Presidential Election – The View From Abroad

There’s a great story in the Washington Post citing anonymous current and former foreign ambassadors posted in Washington D.C. offering their take of a possible Trump presidency:

Donald Trump’s unorthodox campaign is causing growing anxiety over how U.S. trade, military and diplomatic policies would change if he were elected president, according to ambassadors from six continents.

Diplomats from many of the United States’ closest allies said there has not been a U.S. election since World War II in which representatives of foreign nations have felt so completely cut off from a leading presidential candidate or so unsure of his view of foreign policy.

“Scary. That’s how we view Trump,” said one ambassador whose country has a close relationship with Washington. “Could we depend on the United States? We don’t know. I can’t tell you how the unpredictability we are seeing scares us.”

Foreign diplomats and nationals have no influence on domestic elections, but the fact that none of the ambassadors quoted knows anyone on Trump’s foreign policy team (if he has one) or what his policy would be if he is elected to the office should raise alarms on both sides of the American foreign policy establishment.

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