Steven Andreasen and Anthony Lake’s Chicago Tribune op-ed ‘Donald Trump’s foreign policies have a nuclear impact on US credibility abroad’ laments a long faded US unipolar exceptionalism.

 Steven Andreasen and Anthony Lake’s Chicago Tribune op-ed ‘Donald Trump’s foreign policies have a nuclear impact on US credibility abroad’ laments a long faded US unipolar exceptionalism.

Both get much wrong that deserves correction.

They take the preposterous position Trump’s seeking to end America’s lost proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is destroying US credibility among both allies and enemies.

That assumes our credibility and reliability were high under the Biden administration. The reverse is true. The fact Biden provoked the war in Ukraine that is clearly lost and must be ended did more to erode US worldwide credibility than Trump’s seeking its end. If successful, Trump will do much to reestablish US credibility worldwide. All the world respects a peacemaker.

Trump did not “parrot Moscow’s rhetoric on Russia’s war on Ukraine….berate the victim of aggression” nor “greatly weaken Kyiv’s defenses and negotiating position.” He simply told Zelensky the truth that he has “no cards to play” because the war is lost and must be ended, not prolonged till Ukraine incurs more casualties and lost territory. Zelensky got the message PDQ, pivoting to support ceasefire, not more war.

Andreasen and Lake have spent their decade’s long foreign policy careers promoting US unipolar dominance. They are oblivious it is fading almost as fast as Ukraine’s ability to continue their war against Russia. There are many things to criticize about Trump’s foreign policy, starting with his enabling Israeli genocide in Gaza. Given lockstep US support for that genocide, it is understandable Andreasen and Lake failed to mention it among their many Trump criticisms. But their seeking endless war in Ukraine which cannot be won short of the nuclear option is a bizarre way of arguing Trump’s Ukraine policy will have an adverse effect on US credibility and worldwide nuclear policy.