Republican White House frontrunner Donald Trump promised a top-to-bottom overhaul of US foreign policy Wednesday to put “America first” and make its allies pay up.
Republican White House frontrunner Donald Trump promised a top-to-bottom overhaul of US foreign policy Wednesday to put “America first” and make its allies pay up.
In a major foreign policy speech short on specifics that left Washington experts scratching their heads, Mr Trump warned that Europe and Asia may have to defend themselves.
He vowed to tear up trade deals, retool Nato to oppose migration and “radical Islam” and put US national interests ahead of all other considerations.
“‘America First’ will be the major and overriding theme of my administration,-" Mr Trump told supporters, co-opting the slogan of America’s pre-World War II isolationists.
“Our foreign policy is a complete disaster,” the billionaire businessman said, dismissing the record of all presidents since the Cold War, both Republicans and Democrats. “We're rebuilding other countries while weakening our own,” he said, decrying nation-building missions in the Middle East and the US trade deficit with China.
“Our allies are not paying their fair share,” he warned, pointing the finger at Nato and close Asian allies such as Japan and South Korea. “The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defence. And if not, the US must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.”
Mr Trump’s first major foreign policy address alarmed American allies, who view the Republican frontrunner’s repeated invocation of an “America first” agenda as a threat to retreat from the world.
While most governments were careful not to comment publicly on a speech by a US presidential candidate, Ger-man foreign minister veered from that protocol to express concern at Mr Trump’ wording. “I can only hope that the election campaign in the USA does not lack the perception of reality” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Carl Bildt, a former Swedish Prime Minister said he heard Mr Trump’s speech as “abandoning both democratic allies and democratic values”.
Former South Korean vice foreign minister Kim Sunghan said Mr Trump would be “the first isolationist to be US presidential candidate, while in the post-war era all the US presidents have been to varying degrees internationalists”.
Mr Trump is running the most “reckless and dangerous” presidential campaign in modern history, former US secretary of state Madeline Albright said.
