MS NOW analyst praises Trump’s tough foreign policy despite 'ethical' concerns
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump earned some rare praise for his unconventional foreign policy in his second term.
Appearing on MS NOW’s 'The Weekend: Primetime on Saturday,' Jonathan Guyer, program director at the Institute for Global Affairs, argued that Trump’s return to the White House has brought a brand of diplomacy that trashes tradition, bends protocol, but actually delivers results in some cases.
Trump is breaking diplomatic precedent
Guyer said Washington’s foreign-policy establishment might want to take notes.
“I think the establishment in Washington has something to learn from Trump’s unconventional diplomacy, totally breaking diplomatic precedent,” Guyer said. “Look at his diplomats. I call them cowboy diplomats — Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff — They have no experience. And yet sometimes they get stuff done.”
Guyer pointed to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, something he said former President Joe Biden failed to achieve. But co-host Catherine Rampell warned that the unconventional approach comes with baggage. She said “part of the risk” of sending Kushner and Witkoff to cut deals is “that we don’t know what their financial incentives are.”
“Witkoff’s son is running around the Middle East trying to pitch deals to potential investors. Jared Kushner, same deal. He got $2 billion from the Saudis even before Trump came into office again,” Rampell said. “So I take your point that they’re unconventional and they’re doing something different. But how do we know that they are actually operating in the country’s interest, as opposed to the interest of their own wallets?”
Guyer didn’t dispute the concern. He told Rampell the “conflicts of interest could be legion here” and called the situation “massively risky for American interests.” Still, he argued that Trump’s team is willing to do things previous administrations wouldn’t touch.
“On the other hand, they just don’t care,” Guyer said. “They’re willing to talk with Hamas, lift sanctions on Syria, stop a bombing campaign in Yemen when it’s not working. They are not following the rules. And I think there are some upsides to that, even though we should be highly critical of them also, breaking all of the ethical strictures that have basically been definitional for US officials over time.”
Ukraine war criticism
Co-host Elise Jordan agreed that Guyer raised valid points, but said Trump’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war has been a mess.
Jordan said the administration floated “preposterous” terms to Ukraine and argued that Trump has “made himself somewhat irrelevant in this negotiating process because Europe has had to step in.”
“Do you think that this is just a joke?” she asked. “You know, just going through the motions?”
Guyer acknowledged there are real “downsides” to Trump’s approach to the war, but said the alternative hasn’t exactly worked either.
“But at the end of the day, President Biden wasn’t able to bring these two sides to the table,” he said. “And there may be a silver lining by getting a line to [Vladimir] Putin, a line to Russia.”
He added that any resolution would require toughness.
“You’re going to need hard-nosed diplomacy to get to the finish line. But I do think it’s a good thing we’re talking with Russia because that’s the first step here," Guyer insisted.
Trump sees ‘a good shot’ at peace
Trump himself sounded confident ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to his Mar-a-Lago club on Sunday.
“Well, I think we have a good shot at it,” Trump told the New York Post in a phone call on Friday.
He admitted the talks are anything but simple, due to the constant tug of war between Moscow and Kyiv.
“I think they want to do it now, and I think that Russia wants to do it. But every time one wants to do it, the other doesn’t,” Trump said.
“I settled eight wars, and this is the most difficult of them all. But I think we’ll get it done," he added.
