Washington is now embroiled in arguments as to whether Trump inadvertently said something revealing top secret intelligence, when talking to the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador during what seems to have been a productive meeting in the Oval office, designed to improve American-Russian relations generally and cooperation in fighting IS in particular. Whilst denials have been issued, what is being denied and what is being alleged are mis-matched so the suspicion lingers. Coming on top of all the fuss about the Comey sacking and the seemingly unending investigation into the Trump campaign’s links to Russian officials, this has now reached such a level of noise that it is starting to drown out the management of real issues.
I suspect that in America the judgment is more or less split on party lines. Trump supporters see everything is good and those who oppose him think he is erratic, muddled and unsuitable. The problem for America is that all this is beginning to impact on America’s influence worldwide. The international community is not used to an unstable presidency, which is how the Trump administration is beginning to appear. Whether the appearance is true or false, in today’s world appearance counts for almost everything. It is of course correct that Trump is not a politician, but a businessman, who has been elected because people have become fed up with politicians. Too much of politics is a detached spectator sport and too little of it addresses the issues which affect everyday lives. Nevertheless the reason the people chose a non-politician is that they thought he would do better.
There are signs, especially with China, that Trump’s preference for building understanding with strong leaders and doing deals is a lot more more effective than the conditional, prescriptive approach nation to nation, block to block, favoured by his predecessors since 9/11. His use of targeted executive orders, while there have been some high profile failures, have already begun to make a real difference in key areas. The markets seem happy. But all this will come to nothing if scandal, rumour, innuendo and suspicion run amok in Washington. There needs to be in the White House a blend between the new broom approach and a better ability to pull the levers of power to allow smooth forward travel. At the moment the wagon is in the ditch as often as on the trail.