Former President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign affairs is characterized by “isolationism, xenophobia and white nationalism,” a former secretary of defense has said.
With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, foreign policy issues have not featured heavily in the campaigns of either presidential candidate and have largely been subordinate to domestic topics—such as inflation, abortion and immigration. However, with geopolitical crises brewing across several regions, the international strategy of the next commander in chief should arguably be a key consideration for American voters.
“Foreign-policy issues rarely rank high with voters,” William S. Cohen wrote in a Tuesday op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, “but they have an enormous effect on domestic prosperity as well as on the global landscape.”
Cohen, who served as secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton between 1997 and 2001, believes Trump is ill-equipped to handle the numerous foreign matters the next president is set to face.
He said Trump’s approach to foreign policy contained “fascist historical overtones” and was characterized by a “reckless disregard for political norms.” Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign for a comment on Cohen’s article.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, gesturing to the crowd as he concludes a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on October 19. Former Defense Secretary William Cohen said Trump’s approach to foreign policy is “rooted in isolationism, xenophobia and white nationalism.”
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Cohen also wrote that Trump “disdains formal alliances,” specifically NATO, and he cited the former president’s public skepticism of the need to station American forces in South Korea and Japan.
On the latter issue, Cohen said it could “cause our Asian allies to consider developing nuclear weapons, which would lead to further global instability.”
Looking ahead to November 5, Cohen said that Trump’s “blunderbuss rhetoric,” his “flirtations with the benefits of authoritarianism and his admiration of Mr. Putin” indicate the approach his administration would take toward the U.S.’s foreign policy priorities.
“If America abandons the Ukrainian people or dismisses the value of NATO, it will send a strong signal to Beijing that the U.S. may not send forces to help defend Taiwan from provocative actions by China,” he wrote, adding that this could push the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific allies into the arms of Beijing.
Regarding the Middle East, Cohen said Trump’s bullish messaging to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would only empower the country to take actions that risk “setting the region in flames, with catastrophic global consequences.”
In the op-ed, Cohen described Vice President Kamala Harris as “an internationalist who believes in the rule of law and in a rules-based system that strives for global order and stability.”
He added that the two candidates’ policy differences on Ukraine, China and Israel “pale in comparison” to the contrasts in their “character and emotional stability.”
“Ms. Harris has promised to try to bridge America’s racial, ethnic, economic and cultural divides,” Cohen wrote, while Trump “has declared that his mission isn’t reconciliation but vengeance and retribution against those he considers ‘enemies of the American people.'”
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