Trump's 'America First' looks more and more like America alone

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Retweeted by Dave Weigel: https://twitter.com/daveweigel

Trump's "America First" looks more and more like America alone, @DavidNakamura & @AshleyRParker write from Hanoi

Link to tweet

Politics

Trump’s ‘America First’ looks more and more like America alone

By David Nakamura and Ashley Parker November 11 at 1:29 PM

HANOI — On his third day in office, President Trump signed an executive memorandum withdrawing the United States from a 12-nation Asia-Pacific trade accord that had been painstakingly negotiated over a decade by two of his White House predecessors. ... “Everyone knows what that means, right?” Trump asked rhetorically in the Oval Office. It meant, he said, that the country would start winning again in the face of unchecked globalization that had harmed ordinary Americans.

But on the 295th day of his presidency — during a trip to the region where the trade pact was most vital — a competing narrative emerged. Trump’s “America First” slogan has, in many ways, begun to translate into something more akin to America alone.

As the president’s motorcade wove up a mountain road Saturday to a regional summit in the Vietnamese city of Danang, news broke that the 11 nations that had once looked to U.S. leadership to seal the deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership had moved on without the United States and announced a tentative agreement among themselves.

It marked a stunning turnabout that foreign-policy analysts warned could further erode U.S. standing at a time when China is embarked on a major economic expansion and further undermine global confidence in the United States’ ability to organize the world around its own liberal values.
....

David Nakamura covers the White House. He has previously covered sports, education and city government and reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Japan.
Follow @davidnakamura

Ashley Parker is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2017, after 11 years at The New York Times, where she covered the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns and Congress, among other things.
Follow @ashleyrparker

[weydowner]

1. RIP, USA

Wherever this tacky golem goes he seems to spread chaos and division. How many years is it going to be just to get back to October 2016? He is like a man who begins a game of chess by eating half of his pieces before the game begins and then complains that he is being cheated because the other side has the advantage so the game is rigged.

You're going to be suffering from Trump's action far beyond his reign. And this is going to be permanent if only because the rest of the world is collectively rubbing its hands with glee at the prospect of the USA committing hari-kiri without their assistance.

Sad, as some pseudo-philosopher once said.

[magicarpet]

2. You got that right.... Weydowner....

Tr-dump positions America so far behind the eight ball in the international arena... One wonders if after he is gone, can we ever catch up to our former position of leadership.