Donald Trump will travel to Germany this week to participate in his first G20summit. While most multilateral meetings are full of lofty rhetoric about global cooperation – and feature slightly awkward group photos that resemble a high school yearbook – the G20 meeting appears uniquely engineered to challenge Trump’s foreign policy instincts. Trump may face his most difficult in-person foreign policy test in Hamburg.
Presidential travel is often filled with pomp and circumstance, but such trips can also reveal a president’s true colors. Saudi Arabia – a repressive dictatorship – was Trump’s choice for his first stop in office. While there, Trump made time for meetings with some of the world’s less savory leaders, but had no time for meeting with the members of civil society systematically repressed in the Middle East. In Europe afterwards, he removed language affirming America’s commitment to defend Nato allies from his speech, sending shudders through the continent.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Guardian.
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