President gives Donald Trump a clinic on foreign policy
President Obama in a rather cool manner excoriated Donald Trump’s ignorance on foreign policy without once using his name as he schooled him. It all started with a reporter’s question.
“You have spent seven years on nonproliferation issues,” the reporter said. “And you said in your opening remarks that you hope in a future administration would do the same, make it a priority. This week one of, the Republican frontrunner to replace you said that perhaps South Korea and Japan should have nuclear weapons and wouldn’t rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe. Did that come up at this summit and generally what message does it send when a major party candidate is articulating such a reversal in U.S. foreign policy.”
The President’s response was calm, thought out, measured, and scouring all at once.
“What the statement you mentioned tell us,” President Obama responded. “They tell us the person who made the statement doesn’t know much about foreign policy, or nuclear policy, or the Korean Peninsula, or the world generally. It came up on the sidelines. I have said before that people pay attention to American elections. What we do is real important to the rest of the world. Even in those countries that are use to a carnival atmosphere in their own politics, want sobriety and clarity where it comes to U.S. Elections because they understand the President of the United States needs to know what’s going on around the world and has to put in place the kind of policies that lead not only to our security and prosperity but will have an impact on everybody else’s security and prosperity. Our alliance with Japan and the Republic of Korea is one of the foundations, one of the cornerstones of our presence in the Asia-Pacific region. It has underwritten peace and prosperity of that region. It has been an enormous boon to American commerce and American influence. And it has prevented the possibilities of a nuclear escalation and conflict between countries that in the past and throughout history have engaged in hugely destructive conflicts and controversies. You don’t mess with that. It is an investment that rests on the sacrifices that our men and women made back in World War II when they were fighting throughout the Pacific. It is because of their sacrifices and the wisdom that American foreign policy makers showed after World War II, we’ve been able to avoid catastrophe. We don’t want someone in the oval office who doesn’t recognize how important that is.”
Are you listening to the President, Donald Trump? The message was meant not only for you but for those who you have hoodwinked.