Washington, D.C. — In his first 100 days as president, Donald Trump’s inconsistent and dangerous rhetoric and actions in the Asia-Pacific have undermined U.S. interests in tackling serious challenges. As an issue brief released by the Center for American Progress shows, despite a surprising amount of attention paid so far by the administration to the Asia-Pacific region, this attention has not made up for a series of damaging policy mistakes and undiplomatic comments.
The brief offers a scorecard for President Trump’s actions in the region thus far, giving the president an overall grade bordering on the brink of failure.
Michael H. Fuchs, CAP Senior Fellow and co-author of the brief, said, “The quality of the Trump administration’s engagement in the Asia-Pacific region has been shoddy at best and outright dangerous in certain respects. Trump’s lack of diplomatic skill has unnerved U.S. allies, raised the risk of conflict with North Korea, and damaged U.S. credibility with China and America’s ability to address difficult challenges in the U.S.-China relationship. Overall, Trump has had a poor showing in the region over his first 100 days.”
The brief rates Trump’s performance on a grading scale, ranging from pass—a job well done—to satisfactory—acceptable but showing real concerns—and finally to fail—unacceptable actions that must be stopped. The authors looked at personal engagement (satisfactory), regional security (fail), economic engagement (fail), and the state of the alliances (satisfactory). They also looked at Trump’s record with individual countries/subregions and pressing global concerns such as Southeast Asia (satisfactory), China (fail), India (satisfactory), and climate (fail).
Click here to read the brief.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Tom Caiazza at [email protected] or 202.481.7141.