The world continues to surprise Donald Trump in unpleasant ways. Of course, he was pleased with the peace agreement (actually a truce) between Hamas and Israel, which he largely dictated. The same goes for the gathering of US friends and clients in Sharm el-Sheikh — with a mission that is not entirely clear, but with an obvious desire to show honour and respect to the American leader. But suddenly, against this backdrop, there are people who allow themselves to upset Trump.
As he himself said, ‘We were just surprised by China. I have a very good relationship with Chairman Xi, and they did this.’ Vladimir Putin, who regularly disappoints the US president, is also in this group. As Trump says, they have such a good relationship, but Putin doesn’t listen. He continues his special military operation and refuses to negotiate on American terms, which are largely dictated, if not whispered, to Trump by Zelenskyy and his European patrons.
It does not occur to Trump, however, that his good relations with the leaders of other states oblige him to make concessions when significant foreign and national interests are at stake — or at least his own personal interests.
But apart from the peculiarities of contemporary American political culture — and the specific traits of Trump’s courageous, talented, but also eccentric personality — there is another important circumstance that hinders rational decision-making in Washington. He does not have a team of like-minded people, but rather a group of people who are (at least outwardly) loyal to him personally. However, they are completely unconnected to his foreign policy concepts and ideas, which are based on pragmatic nationalism rather than neoconservative globalism.
Trump currently has the same person serving as both Secretary of State and National Security Advisor — Marco Rubio, who shows his loyalty to the president in every way possible, but until recently was one of the leading neoconservatives in the US Senate.
And in the absence of a National Security Advisor independent of the Secretary of State, Trump does not have his own team of personal assistants to help him coordinate the foreign policy-making process.
Richard Nixon had an impressive Secretary of State, and before that National Security Advisor, in Henry Kissinger, who was one of the leaders of American foreign policy realism and shared his president’s ideas on this issue. Another example of a successful National Security Advisor was Kissinger’s former deputy, General Brent Scowcroft, who later became National Security Advisor himself and served in this capacity under President Ford and, later, from 1989 onwards, under President Bush Sr., with whom he had a personal friendship. And Scowcroft jealously ensured that all key participants in the decision-making process were able to express themselves adequately and convey their opinions to the president.
Trump has neither Kissinger nor Scowcroft. He has Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, although he also holds the title of Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, relies on the State Department rather than the White House apparatus. As a result, many people, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European leaders and, of course, members of Congress, rush to Trump without any prior preparation. They present their ideas to Trump, adapting to his approach and shamelessly flattering his ego. But what is good for Zelenskyy is bad for America.
