People across the world are paying great attention to the first actions of the 45th US President Donald Trump, who took office as head of the most powerful state in the world on January 20. In a very strong signal for some parts of the world, including Ukraine, the new leader’s first decree was one appointing General (Retired) James Mattis, who is known for his tough stance on Russia, to lead the Pentagon. By his second decree, he appointed Marine General (Ret.) John Kelly as US secretary of homeland security. It is expected that the position of secretary of state will be taken without much difficulty by former ExxonMobile CEO Rex Tillerson, who identified Russia as a threat to the US at his confirmation hearing.
On the other hand, Trump said on January 22 that his administration would soon review the terms of the free trade agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico. The resident of the White House stressed that he had already scheduled meetings with Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau and President of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto.
However, Trump’s stance on Russia is still up in the air, including whether the new American president will really opt to lift sanctions in exchange for a reduction of nuclear weapons, as he said a few days ago.
In this respect, the US Senate’s intention to block the current administration from lifting the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the previous Barack Obama administration sends a positive signal. As reported by the Politico publication, Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Minority Leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer will soon present a bill which aims to prevent lifting of sanctions against Russia by the current US President Trump without the consent of the Congress.
The Day turned to foreign and Ukrainian experts asking for a forecast of the new US administration’s foreign policy.
“IT CONFIRMS HIS INTENTION TO PUT THE US’S NATIONAL INTEREST FIRST”
Kostiantyn HRYSHCHENKO, former Foreign Minister of Ukraine:
“This continues his pre-election rhetoric and like before, confirms his intention to put the US’s national interest first and center stage in the Trump administration’s policies. That is, we have seen a confirmation that his electoral platform is still in force. I have found nothing specific and meaningful there, which could be evaluated to get out the practical content of that speech or political declaration. Speaking of foreign policy, it was clearly stated that any negotiations and relations with others would be based primarily on whether it is beneficial to the US’s interest as it is understood by President Trump and his team. And for our government, it is important not to make mistakes as it wants to develop a relationship with the new administration.”
“A TRUMP-PUTIN-SAAKASHVILI TRIANGLE WOULD NOT BE GOOD FOR UKRAINE”
Lincoln MITCHELL, political scientist, former professor of the Columbia University, author of the book The Democracy Promotion Paradox:
“There are several things that are notable about President Trump’s inauguration. First, there is the relatively minor point that television viewership and crowd size at the event itself was smaller than most recent inaugurations. I am not sure that is a very big deal. Trump lost the popular vote and is not well liked by the American people so it is not altogether surprising that the crowd at his inauguration was smaller than usual. Moreover, people consume media differently and watch TV ratings, so that can be a little deceptive. Second, most presidents use the inauguration speech to reach out to those Americans who voted for the losing candidate and to ground their presidency in our political history. Trump did neither of those things. Third, Trump painted a picture of the US as some kind of dystopic disaster area, but the truth is far from that. For example, despite what Trump said about our cites, those cities are safer than any time in decades. The economy, while still flawed, is still in much better shape than four years ago.
“The fourth point has to do with the foreign policy angle of his speech. President Trump outlined a presidency that would both try to somehow negotiate better trade deals for the US, but that would also be less involved with the rest of the world. He is not the first president to have promised the latter, but events and circumstances sometimes make that difficult. A related point is that Trump kept using the phrase ‘America First.’ This is a phrase that was the slogan of those in 1939-41 who wanted to stop the US from getting involved in World War II, but it is more than that. The phrase ‘America First’ was also a thinly veiled attack on American Jews who were believed to be agitating to get the US into the war. It was an implicit accusation that Jews were disloyal to the US because they wanted to get our country into a foreign war. The America First movement from that era has been discredited for decades, but the phrase ‘America First’ is deeply offensive to older American Jews. Given that the speech was written by Trump’s anti-Semitic aid Steve Bannon, we cannot be too surprised by this, but it is nonetheless disturbing.”
“It is obviously still too early in the Trump administration to know much about what his foreign policy will be, but he seems to want to balance a tough trade policy, a smaller American role in the world, a bigger military role in the Middle East, and a desire to upend or restructure existing alliance and treaty organizations. This is an enormous task and one that has no internal logic or reason. Again, we have to wait to see what happens, but we can expect Rex Tillerson to be confirmed as Secretary of State and for Trump to continue to chart a Russia policy that is very different than that of any recent American president. This will create a lot of problems for Ukraine. The additional wild card for Ukraine is that former Governor of Odesa, Mikheil Saakashvili is working hard to reestablish his personal ties to Trump. A Trump-Putin-Saakashvili triangle, which is much more possible than it seems at first glance, would not be good for Ukraine.
“Perhaps the most significant thing about the inauguration was the enormity of the protests on Saturday. Somewhere between 3-5 millions Americans demonstrated against the new President on Saturday. There were big marches in our large and progressive cities like New York, Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco, but also in smaller cities like Helena, Montana, and Anchorage, Alaska. This has never happened before and reflects the reality that many Americans are very concerned, not because their party lost the election, but because of the undemocratic actions and intentions of the new administration.”
