Trump’s Erratic and Destructive Foreign Policy Alienates Adversaries and Allies Alike

Interview with Melvin Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, former CIA analyst, conducted by Scott Harris

trump alienating allies and adversaries alike

Just weeks after Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss the war in Ukraine, Putin traveled to Beijing, where he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were welcomed by China’s President Xi Jinping to watch China’s Sept. 3 military parade, marking 80 years since the end of World War II. Days earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with both Putin and Xi while attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, a not-so-subtle statement of defiance just days after Trump doubled tariffs on longtime U.S. ally India to 50 percent as punishment for buying Russian oil.

 According to Melvin Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a former CIA analyst, Trump’s erratic and destructive foreign policy over the past seven months has contributed to the historic strengthening of relations between Russia and China, as well as between Russia, China, India and North Korea. At the same time Trump has alienated and punished longtime U.S. allies in Europe, Canada, Latin America and Asia with punitive tariffs, leaving the U.S. increasingly isolated on the world stage.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Goodman, a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University and national security columnist for Counterpunch.org, who assesses the consequences of Trump’s foreign policy and the recent lawless U.S. Navy attack on a speedboat off the coast of Venezuela that killed all 11 on board without proof of being operated by the Tren de Aragua cartel and carrying drugs bound for the U.S.

MEL GOODMAN: We’re taking steps that have driven China and Russia into the closest relationship they’ve ever had in history — in their very long history. And I’m not just talking about the joint military exercises and the generous exchanges of military intelligence and military weapons, but the fact that Putin and Xi Jinping have become very close and we’ve played a role in that and driving them into each other’s arms. And then when you look at the recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was a Eurasian security group led by Moscow and Beijing, they brought into the fold Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And our relationship with Modi has really gone down the tubes. India is a very important country now. Modi obviously is rushing to get on good terms with Xi Jinping. And then North Korea, which has had a very difficult relationship with China over the years now has a very close relationship with Russia, very supportive of the Ukraine war, sending personnel, sending weaponry, and now improving relations with both Beijing and Moscow and giving North Korea access to more sophisticated military technology.

And then finally, when you look at the founding countries of what’s known as the BRICS group — that would be Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Now they’re bringing in countries that used to have decent relations with the United States that are now moving away from the United States. That would be Egypt, Indonesia, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates. And you could say the same thing for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization where countries like India, Turkey, Vietnam and Egypt, all these bilateral relationships are suffering.

And I think part of the problem is Trump is paying no attention whatever to these issues. We don’t really have a functioning secretary of state or a functioning national security advisor. So it’s a deplorable situation. I don’t see how it’s going to improve with this cast of characters because Trump can’t maintain any discipline or attention to a problem over more than a 24-hour period. And anyone who’s ever worked in arms control and disarmament, as I did with SALT 1 and ABM agreements, know it takes years to negotiate these important agreements. And the last strategic agreement that we have left with Russia will expire in the next five or six months. I think it’s February of 2026. So everywhere I look, I see the potential for further disaster. And a lot of it is self-inflicted wounds. We’re doing this to ourselves. Trump is doing this to the United States.

SCOTT HARRIS: Before we run out of time tonight, Mel, I did want to ask you about Trump’s build-up of naval forces in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela and what many are labeling as an unconstitutional order to blow up a speedboat that was alleged to be part of the Tren de Aragua drug cartel that they said was smuggling drugs into the United States, although it was, I think 1,500 miles away from the US coastline, small outboard speedboat. And then, of course, you’ve got Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary of the Pentagon, now renamed by Trump as the Department of War, stating that the byword of the Pentagon now will be “lethality,” not tepid “legality.” So Department of War “lethality over legality” seems to be maybe a little truth in advertising.

MEL GOODMAN: Well, he’s misusing the military at home given what’s happening in America’s so-called sanctuary cities. And he’s misusing the military abroad given what happened on the high seas near Venezuela. There’s a policy for dealing with drug running and it’s a policy that’s usually carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard. Now you have the Navy deploying at least eight major combatants in the region. There’s a strategic submarine in the region. F-35s have been the latest to be deployed in the area and you have all sorts of intelligence collectors.
In the meantime, we’ve been given no real information about what was involved. No intelligence has been provided. We don’t know what was on this ship. We don’t know where they were headed. We don’t know if anything of this is true, but we’ve committed now murder on the high seas. That’s what we’ve done. We’ve engaged in an act of war on the open seas.
Maduro, the Venezuelan president, has overflown some of these ships with his own aircraft, but he’s obviously not going to take on the United States. We don’t know where this policy is going. And whenever the intelligence community has introduced intelligence that takes issue with Trump’s accusations about Venezuela and the “terrorist group” Tren de Aragua, they’re removed from their positions. But clearly this kind of extrajudicial killing, I don’t know what else to call it, is an outrageous act and I don’t see a lot of protests from the international community. I’m sure they’re stunned by it, but no one knows how to formulate a position that’s critical of the United States action that violates international law.

For more information, visit Mel Goodman’s website at melvingoodman.com and the Center for International Policy at internationalpolicy.org.

Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Melvin Goodman (17:39) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the related links section of this page. For periodic updates on the Trump authoritarian playbook, subscribe here to our Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine Substack newsletter to get updates to our “Hey AmeriKKKa, It’s Not Normal” compilation.

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