Trump defends foreign policy moves against critics

Donald Trump has easily been the most polarizing president in modern history, if not of all time. While his first term was confrontational, it is nothing like what we are seeing in round two.

On top of that, some of Trump’s most loyal supporters have flipped, especially in regard to his foreign policy, but as far as Trump is concerned, if you are not supporting him, he doesn’t want to hear it.

Traveling man

When Trump took office during his first term, he vowed not to leave the White House and work all the time.

In terms of international travel, Trump pretty much lives up to that, having only made 19 trips during his entire presidency, and four during his first term.

There were, of course, the weekend trips to his golf resort, but Trump was always accessible, unlike Joe Biden, who hid in his home and never kept visitor logs, at least not logs that were published.

This time, however, Trump has already taken eight overseas trips, and that was not sitting well with some of the MAGA faithful. And he was directly called out by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has since had a massive split with Trump.

You are not America first

Before the breakup between Greene and Trump, Greene backed him on everything he did, as well as defending every move, the complete opposite of what is taking place now.

She not only criticized Trump for traveling more, but she also accused him of putting his rich donors over the American people.

Greene stated, "Those are the areas that are still getting everything they want, while the people, we're still out here saying, 'We want to see action on areas for the American people, not for the major industries and the big donors.'"

Trump ripped her as not being MAGA, also calling her a traitor and a stupid person. When Greene was asked if she is still MAGA after all Trump has said about her, she responded, "MAGA is President Trump's phrase. That's his, his political policies. I call myself America First.”

Not my people

During a recent interview, Trump was asked about the challenges by Greene and others who were considered in the MAGA camp. He responded, “Well, then, you know, I can’t imagine they’re supporters because, uh, I made a fortune and spend very little time … all of my time is spent here. Most of my time is spent here. But when I do go outside, it’s only going outside for here.”

He continued, “For instance, settling and solving the problem with China, that has a huge effect in the United States. Making deals with Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, all of these countries, you’re talking about trillions and trillions of dollars. So I could … I guess I could say let’s not deal with anybody. We wouldn’t have much of a country.”

I agree with Trump that he needed to make those trips, and I have zero problem with that, but I also think he is partly to blame for the resistance on this front. When you run MAGA as your campaign line, and you spend nearly a month abroad, people need to be better informed, something this administration is very poor at doing.

Trump has always had this confrontational style. If you are not 100% loyal to him, he will dump you in a heartbeat, tell you that you are low IQ, stupid, a traitor, etc. It’s always the same menu of insults. We are now in a position where Trump can no longer simply blow off people who have an objection to something he is doing. Right now, Trump gives one strike, and you are out, period.

We are starting down the barrel at an election cycle that will destroy this party and the conservative movement unless Trump brings people back to the party, not continuing to expel them. What’s more, if he had better informed people about the purpose of the trips, what he was going to accomplish, and if he could just reasonably react to pushback, he would not be shedding support like this.

From my perspective, Trump has had a pretty good 11 months so far, but the drama has countered all that to the point you would think it has been a complete and total disaster. It has been far from perfect, but his policies are working. But again, had he not overpromised on the campaign trail, perhaps people would be a bit more patient on the economic front. Communication, Mr. President, it has to get better. Bottom line... Trump has to learn how to appeal to people beyond his base, and he has yet to figure that out.