Even before Donald Trump left for his latest excursion to Ireland, the trip was controversial. After all, the American president, roughly 50 days before the midterm elections, decided to take a taxpayer-financed trip to the Emerald Isle, not to advance the United States’ interests, but to host a tournament at a golf course he owns.
But once he arrived, things took a turn for the worse.
On Saturday, the Republican made a series of problematic comments he should’ve known to avoid. He slammed NATO. He condemned Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. He questioned the integrity of his own country’s electoral system and accused Democrats of being “communists.” Asked about his recent interaction with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his response included odd and false claims about the size of the audience at last week’s midterm convention.
In an especially amusing moment, Trump even said first lady Melania Trump was there, before conceding that she was not, in fact, there.
But all of this was soon overshadowed when the president wandered into an international incident of his own making. MS NOW reported:
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would “love” to see a unified Ireland, setting off strong reactions in the United Kingdom and beyond.
“Well, I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you I’d love to see it unified,” the president told reporters at a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin, where residents took to the streets to protest Trump’s visit.
“I think it would be a great thing,” he added. “I mean, how can it be bad?”
In case this isn’t obvious, the underlying issue is deeply complex, and it’s best approached with a nuanced understanding of history, culture, diplomacy and regional politics.
Trump, however, who has long struggled to understand the basics of the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, had no use for any nuances. On the contrary, as the trip continued, he apparently felt the need to lean into his new position, which defied decades of U.S. foreign policy.
“I’ve always loved the people of Ireland, and it just seems to me that you have Northern Ireland and you have Ireland, and it would seem to me that one of the naturals of all time is put them together,” the American president added a day later. “That’s only my opinion, but, and by the way, many people agree.”
Plenty of officials on both sides of the Irish Sea clearly did not appreciate the Republican’s careless comments, and it’s difficult to blame them.
But stepping back, the problem isn’t that Trump’s comments will have a practical impact. They almost certainly will not. Rather, what matters is that U.S. foreign policy, for all intents and purposes, hardly exists. It’s been replaced by random whims blurted out by an ignorant and easily confused amateur, who hasn’t done his homework, hasn’t thought through the implications of his declarations, and might very well change his mind without warning.
Indeed, in a situation like this one, no one can say with certainty whether the White House will say Trump was kidding, whether he was making an official pronouncement, or whether he’ll simply deny having said what the world just heard him say.
It’s no way to run a global superpower, but it’s our current reality.
The post Trump stumbles into an international incident of his own making in Ireland appeared first on MS NOW.
