Regression: Former Obama Appointee and Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank Gives His Take on Trump’s Asia Trip
David Cortez
November 30, 2017
On November 30th at the Foreign Correspondence Club of Japan in the heart of Tokyo, Ambassador Robert M. Orr spoke to members of the foreign press regarding Donald Trump’s recent tour through Asia. For Orr, the Asia trip was a damaging moment for American foreign relations in the region, one that may have set the U.S. back in more ways than in its international image.
Robert Orr served as Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank under the Obama administration until January 2016 and was previously the President of Boeing Japan, making him more than qualified to share his opinions on the politics of the U.S’s relationship with Asia. When Orr makes comments such as, “This trip, in terms of U.S. policy in Asia, has been the biggest backslide for U.S. interests in seven years,” one would do well to listen.
That being said, it is not as if Ambassador Orr is non-partisan, in fact he makes no bones about his affiliation with the 2016 Clinton campaign. The question is, however, does this fact make his commentary any less accurate? Orr rightly points out that “the foundation of American foreign policy in the post World War II period has been multilateral,” and Trump’s America-First rhetoric marks a clear departure from this approach. According to Orr, NATO, NAFTA, and even TPP, are all hallmarks of an America that is interested in coalition building, not in being number one at all costs. Yet, during his Asia trip, Donald Trump made it clear that a multilateral approach to foreign policy will not be a feature of his administration.
“The policy of America-First…the way that gets translated to every country in the region is basically everyman for himself. This tremendously undermines the multilateral structure of the political environment,” explained Orr. It gives rising powers such as China the ability to identify their own objectives in terms of foreign policy, as well as the power to leave the U.S. out of any future policy and initiatives.
To illustrate a potential trend towards an abandonment of the U.S as a priority voice in the region, Orr offered the fact that at the 2017 APEC Summit, for the first time in his life, he witnessed another countries leader be designated more times than the President of the United States. In this case, it was Chinese President Xi Jinping who was designated more times than Donald Trump. “It said something to me about where the region thought it could identify some of its best priorities,” stated Orr, who knows very well that China is more than happy to assume a more powerful role in regional decision-making. Orr believes that Trump’s every-man-for-himself policy essentially hands China this power on a silver platter as the nations of Asia will not hesitate to rally around China in response to Trump’s America-First policies.
The second major assertion by Orr, and possibly the most troublesome, is that Asian regional leaders have picked up on the fact that they can “effectively manipulate President Trump’s rather amazing ego.” “They have played his ego throughout the visit,” said Orr, who then said to a smattering of chuckles that “Prime Minister Abe [of Japan] played it pretty effectively,” no doubt in reference to how Mr. Abe wined and dined President Trump while making sure the media could see the ostentatious display. Orr went on to point out that when even former President Bush senior made remarks about Trump’s lack of humility when it comes to foreign policy, such commentary is hardly the product of political bias.
Orr expands on this accusation by saying, “The egotism of President Trump, allowed Xi in China, Abe in Japan, and Duterte in the Philippines, to in a sense play a kind rope-a-dope, to use a Mohamed Ali phraseology, by ‘bringing the United States out’ by virtue of the pomp and circumstance that appeals to Trump’s ego.” This ‘bringing out’ that Orr refers to is the slow and deliberate massaging of Trump’s ego in order to get him to role back some of his comments that worry regional leaders.
For example, Orr mentions that in China, “President Trump, after saying for over a year that China manipulated the bilateral trade relationship, goes over to China and essentially says, ‘don’t worry about that, it was always our fault.’” Backing down on an accusation of that magnitude and receiving almost nothing in return from the Chinese government does not, according to Orr, make Trump a great negotiator, it advertises that with a few strokes of the ego, Trump can be easily manipulated to say almost anything.
Another example of his political ineptitude is what Trump chose not to say while in the Philippines. During his time with Duterte, he failed to acknowledge the issue of human rights violations by the Filipino leader. According to Orr, Trump chose to play nice with the uncouth dictator rather than push him on his problematic conduct. Political moves such as these drastically undermine the credibility of President Trump, something he may not be able to overcome in his attempts to achieve much of anything in the realm of foreign policy during his time in office.
Towards the end of his talk, Orr shifted gears from dissecting the fallout of Trump’s Asia trip to condemning his proposal to absolutely gut the budget of the U.S state department, yet another sign of a complete lack of understanding about the need for a strong U.S. foreign presence. Commenting on a press members question as to what kind of state department President Trump wants to build, Orr simply mimicked the thought that must be going through Trump’s head, “I’m my own advisor, I’m the only one that counts.” Orr stated, “Even Senator McCain expressed his concern about the massive downsizing of the State Department. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue.”
In closing, Orr pointed to the extremely rare occurrence of agreement between two factions of diplomats, those who are career diplomats and those who hold ambassadorship by being politically appointed. Traditionally competing with each other for the same ambassadorships, their respective representation organizations authored an unprecedented joint letter to members of congress stating, “We believe the proposed magnitude of the cuts to the state department budget pose serious risk to American security.” This kind of language is not to be taken lightly, and it yet again illustrates the bi-partisan nature of the objections to Donald Trump’s foreign policy.