Trump hurts foreign relations

Despite America’s position as a world superpower, we cannot continue to thrive the way we have for the past hundred years without our allies. President Trump doesn’t seem to understand this, and as someone concerned with the healthy future of our nation, I find this deeply unsettling. Foreign relations should be handled with a soft touch. Trump has spent the past six months handling them with a sledgehammer. Despite America’s position as a world superpower, we cannot continue to thrive the way we have for the past hundred years without our allies. President Trump doesn’t seem to understand this, and as someone concerned with the healthy future of our nation, I find this deeply unsettling. Foreign relations should be handled with a soft touch. Trump has spent the past six months handling them with a sledgehammer.  The past few weeks have been a maelstrom of bad press surrounding the President and his standing with the foreign community. At a recent NATO conference, Trump was recorded pushing the Prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way to get to the front of a crowd of world leaders. Later, at the same conference, Trump gave a speech about American interests, apparently putting off and confusing a number of his fellow powerful attendees. Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Accord certainly didn’t do him any good either, garnering him a collection of criticisms from nations all across the globe. The most cutting bit of news though, regards our close allies in London. After the recent terrorist attack on London, Trump sent out a storm of tweets bashing Sadiq Khan (the current mayor of London — and the first Muslim mayor of London). Trump pulled a statement of Khan telling his constituents that there is, “No reason to be alarmed” out of context in a disparaging way. Trump raked Khan through the mud, arguing that he was downplaying terrorism, but the full statement by Khan indicated the opposite. Even when Trump was called out for pulling a quote out of context, he brushed it aside, and said it was a “Nice save” from Khan.  If another foreign power had attacked an American official trying to console his constituents after a deadly terrorist attack, the international community would put him down. When Trump does it, we sit by and watch. Despite this, his reckless words are clearly straining our foreign relations with even our closest allies, like the UK. America cannot remain on top with a president so willing to use his seat for baseless slander. If he cannot learn what is and is not all  right to do, our alliances are in severe trouble with another three-and-a-half years of Trump ahead.