Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown said Monday that “US credibility is at stake” in the wake of comments from former President Donald Trump that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO partners that don’t meet spending guidelines on defense.
Asked by “NBC Nightly News” about Trump’s admission that he would not abide by the collective-defense clause at the heart of NATO if reelected, Brown said that the alliance is strong and has been around for 75 years.
“I think we have a responsibility to uphold those alliances,” Brown told NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview airing Monday evening. “US credibility is at stake with each of our alliances, and US leadership is still needed, wanted, and watched.”
I absolutely defy the implication that US credibility is in any way whatsoever reflected by trump… Even if he manages to get elected again, he’d still obviously not be representing all of the US…
It’s like saying all Canadians are super liberal because they elected Trudeau… People know better.
I’d go with “reputation”, but not credibility.
The problem is he would represent the US. That would be his job, even if you personally do not feel represented. What he decides to do geopolitically is what the United States does. It doesn’t matter that half the people didn’t vote for him. He’s the spokesman. That’s how elections work.
It’s even worse than that. In 2020 only (66%) of the voting age population voted, which was the highest turnout since at least 1990. In most midterm elections the voter turnout is often less than (50%). So Donald Trump could conceivably win the presidency after only receiving votes from (1/3) of the voting age population, which is completely fucking insane.
I know. Turnout is a problem in the US. My point still stands however. If you don’t vote, if you don’t vote for him, and he still wins he represents the United States. So vote, and don’t vote for him.
Oh I know. I agree with your points. I just personally find it disheartening to realize that Donald Trump might be allowed back in the White House due to less than 1% of the vote in a handful of states. The Electoral College has got to fucking go.
Trump pulled out of pretty much every deal and treaty Obama had made and started trade wars with US allies. This has made diplomacy significantly harder for the US because now we all know that any deal we make with the US is only good until possibly the next election. This means it will be harder for the US to make any deal with any nation and the US are as reliant on global trade as everyone else. It’s similar to Brexit where the UK leadership basically told all their allies to eat shit. It’s going to be a while until they get any good deals with the EU.
But this specifically about the credibility of a nation, not its people.
What exactly do you think “credibility” is? It doesn’t mean everyone in that country agrees with the leader in power - that literally doesn’t matter.
Trumps erratic behaviour has torched a lot of US credibility in international relations, because it shows that whatever the US might say and do during a sane administration, they’re never more than 4 years away from potentially torching everything just for shits and giggles and descending into conducting international relations based on toddler tantrums. Trump’s torching of the Iran deal burned all the moderates in that country and now the the US has no credibility to negotiate another one (even if that were possible in the current situation) because all parties know the next guy might just reverse it out if spite. This is true even if you think the Iran deal was bad.
I would argue Trump is the epitome of what it means to be American.