U.S. President Donald Trump's policies provoke a number of worrying uncertainties. He is doing exactly the opposite of what Barack Obama did. President Obama had serious problems with Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, now Trump is trying to win over those countries. Obama tried to pull Iran into the system, now Trump wants to push it out again. Obama wanted the EU to work closely with the U.S., Trump seems to not care about Europe at all. Obama used NATO as an essential tool of U.S. foreign policy, Trump believes NATO is obsolete. Obama was in favor of a tense and determined policy against Russia, Trump is willing to cooperate with Russia as much as possible. Obama wanted to leave the Middle East, Trump is dragging the U.S. back into the region.
We can also find similar examples from the U.S.'s domestic policy, as the abovementioned rule applies there, too: Trump is doing exactly the opposite of what Obama did.
The latest and quite stunning example of this attitude is the Trump administration's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. According to Trump, the agreement is based on a belief in climate change that he simply does not share. He thinks the agreement will damage American commercial interests and will put the entire burden on the U.S.'s shoulders, without punishing countries like China sufficiently. In fact, he believes this agreement is just another European fantasy.
Trump says his priority is to generate jobs in the U.S., no matter what. We must point out that, by his attitude, Trump is isolating himself more and more, as some of his close collaborators have already resigned. If it continues like this, Trump may end up surrounded by only a few retired generals and his immediate family.
The message Trump has conveyed by pulling the U.S. out of the Paris agreement is of crucial importance. There is no doubt now that the U.S. does not care at all about the environment and global warming. The thing is the U.S. didn't really have to leave the agreement: As many other countries are doing, he could have just kept the U.S.'s signature on the agreement without really putting it into practice. Instead, he decided to declare to the world that the U.S. has no intention of being part of a global climate agreement.
Leaving the climate agreement also means that Trump doesn't want to see the U.S. subjected to any global regulation; he prefers the U.S. to act alone and only for its own interests. In fact, many other countries think the same way, but they don't say it out loud, and they just pretend to care about others, while they only think about their own interests. The point is climate change is the most common threat to humanity.
We humans are destroying nature every day. No matter whom we are or where we are, we destroy nature, by our actions or inactions. It is sad to see that people can't even agree that industrialization should be carried out in a responsible manner. Instead of spending all this money and energy on weapons, military exercises and nuclear tests, nations may decide to do something to save future generations. However, Trump only cares about keeping the factories running even if they are ruining the environment.
President Trump is opposed to every international rule and regulation, global agreement and international understanding that has emerged since the end of the Cold War. He is, to put it bluntly, against globalization. This is not only a rhetorical refusal; he is actually fighting against globalization. It is hard to guess how long he can keep this up. When a country resists the natural flow of the system, only two things can happen: Either the system or the country in question bends after a while. Thus, Trump's persistence of doing the exact opposite of Obama may carry a huge price.
