One of the chief concerns of President-elect Donald Trump's detractors during the presidential campaign was that the brash and notoriously loose-lipped real estate executive wouldn't be able to handle the delicate balancing act that is diplomacy. It's one thing to make wild claims domestically; it's another to inflame a fellow world power with a careless word or two.
Today, a fellow world power — China — is inflamed.
And Trump's controversial conversation with Taiwan's leader, which broke nearly four decades of protocol when it comes to U.S.-China relations, harks back to another controversial bit of diplomacy: Trump's first big foreign visit as the Republican nominee to Mexico.
That visit erupted into a major political problem for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and by the end of it, the two sides were offering different versions of what had happened. Similarly, Trump and Taiwan seem to be at-odds about precisely what just occurred. Read More
Despite being a billionaire, a number of questions were raised about Trump's competence as a businessman during the election campaign. In a few short days since his election as the president of the United States Trump has demonstrated that he lacks the diplomatic skills for that important office. In the area of diplomacy he is showing that he has reached his level of incompetence and is out of his depth. Coming days will reveal the other areas in which he is incompetent. Unfortunately a president cannot be impeached for incompetence even though his incompetence may imperil the nation.Related Articles:
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If what Duterte says is true, then Trump condones not only police violence but also extrajudicial killings and vigilante justice. He is not the kind of person that Christians should be supporting. In Duterte's drug war the innocent have been murdered along with the guilty. Vigilantes are using the Philippines' drug problem as an excuse to perpetrate crimes of their own, directing their violence against anyone in the community against whom they have a grudge. Jesus taught that we should love even our enemies and should treat people the way that we would want to be treated. In supporting Trump, Christians are destroying their credibility as followers of Jesus.
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