfidious America

US President Theodore Roosevelt advised foreign policymakers to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Trump seems to be doing just the opposite. Add to that his ignorance of history and geopolitics, his blind belief in his own wisdom, and his apparent disregard for the lives of anyone outside his inner circle, and the global danger that America’s 45th president poses can hardly be overstated.

TEL AVIV – US President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish offensive against the Kurds, is an unconscionable betrayal of a strategic ally. One would expect such disloyalty from a fascist or otherwise dictatorial regime. And yet, today, it is the United States – a global leader with supposedly high ideals – that has emerged as the world’s perfidious empire.

Trump’s cavalier abandonment of the Kurds – America’s most loyal and effective allies in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS), who until last week shared military outposts with US soldiers – is but the latest in a long series of devastating betrayals by his administration. He set the tone for his presidency by withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, shamelessly placing the financial interests of America’s fossil-fuel tycoons above the existential interest of the rest of humanity.

Trump also renounced the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated sanctions, even though Iran had complied with the agreement’s obligations (and continued to do so for another year). Even America’s European allies are not safe: not only has Trump repeatedly lashed out at NATO allies; his administration is now imposing trade sanctions on up to $7.5 billion worth of European Union goods. The US would, Trump recently boasted, undoubtedly win a trade war with the EU.

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