Trump rings in Gilded Age & McKinley era, tapping into 'Manifest Destiny view of American expansion'

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00:00Well, we're going to talk a bit more about Trump's foreign policy plans now with Donald

00:04Green, a professor of political science at Columbia University.

00:07Donald, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us very early this morning on

00:11this inauguration day.

00:13Donald Trump, as we were just saying there with Doug, has promised a series of executive

00:16orders in his first day of office, many of them undoing the legacy of Joe Biden.

00:21How many of these executive orders might have to do with foreign policy?

00:25I think it's unclear.

00:27Of course, the president's latitude for discretion is very wide in the area of foreign policy.

00:32But I expect over the next few days, certainly, for us to reverse course on Ukraine in particular,

00:39because I think that the Trump vision for foreign policy is to ally with their opponents.

00:48One of his complaints about Joe Biden is that he precipitated an alliance between China

00:54and Russia by defending Ukraine vigorously.

00:57To stay with Ukraine for a moment, because it seems like Donald Trump has backed off

01:00some of his earlier comments that he would end the war in Ukraine immediately after taking

01:06office.

01:07Now, he says within six months, dragging it out.

01:09I mean, what can Trump do really to end this war in Ukraine and how?

01:13Well, I think that the moment he signals that he will withdraw the the money and the materiel

01:22for the Ukraine defense, it forces Ukraine to go to the negotiating table, which they

01:28have not shown any interest in doing.

01:30And so if he withdraws the support now, of course, that emboldens the Russians.

01:37If he can drag it out over several months, then he could perhaps precipitate a peace

01:42agreement.

01:43We've just heard from the French Prime Minister, Francois Bayrou, who said that Europe could

01:48be, quote, crushed if it does nothing against Donald Trump.

01:51Do you think that that's going overboard?

01:55I think that there is a chance that Trump will want to pull the United States out of

02:01NATO or at least threaten to do so.

02:03And of course, that puts Europe on a very different military footing.

02:07What about what some might call some of Trump's more outlandish claims?

02:11For example, he made waves not long ago about comments about wanting to acquire Greenland

02:15for the U.S.

02:16How worrying is that really for Denmark or for the EU in general?

02:21I think that Trump these days has shown an interest in William McKinley.

02:25He's shown an interest in the kind of gilded era of the 1890s and early 20th century.

02:32He seems to enjoy tapping into this age-old American kind of manifest destiny view about

02:41American expansion.

02:42And so whether that's real or just bluster, it does certainly distract attention away

02:48from the very real changes that are about to come to pass with his executive order.

02:54So I think that it's a way of signaling his imagination to a certain style of American

03:00politics.

03:01Now, another big foreign policy issue for many Americans, even though they might not

03:05realize it, is TikTok, of course.

03:07The U.S. has said that its owner, the Chinese company ByteDance, must sell TikTok or face

03:11a ban in the U.S.

03:13And this is because of a risk of Americans' data perhaps being misused.

03:17Now, Trump has turned that around.

03:19He's given TikTok a lifeline, saying at his rally last night, quote, we have to save TikTok.

03:23The head of TikTok's even set to attend Trump's inauguration today.

03:27I mean, what do you think about all of that?

03:29I think it shows one of the features of Donald Trump as a person and a leader, and that is

03:35his his insistence on gainsaying and contradicting what his political opponents would prefer.

03:39So if if the Biden administration swings against TikTok, he's going to slow things down and

03:46say, no, no, no, even though you would think that his bellicose anti-China stance, which

03:50will probably result in a surge of tariffs, would would signal his his dislike of TikTok.

03:58Indeed. And it is really interesting because, for example, Trump is threatening these tariffs,

04:02as you mentioned. He also invited the Chinese president to attend his inauguration.

04:07So quite a few mixed messages there.

04:09Just before you go, Donald, how quickly could Trump put all of these executive orders into

04:14place and how far do they go?

04:16How much leeway does he have as president?

04:20I would say that he could put them into play very quickly, even this week.

04:24And I think that we're all sort of holding our breath, wondering what exactly the executive

04:29orders will contain.

04:30He does not necessarily have to rely on executive orders entirely because, of course, he

04:35controls Congress as well.

04:36But his his style has been to have some media splash immediately because he feels as

04:43though this is his chance for gaining momentum.

04:46So I expect quite a surge of executive orders this week and they will be on broad

04:51ranging topics.

04:52Donald, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today there from Washington.

04:56Donald Green.

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