Nikki Haley, who is Trump’s UN ambassador, is 100 percent his responsibility. Judging by her record, she has no special knowledge of foreign affairs or foreign policy. On foreign policy issues, her record is all but non-existent, only two items, the main one being “Against nuclear deal with Iran; keep state sanctions. (Sep 2015)”, on which she agrees with Trump.
Forbes made a case against her back on 11/23/2016 after Trump chose her. They argued that he has no use for the UN and decided to throw the appointment away in order to select a woman of cabinet rank who was born into a Sikh family. Her religion is Methodist. Forbes wrote “She has no known foreign affairs views. Look at biographies of her and you find she is a cipher on foreign affairs.” She’s well-liked by Lindsay Graham. She supported Rubio and then Cruz, while “She called him [Trump] a bully and a fraud.”
Trump is anti-UN, judging from his proposed cuts to the UN budget and other proposals.
Trump has now largely defined the current version of his administration. It’s standard Republican conservatism of our age, with offshoots into various eccentric strains in Republican thought. Trump gives prominence to some views held by a minority of Republicans now and in the past. There is a re-ordering of emphases, while staying more or less strictly within Republican themes. Populism is not what Trump is or stands for or is delivering or advocating. This is now very clear. His so-called populism during the campaign was designed to rally certain groups of flyover voters. He went after voters in states with economic travails, anti-left voters, anti-PC voters, anti-abortion voters, pro-America voters, etc. He went after standard Republican constituencies and the Silent Majority. None of this was populist. Trump is not a populist. His military appointments, attitudes and budget proposals are not populist in the slightest.
The anti-UN attitude goes back to John Birch conservatism. Trump is bringing back a strain of nationalism with a dash of isolationism, but not much. He really wants independence of US government action in foreign policy, and throwing the UN appointment away shows it. He wants to make bilateral or multilateral deals. That’s how he thinks. He cannot negotiate with the UN or with the UN hung around his neck.
Trump’s also in his own way attempting to implement Obama’s admonition: “Don’t do stupid shit”. He thinks his own biases and policies are smart or smarter. They’re not, either domestically or in foreign affairs, that is, no smarter than conventional Republican wisdom of the time, which isn’t saying much. Nikki Haley’s undiplomatic and one-sided outbursts at the UN come out of her holding shallow conservative views she gets from reading newspapers and having no knowledge of the matters whereof she speaks. Trump and Steve Bannon are the same in this respect.
In order to alter America’s course significantly, Trump has to make changes in institutions. He has to plant seeds that will sprout long after he has given up power. Our current politics and institutions have arisen in this way. We live with the FED, the NSA, the EPA, the Department of Energy, Medicare, etc. because of seeds planted long ago. Haley and Trump are short-term oriented within the system. They are working at the margins within the ongoing system. There is no evidence so far that they are about to alter the American system significantly. Ron Paul is the only major politician in recent years who has been a strong, consistent and principled voice for changes that would alter America’s course markedly.
7:32 am on March 1, 2017
