John Kerry: ‘President Trump Has Isolated America And Taken Us Backwards’
In an interview broadcast Sunday, former Secretary of State John Kerry slammed Donald Trump, criticizing the president’s foreign and domestic policy, the Hill reports.
Kerry touched upon a number of issues, namely condemning Trump’s Middle East policy, arguing that the United States is witnessing a “pull-out, walk-away presidency,” and making the case that Donald Trump has “isolated” America and taken the country “backwards.”
“President Trump has isolated America and taken us backwards in terms of institutions that were structured ever since World War II to bring the world together.”
Unlike many of his predecessors, Trump campaign as an isolationist non-interventionist, partially living up to the reputation he had built for himself. Notably, Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris agreement meant to combat climate change, therefore making America the only Group of 20 forced to exit the landmark agreement, as per Mother Jones.
Trump has also waged a number of trade wars, with both adversaries and allies of the United States, threatening to pull out of the World Trade Organization “unless it shapes up,” as per a report from the Guardian.
Most recently, as detailed by the Inquisitr, Trump announced that he would be pulling U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, prompting General James Mattis’ resignation and widespread, bipartisan condemnation and criticism. What marked Mattis’ decision to quit was his subtle, yet sharply-worded resignation letter, in which the general recommends that the president finds a secretary of defense with views more aligned with his.
According to John Kerry, General James Mattis’ resignation was a “moment of shame.”
John Kerry rips Trump over "pull-out, walk-away presidency" https://t.co/MAQqIXCeSq pic.twitter.com/tDCjuA2Yn2
— The Hill (@thehill) January 21, 2019
But Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria is not all former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state discussed. Kerry touched upon Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, slamming the president for “believing” his Russian counterpart over his own intelligence community, and for “adopting” his point of view on Afghanistan.
In a final dig at Donald Trump, Kerry discussed the general direction the United States is going in under President Trump, arguing that some important questions are not being asked, and suggesting that the country needs to go back to “doing the great things” that it should be doing.
“I don’t think it’s important to be talking about who’s in and who’s out. What’s important to talk about is where do we need to go? Where do we need to go as a country? We are not doing the great things that America should be doing,” former Secretary of State John Kerry concluded.
