The Self-Defeating Machismo of a "Transactional" Foreign Policy

Misunderstanding Power in the Rush to Justify Trump

Hi All,

I’ve been slightly bemused watching politicians and academics who want to try and find a way to praise Trump’s foreign policy often describe it as “transactional” or go out of their way to describe it as hard-nosed or tough. For instance, in a piece in Foreign Affairs , Niall Ferguson went so far as to prophesy that Trump’s foreign policy would be a new form of Reaganism. Trump would be tough first, putting America’s opponents in their place, and then he would go ahead and from a position of strength be able to moderate his behavior and make great deals for America.

A New Reagan, or a New Kaiser Wilhelm II?

(Worth noting that while I was putting this together, Ferguson’s attempt to curry favor with the Trump team unravelled. He discovered that his attempts to build up Trump as the new Reagan were, shall we say, poppycock. When he ever so gently tried to criticize Trump for abandoning Ukraine, not even using Trump’s name, JD Vance stepped in with a steaming pile of angry BS and vitriol. There is a lesson in this is not selling your soul.

Ferguson was certainly not alone in arguing that Trump would be a powerful and successful deal-maker, using US power to secure hard-headed outcomes. The opinion editor at Politico, wrote a rather remarkable piece not long after Trump’s victory saying that many European states were relieved that Trump had won and that Trump would get a much better deal for Ukraine.