Trump goes abroad

Richard Fulton

A focus on foreign policy has often been a means for presidents embattled by their domestic standing to attempt to recoup some credibility.

Since polls indicate that President Trump’s credibility gap at home is the greatest since Richard Nixon, it is fortuitous that Trump has a heavy schedule of foreign diplomatic travel for the next eight days.

He has a lot to overcome. Last week’s NBC/Survey Monkey poll shows an increasing plunge in satisfaction with the Trump presidency. The percentage of people who believe that Donald Trump is not honest is an incredible 61 percent.Revealing to Russian officials Israeli intelligence this week and Comey’s memos cannot help.

In addition, majorities do not think that he is doing a very good job. He does not have good leadership skills 56 percent believe. He is not level headed say 66 percent of Americans and 64 percent say he does not share their values.

These, on top of blabbing to Russian diplomats, make it difficult for foreign leaders to take him seriously. His weak political base and lack of prudence must give those leaders pause.

To be sure, the president has been able to maintain at least minimal support from the Republican majorities in congress and this should help his standing at the coming meetings. How long he can sustain this support is the main political question in America and overseas.

The president has an interesting agenda for his first foreign trip. He is meeting key players in the Middle East and in Europe. Saudi Arabia is his first stop. Setting aside the worries about human rights violations of this nation both at home and in their indiscriminate bombings in Yemen, this nation is looked at as a key aid against radical Islam.

This nation hosts the key holy places of Islam, of course. It is interesting that Trump will be visiting two other major religious home sites: Israel and the Vatican. This lets him touch base with all three Abrahamic religious centers.

Then he is off to Brussels and Sicily for meetings with the NATO leaders and the G7, allied major economic powers. He called NATO, the premier defense league of Western nations you will remember, “outdated” during his campaign but now he embraces it. Which Trump will these leaders believe?

Recent events may make these leaders echo the assessment of the American public. That would be dangerous for the world’s safety.

The other new president at these meetings will be Emmanuel Macron of France. The contrast should be instructive. Macron, just inaugurated, is a centrist newcomer who defeated the old-line parties and crushed the “France first” candidate Marie LePen in the final election.

Macron is but 39 years old, dynamic and conciliatory towards the forces he has defeated. He has reached out to try and heal a divided nation and to strengthen the European Union.

Macron, in short, will make a formidable contrast to President Trump. As will, in other ways, the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. She has won regional elections recently and seems in a strong position to win reelection this year. These two European leaders are the key to a strong and stable Europe.

So many leaders and sensitive issues to meet on this trip! Let’s hope that our president behaves himself and represents us as we deserve to be represented.

There will be smiles and positive statements all around—publicly. What will happen behind closed doors will, in reality, tell the tale.

Richard Fulton is an emeritus professor of political science.