The Credentialed Media seems pretty enthused that Biden can get rid of all that freedom and peace and sanctions and stuff that Trump has put in place
Trump aims to box in Biden abroad, but it may not work
On its way out the door, the Trump administration is enacting new rules, regulations and orders that it hopes will box in President-elect Joe Biden’s administration on numerous foreign policy matters and cement President Donald Trump’s “America First†legacy in international affairs.
Yet, the push may not work, as many of these decisions can be withdrawn or significantly amended by the incoming president when he takes office on Jan. 20.
In recent weeks, the White House, State Department and other agencies have been working overtime to produce new policy pronouncements on Iran, Israel, China and elsewhere that aim to lock in Trump’s vision for the world. Some have attracted significant attention while others have flown largely under the radar.
And, while Biden could reverse many of them with a stroke of the pen, some will demand the time and attention of his administration when it comes into power with a host of other priorities that perhaps need more urgent attention.
The most recent of these moves took place this past week as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made what may be his last visit to Israel as secretary of state and delivered two announcements in support of Israel’s claims to territory claimed by the Palestinians.
Biden’s team has remained silent about these announcements, but Biden has made clear he supports few, if any, of them and will reverse many as he intends to return to a more traditional policy toward Israel and the Palestinians.
Team Trump has pushed through multiple peace deals between Israel and Muslim countries that may not have been fully hostile, but, were certainly against Israel, using the old saying of “nations do not have friends, they have interests.” He’s been pro-Israel, even moving the embassy to Jerusalem, as enshrined in U.S. law decades ago. Every naysayer said this would cause massive violence, yet, not only did we get less violence than in Portland from Biden voters, we got nothing. He’s pretty much destroyed ISIS, he’s slapped lots of restrictions on Iran and Russia and Russians, and is working to finally get out of Afghanistan. He didn’t start any new wars or even small actions. He’s worked hard to level the playing field against China, and he’s told the World Health Organization, complicit with helping China hide the Coronavirus, to piss off. He also pulled out of the Human Rights Council, a hotbed of nations with terrible human rights records. He’s pushed peace, not endless wars. And it has been all America First
Is that what Joe Biden is going to do 180’s on? Oh, and mostly by the stroke of a pen, which we were told was a Bad Thing To Do when Trump took office
As opinion polls started to show Biden as a clear favorite to beat Trump in November, the administration began to move even as the president maintained a public face of defiance and absolute confidence in his reelection.
Some officials point to a July 13 declaration from Pompeo that the United States would now reject virtually all of China’s territorial claims in the South Chine Sea, a 180-degree shift from previous administrations’ positions that all such claims should be handled by arbitration.
While many of Trump’s foreign policy decisions from early on have been designed to blow up the previous administration’s foreign policy achievements — withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Climate Accord and the Trans Pacific Partnership on trade — the South China Sea decision was the first to be linked by administration officials to the possibility that Biden might be the next president.
It’s a bad thing to counter China? The nation that is dangerous economically to the U.S., and a danger militarily in that region? Does China Joe want to embrace China, putting America behind them?
Or, hey, maybe Joe would like to start some wars for oil, like Obama. And blow off peace uprisings, like Obama did with the Iranian Green uprising and the Arab Spring. And foment the rise of a new hardcore Islamist group.
Read: Trump Looks To Box In Biden Internationally With Peace Deals, Sanctions On Enemies Or Something »
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