CNN.com · 1 hour ago
Trump absolves Putin and shoots himself in the foot
Story highlights
- To call Trump's Asia trip a success would be a mistake, Julian Zelizer says
- Zelizer: Insisting he believes Putin on US election meddling overshadows any positives
Julian Zelizer is a history and public affairs professor at Princeton University and the author of "The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society." He's also the co-host of the "Politics & Polls" podcast. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.
(CNN)Until
Saturday, President Donald Trump had earned some praise for his trip to
Asia. Overall, the visit seemed to go well by the standards we use to
evaluate him. There were few unsettling tweets over the past few days,
at least relative to his normal routine, and by most accounts the
meetings with the key leaders have gone smoothly. Trump has played ball
in the diplomatic celebrations and seemed to be in good spirits. He's
offered some provocative words about North Korea, but nothing that comes
close to the kinds of incendiary words he used before the United Nations in New York.
Yet to call the trip a success would be a big mistake.
On
Saturday, the President delivered his first moment of shock and awe
with his Achilles' heel on foreign policy: Russia. In an act of
defiance, he said he believed President Vladimir Putin's claim
that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 US election despite all the
evidence to the contrary, including from US intelligence agencies. He
seems more worried that Putin is "insulted" by the accusations than he
is by the impact these operations had on our democratic processes. The
shocking comments about Putin are likely to drown out everything else
that has happened so far.
The
statement is a head-turner. It is part of the ongoing puzzle from this
administration: What explains Trump's insistence on taking a relatively
positive stance toward the Russian government despite the overwhelming
evidence we have of an ongoing cyberwar against democratic elections and
a terrible record on human rights.
There
was no need for Trump to make this statement right now, and because it
comes in the middle of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation
it will only fuel more questions about why the relationship with Putin
seems so important to him.
Watch Putin, Trump shake hands in Vietnam 00:36
Trump
continues to give legitimacy to a leader with a well-documented history
of abusive behavior without any clear payback at this point -- as
Richard Nixon sought with détente in the 1970s or Ronald Reagan with
Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. Nixon and Reagan each softened their tone
toward the Soviets in exchange for major arms control agreements --
although neither ever ignored the underside of communism. Indeed, they
were both careful to acknowledge publicly the unacceptable parts of
Soviet behavior so they could enter into the negotiations with
legitimacy among US allies and so that the Soviets understood the United
States would not simply cave to every demand. Trump has systematically
undercut the efforts of previous presidents and the current Congress to
intensify pressure on Russia. Instead, as he has now done on this trip,
he is Putin's ally-in-chief.
The
irony is that his laggard response to Putin's abuses and the ongoing
revelations about what his campaign and administration officials hid
about their relations to Russia taints all efforts to work with Russia
on issues such as Syria. Every negotiation becomes suspect -- not
because of the media but because of Trump and his team.
Nor
can Trump overcome the wreckage he has left behind in the United
States. Since he left for Asia, the news has been pretty devastating for
himself and the Republican Party. We learned that Mueller's
investigation has intensified with two indictments, one guilty plea and recent reports about the possible new directions of the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
A recent round of polling has
shown that Trump has historically low approval ratings at this point in
his presidency. Many Americans don't trust the President and believe he
might have done something wrong in his dealings with Russia.
Independents are not happy with the administration, and even in Trump counties, according to The Wall Street Journal, many feel the country is worse off since he took office.
Tuesday's
elections sent shockwaves through the GOP. Democrats turned out in
large numbers, with many choosing to send a signal of opposition to
Trump through their own local elections. The possibility of a Democratic
coalition of suburban voters, African-Americans, women, Latinos and
millennials emerged to counteract the Trump coalition of white, rural,
noncollege-educated voters.
Foreign
leaders pay attention to these things. In person, they might be
pleasant with the President and avoid any uncomfortable subjects, but
Trump's domestic standing matters very much in terms of his clout. When
they look at the news in the United States they see a greatly weakened
President who will probably not have the capacity to deliver on many
things or to rally the support of the nation behind any military or
diplomatic initiative. This fact continues to hobble how much Trump can
achieve overseas, and the situation has only deteriorated during this
trip.
Finally, there is the
problematic nature of the overall message that the President has
delivered: The United States is demanding a full and united front
against the threat of North Korea but will not participate in
comprehensive, regional trade agreements. This message, which Trump has
been consistent about, is devastating.
Trump
is reversing the basic strategy of President Barack Obama, which had
been to increase the leverage of the United States in Asia through
participation in a trade agreement. The idea was that once the United
States was more closely tied to the key players in the region through
trade, then we could enhance our ability to sway governments, including
China, which would respond to our more muscular economic presence in the
region, on security issues such as North Korea.
Trump
blew this apart when he pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and
then continued to tell Asian leaders the United States would not enter
into any comparable agreements.
At
the summit of Pacific Rim leaders, he said, "I am always going to put
America first. ..." The problem with this approach is that it leaves the
United States without any serious leverage in the region, and it
doesn't give countries such as China good reason to work with the US if
our demands don't fit their interests. "For Trump to come with an 'America First' agenda leaves Asian leaders in the lurch," one expert told The New York Times.
Nor
has the President done much to inspire confidence that his
"Indo-Pacific" strategy has any substance. As has been the case with the
Paris climate accord and possibly the Iran nuclear deal, Trump keeps
isolating the United States rather than our adversaries by removing our
government from these international agreements.
The
President completes his tour as an extraordinarily weak leader
politically who does not have the muscle at home to move debates in the
direction he wants. The visit might have looked and sounded better than
many observers expected, but, in the end, it did not add up to much.
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