Worrying taking on a new direction

This archived article was written by: Alex Holt

Even before the beginning of his presidency, Donald J. Trump worried traditional American allies across the world. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau all have voiced concerns about Trump’s language and polices regarding what seems to be a shift in America’s foreign policy.
Trump’s actions including executing a Muslim ban, increasing I.C.E. agents in some states, retreating from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, calling for the building of a wall along the United States-Mexican border, calling for a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, calling for the U.S. to leave both the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, congratulating the President of Taiwan on his victory, his anti-climate change agenda, calling for the military to start targeting families, promoting human-rights abuses in Guantanamo Bay, promoting a closer tie to the Russian Federation, his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, his sexist behavior, his racist language and his attitude toward public education.
All these leaders are rightfully worried and we as students and people should be worried about how Trump is changing the direction of American foreign policy. Some of his polices are hurting relations with our neighbors, for intense Trump’s targeted ban on Muslims and refugees are hurting our already low relations with many nations in the Middle East and started to impact our relations with neighboring Europe. Higher tensions in the region could lead to Iran withdrawing from the Iranian Nuclear Deal and economic sanctions toward the U.S .from many predominantly Muslim nations.
Trump’s deportation and I.C.E. agent initiative are hurting the lives of many families, including some students at USUE who are afraid to travel Interstate I-15 due to increased I.C.E presence in Salt Lake City. Many have been in the country since they were young.
Furthermore, if Trump continues along his dangerous rhetoric and cozies up to Russia it could force our allies to start preparing for a U.S. exit from NATO, which could seriously hurt Europe’s ability to stand against Russian aggression, particularly in Ukraine.
Trump is calling for an increase in military spending, asking Congress to approve a $54 billion dollar increase in the military budget. As we already spend more in defense funding then the next 25 nations combined, this may be seen as warmongering move to increase U.S. military presence overseas.
If Trump goes ahead with other ideas, like leaving the UN, it could be disastrous for the world’s global humanitarian efforts, seeing as the UN is the world’s largest contributor of humanitarian aid and the U.S. provides 22 percent of its total budget. Leaving the UN could also make the organization lose credibility, and thus its efforts to promote peace might be faltered.
There are many more ways in which Trump is continuing to impose harmful polices and ideas that affect our relations abroad so we must keep a watchful eye on the next moves the Trump administration is making in order to fight back and prevent potential international incidents. America’s traditional allies may have to resort to other means in order to fight against the oppression.