Obama Syndrome Haunts Trump

When I watched President Trump’s press conference at the end of the G-20 summit in Osaka, I was reminded of a certain saying: “I now know that one of the qualities inherent in evil is the desire to obfuscate all facts.” At the press briefing, the U.S. president did not adequately answer a single question posed by the journalists; on the contrary, he attempted to divert the conversation from topics that would paint him in a negative light, while simultaneously showering himself with compliments. President Trump acted as a benefactor for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia – whom the entire civilized world accuses of killing Saudi journalist Gamal Hashshogi – because multibillion-dollar contracts with the regime in Riyadh are critical to the Trump presidency. Topics like human rights (including the murder of journalists) are relegated to the background.

RamisYunus

President Trump demonstrates the same approach in relation to Vladimir Putin, another odious authoritarian ruler from Russia, whom the same civilized world has given the appellation “modern Hitler,” accusing him of annexing the Crimea, perpetrating the slaughter of innocents in south-eastern Ukraine, and in the assassinations of his political opponents around the world. President Trump’s press conferences between these two authoritarian leaders draw eerie parallels, and a similar attitude was present at his press conference in Osaka. It appears that the topic of Russian aggression against Ukraine has not crossed his mind, and he has tried his best to avoid its discussion in the public sphere. The President of the United States also looked quite comical at a meeting with the President Erdogan of Turkey, as the whole world recalls how Mr. Trump squandered the threats of sanctions against Erdogan a few weeks prior if he bought the S-400 anti-aircraft systems from Russia. Now, after Turkey’s acquisition of said equipment, Trump began to explain to the whole world why it would be unwise to punish Turkey, placing the blame on the Obama administration.

I am not a fan of President Obama’s administration, particularly regarding his approach to foreign policy as I considered it toothless. Mr. Obama’s careless approach to foreign policy was particularly poignant after his lack of action regarding President Putin’s attack on Georgia in 2008, which stoked the expansionist flames of the Russian autocrat and catalyzed the assault and subsequent annexation of the Crimea in 2014. I have firm conviction that President Trump has “Obama syndrome,” as he, blaming any and all faults on his predecessor, continues the same toothless foreign policy of appeasing dictators and authoritarian rulers including Russia, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea. Moreover, his previous failures in the Middle East have resulted in complete Russian and Iranian influence in Syria. His failures to negotiate with North Korea have stripped him of the opportunity to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which was equally undeservedly awarded to President Obama before him. The nuclear deal with Iran, which President Obama nurtured, and which President Trump later abolished, also became a thread of contention between the two politicians. After disassembling this monumental proposal, President Trump began waving a baton over Iran, a course of action which none of the deal’s signatories supported. Now, without achieving any tangible results, Trump sends clear messages to the clerical regime in Tehran that he is prepared for a new deal, but on his terms. Although he does not specify the stipulations of his new deal, the main goal of his administration is to ensure that these transactions go down in history with his name and his signature, rather than those of his predecessor. These parallels are present in matters both domestic and foreign, where Trump is guided only by his “Obama syndrome.”

Thomas Jefferson once said “when angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.” I hope that President Trump is surrounded by sane people who will remind him that the United States is the flagship of democracy in the world and that before writing some Twitter messages that will be read by the whole world, one must also remember that a country’s image cannot be traded for multibillion-dollar contracts with odious regimes, because as Thomas Jefferson also one said, “the selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.”

RamisYunus – political scientist, former Chief of Staff of the Government and former Chief of Staff of the Parliament of Azerbaijan