Donald Trump: Still an apprentice on foreign policy?
Donald Trump says he will decide by June whether to run for president. In the meantime, he鈥檚 been bestriding US cable news like a colossus, reminding everyone that he is a 鈥渢ough guy鈥� who went to 鈥渢he best schools鈥� and still has a 鈥済reat, big, fat, beautiful heart.鈥�
鈥淲e have a moral obligation to help people. I really believe that. I believe that strongly, and not everybody does,鈥� Mr. Trump said on "The 翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测 Factor鈥� earlier this week.
奥别鈥檝别 written previously about Trump鈥檚 embrace of the notion that President Obama might not have been born in America, so we won鈥檛 belabor that here. During his 翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测 appearance, Trump implied that announcements of Mr. Obama鈥檚 birth, which appeared in Hawaiian newspapers, could have been retroactively faked.
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Host Bill 翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测 was having none of that. Mr. 翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测 said he鈥檇 looked into the whole matter and didn鈥檛 believe in so-called birther assertions that Obama was born overseas.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you believe that either. I think it鈥檚 provocative; you get a lot of attention raising the question,鈥� 翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测 said.
Fine. But the subject today is foreign policy. Specifically, what would a President Trump do to push US interests around the world?
He鈥檚 talked a lot about that this week, and his views are pretty unorthodox. For instance, on Iraq, Trump said that the United States should not pull out troops. Oh no. The US should stay in Iraq (since, he says, Iran will swoop in the moment we leave) and seize Iraqi oil fields, so as to turn the whole invasion thing into a paying venture.
鈥淲e pay ourself back $1.5 trillion or more. We take care of Britain, we take care of other countries that helped us,鈥� said Trump.
Hmm. Wouldn鈥檛 the Iraqis ... object? Wouldn鈥檛 all the factions in the country then unite and turn US-supplied weapons on their erstwhile ally in an insurgency that would make the bad old days look peaceful?
Trump also repeated his previous vow that if elected, he would slap a 25 percent tariff on all Chinese-made goods so that they would stop manipulating their currency and unfairly stealing American jobs.
Trump insists that just a whiff of such an approach would cause the Chinese to behave. But we鈥檝e got a couple of economic questions on this one. What if Beijing didn鈥檛 bother to do anything? Everything in Wal-Mart would suddenly be 25 percent more expensive, right?
And if China did revalue its currency the way Trump wants, wouldn鈥檛 it make Chinese goods more costly so they don鈥檛 undercut US-made ones? So again, prices go up.
Americans have gotten kind of used to their inexpensive Asian-supplied stuff, we鈥檒l point out. It鈥檚 not clear whether a tariff would bring back any US jobs, but it鈥檚 pretty clear that voters might be angry about that big whack to their wallets.
OK. What about Iran? They might get nuclear weapons during a Trump presidency, O'Reilly noted. How would chief executive Trump prevent that from happening?
鈥淚 would do what I had to do.... They would not have a nuke,鈥� Trump said flatly.
We鈥檒l note that Presidents Bush and Obama both have tried to sound just as ominous when talking about their Iranian options, and yet those Iranian centrifuges keep spinning, producing fissile material. Except when they鈥檙e offline due to the Stuxnet computer worm, which so far looks like the best weapon the rest of the world has against the Iranian nuclear program.
What鈥檚 the bottom line here? 翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测, for one, did not sound impressed with Trump鈥檚 foreign policy.
鈥淐an you imagine the world reaction to that?鈥� 翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测 said Friday on 鈥淔ox & Friends,鈥� in regard to the Trump proposal to seize Iraq鈥檚 oil fields.
No, but we can imagine how great a reality show 鈥淐elebrity Foreign Policy Apprentice鈥� would be. Each week, famous folks vie to carry out a diplomatic task assigned by a tough, wisecracking boss renowned for accomplishment in the field.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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