Top US officials tell European foreign policy leaders to ignore Donald Trump

Michael Birnbaum and Griff Witte

Munich: Amid anxiety about President Donald Trump's approach to global affairs, US officials had a message for a gathering of Europe's foreign policy elite in Germany: pay no attention to the man tweeting behind the curtain.

US lawmakers – both Democrats and Republicans – and top national security officials in the Trump administration offered the same advice publicly and privately, often clashing with Trump's Twitter stream: the United States remains staunchly committed to its European allies, is furious with the Kremlin about election interference and isn't contemplating a preemptive strike on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.

But Trump himself engaged in a running counterpoint to the message, taking aim on social media at his own national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, for not telling the Munich Security Conference that the results of the 2016 election weren't affected by Russian interference – a conclusion that is not supported by US intelligence agencies.  

The determination to ignore Trump's foreign policy tweets has been bipartisan.

"There is a lot more support for continuing our past policies than it might appear from some of the statements," Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, told an audience on Sunday that was made up of Europe's foreign policy elite.

"The unanimity comes from those folks who are actually operationalising policy."

Republican Michael Turner agreed.

"The values are the same, the relationships are the same," he said. "What you do see is this administration willing to put pressure upon the systems."

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The question of whom they should believe – the President of the United States or his advisers – has befuddled European officials.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel confessed on Saturday that he didn't know where to look to unerstand America.LINK

"Is it deeds? Is it words? Is it tweets?" he asked.

He said he was not sure whether he could recognise the United States.

Away from the glare of television cameras, many European diplomats and policymakers echoed the same concerns.

One diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid provoking Trump, asked whether policymakers like McMaster who adhere largely to traditional US foreign policy positions were falling into the same trap as Germany's elite during Hitler's rise, when they continued to serve in government in the name of protecting their nation.

The answer, the diplomat said, might be found following "nuclear war," which he feared could be provoked by Trump administration's hawkish approach to North Korea.

Testing those lines, McMaster offered a starkly different view of the world from his own boss, saying that the "evidence is now incontrovertible" that Russia intervened in the US political system.

Trump has downplayed Russian involvement, saying that he believes the reassurances of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Kremlin was not involved in the election.

McMaster even walked back some of his own previous tough language. Asked about a Wall Street Journal article he co-authored with White House economic adviser Gary Cohn last year that said they embraced a world that was "an arena where nations, non-governmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage," McMaster said it was actually a call for greater cooperation among Western powers.

US Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats took a similarly reassuring stance hours later.

The assertions that nothing fundamental has changed about Washington's commitments to the world do seem to have eased some concerns among some allies, particularly regarding the US commitment to defend NATO allies against the threat of Russian aggression.

In the Baltic nations, which border Russia, Trump's election had raised concerns about US commitments to NATO. But that doubt is now "gone," Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said in an interview, embracing the Pentagon's stepped-up military commitments to the former Eastern Europe.

Even hawkish Republicans shrugged away from Trump's top priorities. While speaking on a panel on Friday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was cued up by a questioner to attack the "failure" of Europe to spend two per cent of its economic output on defence – a frequent Trump complaint.

Graham demurred: "I want you to get to two per cent so Trump will be quiet," he said before swiftly moving on.

Washington Post

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/world/top-us-officials-tell-european-foreign-policy-leaders-to-ignore-donald-trump-20180218-h0w9y8.html