Trump delivers a major foreign-policy speech: 12 things to note

WASHINGTON – For only the second time in this U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump has delivered a carefully prepared speech. Better known for his ad-libbed one-liners at rallies, the Republican frontrunner read a speech from a Teleprompter on Wednesday.

The subject was foreign policy and here are some things to note:

—He contradicted himself. The speech was laden with glaring inconsistencies. It was incoherent even when emphasizing the need for coherence. He called for a clear, predictable foreign policy — he said the U.S. had lacked clarity since the Cold War, choosing its foreign missions on random whims. Moments later, he argued the opposite. He said the U.S. too clearly telegraphs its military intentions: “We have to be unpredictable. And we have to be unpredictable starting now.”

—More interventionist, less interventionist? Trump promises both. He says the U.S. erred by getting involved in Iraq and Libya and shouldn’t meddle with foreign institutions. But he also promised to escalate the effort to take out ISIL and also forcefully called for more action to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

—Should the U.S. increase military spending, or save money? He’s on both sides of that one. Trump bemoaned how the U.S. is spending to defend NATO allies — but also promised more military spending: “We will spend what we need to rebuild our military.”

—Globalization — Trump hates it: “We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism. The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony. I am skeptical of international unions that tie us up and bring America down and will never enter America into any agreement that reduces our ability to control our own affairs.”

—NAFTA — he dislikes that, too. Trump has previously promised to rip up the trade deal. He didn’t quite go that far Wednesday but said: “NAFTA, as an example, has been a total disaster for the United States and has emptied our states — literally emptied our states of our manufacturing and our jobs.”

—Canada. He didn’t mention Canada but some parts were relevant to the northern neighbour. One involved NAFTA. Another, military spending. He demanded that allies spend two per cent of GDP on the military. That’s twice what Canada spends: “The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defence and, if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves. We have no choice.”

—NATO — he wants a meeting. As president, Trump would convene a meeting of NATO allies to discuss rebalancing the financial burden for defence away from the U.S. He also wants to modernize the alliance’s mandate, to focus on new realities like terrorism.

—Old rivals — he wants peace. He says the U.S. is not bound to be adversaries with Russia and China and can live peacefully and in friendship with both. He was more aggressive when discussing Iran.

—Trump’s style. It’s now clear why he prefers the free-flowing zingers and ad-libbed insults at his rallies. Trump himself has joked that he’d put crowds to sleep reading prepared texts. Indeed, he struggled at times Wednesday. He even stumbled over a few words, mispronouncing, “Tanzania” and, “San Bernardino.”

—America First. Trump embraced it as the slogan for his foreign policy. The man who coined the phrase in reference to Trump, Ian Bremmer, had actually meant it as a criticism of his nationalist chauvinism.

—The reaction of foreign-policy professionals. Not good. Trump blasted foreign-policy elites. The feeling appears mutual. One professor at the U.S. Naval War College, Tom Nichols, tweeted: “What, exactly, would Trump do as President besides bitch about how stupid everyone else is?” Michael Austin, an author and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said: “This truly feels like a Saturday Night Live skit.”

—Tell that to his opponents. Some didn’t think it was Saturday Night Live-funny at all. Dan Pfeiffer, a former top adviser to the current president, tweeted: “This wholly unserious human being is going to be one of 2 people who might lead our country. Don’t laugh people, go knock some doors.”