Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power: Rebuilding after Trump will be 'extremely challenging'
President Trump hasn’t been shy about focusing on American interests, and that has led to disagreements with long-time allies.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power recognized the impact of Trump’s decisions and that rebuilding those relationships won’t be easy.
“I’ve always said it’s going to be extremely challenging,” Power told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in an episode of “Influencers with Andy Serwer. “Rebuilding that trust, rebuilding those alliances, and convincing people that Trump was a symptom of a set of larger tends that we’re seeing all around the world.”
She added that allies will have to know that “that if they do deals with us in the future, that they will not have the same experience. That’s just going to be very challenging now that it’s happened once.”
‘We see our allies now ... seeking other relationships’
When Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, this upset many allies. Immediately following his decision, France, Germany, and Italy released a joint statement calling the decision “irreversible” and couldn’t be renegotiated, according to the New York Times.
“You now see some of our closest allies form shopping and looking for other kinds of partnerships — it’s like a stock portfolio,” Power said. “They’re nervous about having all of their stock in the U.S. relationship.”
Another example of Trump angering allies was the U.S. pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was supported by key EU allies.
“The world is not standing still, right?” Power said. “We see our allies now — very, very close allies who’ve been insulted by the president, who’ve had agreements with us ripped up — seeking other relationships.”
“Even just on the task of rebuilding those relationships, we’re going to need to bring a crop of new dynamic people back into the enterprise,” she added. “And that itself is just a major piece of business.”
‘A president who doesn’t tell the truth in a reliable way’
Power also highlighted how Trump has a unique relationship with the truth relative to other U.S. presidents.
“We’ve never in recorded history, at least, had a president who doesn’t tell the truth in a reliable way,” Power said. “I mean, who seriously just makes things up. And that’s very discombobulated.”
The Washington Post reported that as of August 19, Trump made more than 12,000 false or misleading claims in 928 days in office.
Although Republicans argue that President Clinton often didn’t tell the truth, “they would probably be able to count those instances on one hand whereas, I don’t know, we’re in the hundreds or the thousands,” Power said. “I don’t even know what the average number of falsehoods is per day. But it’s extremely high.”
Adriana is an associate editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.
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