The steep price of Trump's incoherent nihilism
A concern for human rights and democracy has often been seen as an add-on to our country’s foreign policy, an attractive veneer over the usual realpolitik. But President Trump is demonstrating that a supposedly “America First” policy focused entirely on trade and divorced from a commitment to our values is incoherent.
Trump is embarrassing our country — and weakening it, too — by refusing to stand with the people of Hong Kong as they struggle against China’s dictatorship.
We have long wondered when the thoughtless chaos of Trump’s presidency would finally catch up with him and endanger our country. How long could an administration that replaces policy with impulse and thinking with tweeting stay out of crisis? The disarray around Trump’s China policy and the economic turmoil it has unleashed tell us that moment is now.
Somehow, Trump seemed to think he could be tough on China and still express his admiration for President Xi Jinping’s brutally authoritarian rule.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-steep-price-of-trumps-incoherent-nihilism/2019/08/14/ce83664a-bed0-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html