Republicans and Democrats unite to condemn Trump’s attacks on allies | US news
At this weekend’s Munich Security Conference, Donald Trump’s most unrestrained critics were Americans, not Europeans, and not just Democratic politicians.
A few Republicans, out of earshot of the US president’s favorite Fox News, have dared to challenge Trump’s tax regime and its unpredictability.
The criticism ends what little remains of a tradition in which the U.S. delegation attending the conference limited criticism of the commander-in-chief abroad.
The attacks have come thick and fast, as Democrats race to repudiate Trump or former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton appeals to Europe that Trump’s main weapon – perceived unpredictability – can be neutralized with consistent pushback.
In the case of Greenland, he said resistance worked: “A significant portion of our allies said ‘no, not that way, we’ll negotiate. We’ll do this. We’ll do that.'” There was well-presented opposition saying no. I hope what people understand is that unpredictability is uncomfortable, but it’s important to arrive at an answer and stick with it because it affects whether a leader thinks they can move forward… With Trump, the question is, don’t doubt what he wants to do. Try to understand how. Don’t argue what his intentions are because you’ll be told what his intentions are. what he says is happening, he may or may not achieve it, but that depends on forces outside of him.
California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom accused Trump of “doubling down on stupidity.” He said: “There has never been a more destructive president in US history than the current occupant of the White House in Washington. He is trying to recreate the 19th century. He is a wholly owned subsidiary of major oil, gas and coal.”
Newsom said at the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks ago that he was disappointed by the apparent lack of understanding about what Europe was facing. “There is no one more skilled at exploiting weakness,” he said.
But now he felt even more encouraged by Europe’s response. “The one thing that Donald Trump has done that I deeply admire, and the thing that he has done almost single-handedly, is to unite Europe in a deep and meaningful way, and I applaud Donald Trump for making that happen.”
Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin, who the US Justice Department did not indict on sedition charges last week, said: “This was no secret to anyone at the Munich Security Conference; the US is going through something right now. Can anyone miss this?”
“Basic question [for the agenda at Munich] “There is the question of whether we can put more pressure on Vladimir Putin, and we don’t know the answer to that question because we are in a mess at home… and if we continue the merry-go-round it will only cause further pain and suffering in Ukraine.”
He warned: “We will have to hit rock bottom before we can bounce back.”
In an intense late-night session on Friday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez presented her foreign policy vision for the first time. “We are shocked by the president’s devastation of our relations with our European allies,” he said. “Their threats over Greenland are no joke. They are not funny; they threaten the trust and relationships that sustain peace. I can say clearly that the vast majority of the American people do not want to see these relationships erode, and they are committed to our partnerships, our relationships, and our allies.”
But he was the speaker who was most determined not to return to the past. “I don’t know if we’re in a post-rules order. It’s possible we’re in a pre-rules order, and now we have an opportunity to explore what the world would look like if we supported human rights, democracy, and trade that actually focuses on the working class rather than the benefits that trade largely provides to the richest.”
Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee, emphasized that strong support for Ukraine is a bipartisan issue in the Senate, if not in the White House. He pointed out that the Senate is ready to introduce legislation that will impose heavy secondary sanctions on countries doing business with Russia.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer warned: “Trust is built over generations and can fade quickly. We’ve done a lot of damage in the last 14 months. If you say no to Canada, you say yes to China.”
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who attended the meeting, echoed him and warned that the economic tariff bill would cause harm. Strikingly, one of Trump’s closest Republican allies, who recently asked “Who cares who owns Greenland?” He also challenged Lindsey Graham.
Tillis, who attended the conference, said: “85,000 Indigenous people in Greenland care who Greenland belongs to. And at the end of the day, we need to respect it.”.”
