President Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un leave after signing documents. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Blake Hounshell, Politico: How Trump Made Diplomacy Great Again
Obama was attacked as ‘naive’ and ‘weak’ for talking to America’s enemies. Trump is turning it into a political asset.
When candidate Barack Obama said in a 2007 debate that he’d meet with the leaders of rogue states—including North Korea—without preconditions, critics pounced: Fox News host Sean Hannity ripped his “lack of foreign policy expertise” and called the idea “disturbing” and “naive.” His Democratic primary rival, Hillary Clinton, called him “irresponsible and frankly naive.”
Months into Obama’s presidency, Republicans ripped him again when he exchanged pleasantries briefly with Hugo Chavez, the late dictator of Venezuela, on the margins of a Latin America summit. One Republican senator called it “irresponsible” for the president to be photographed “laughing and joking” with an anti-American leader like Chavez.
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WNU Editor: First things first .... President Trump is not President Obama (and vice-versa). Their styles, global view, and strategies are different. And while it is true that the Republicans and some Democrats were critical of President Obama's foreign policy initiatives .... I disagree with the above Politico's analysis that the Republicans are giving President Trump a pass. They have been (and are) just as critical towards President Trump as they were towards President Obama. But President Trump will not need to worry ....the Republicans may be critical, but they are not going to stop President Trump from pursuing his foreign policy objectives just as they did not stop President Obama.
