'The Art of the Deal' vs. foreign policy experience

It is not domestic, but rather foreign policy, which has consumed the days and nights of most American presidents. Since World War II, our leader has been watchmen on freedom’s wall and although most of those presidents were brilliant, experienced and surrounded by well-seasoned advisors they discovered, each in turn, the great difficulty of guiding our international affairs.

As we learned during the past year, President Trump’s foreign policy experience is limited to the building of hotels and golf courses in far-away places. He seems particularly unsuited to the critical tasks of guiding America through the intricacies of nation-to-nation negotiations. “The Art of the Deal” is a book, not a foreign policy doctrine. Watching Trump’s bizarre bromance with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, it looks eerily as though Putin is playing chess while Trump is still trying to learn checkers. Putin is in a waiting mood, luring our guy to the bait. Is this really the best we could do in our electoral quest for change?

America’s premier place in the world has been determined not only by the glitter of our wealth but also the splendor of our ideals, which have often been reflected in our presidents, be it FDR, Eisenhower or JFK. Measured against them, Donald Trump appears to be just what he is: crude, argumentative and inattentive. He is an insecure personality whose intellectual limitations require him to communicate with us through Twitter. Inexperienced, unlearned, and uninterested in the ways and means of government, Trump is ignorant about the subtitles of foreign policy and his seemingly petty personality disorders make him a potential danger in this world where several psychotic leaders have their thumbs on the button.

This Jan. 20, Trump became not only commander in chief of the world’s most potent military force but also the final arbiter of America’s international strategies. Please, in this New Year bless us one and all, Amen.

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Pat Williams served Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives for nine consecutive terms from 1979 to 1997. He lives in Missoula and teaches at the University of Montana.