Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is already appearing to settle in as the nation’s next leader when it comes to foreign policy and meeting with foreign dignitaries.
On Monday, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump met with former British Prime Minister David Cameron, now the U.K.’s foreign minister, to discuss some of the most pressing issues around the globe, according to the U.K.’s The Telegraph.
Following his meeting with Trump, Cameron was scheduled to meet with Republicans in Congress along with top officials in President Joe Biden’s administration for talks on topics like the Russia-Ukraine war, the NATO alliance, and the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, among other things.
Top U.K. official meets with Trump to discuss global concerns
The Monday meeting at Mar-a-Lago between Foreign Minister Cameron and former President Trump was first reported by the U.K.’s The Sun, which noted that their discussion could become “awkward” if some of Cameron’s prior statements about Trump came up in the conversation.
In 2016, when Cameron still served as the prime minister, he had denounced then-candidate Trump as being “divisive, stupid, and wrong,” and later added to his critiques of the then-president in a memoir in which he referred to Trump as being “protectionist, xenophobic,” and “misogynistic.”
Now, however, in what is reported to be the first meeting between a senior U.K. government official and the former president since he left office, Cameron is urging Trump to help convince his fellow Republicans to relent on their opposition to further financial and military aid for Ukraine.
U.K. downplays significance of Cameron-Trump meeting
Politico reported that the U.K. government attempted to downplay the significance of the meeting between Cameron and Trump with a statement that said it was “standard practice for ministers to meet with opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement.”
Indeed, it was observed that then-PM Cameron had met with then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney ahead of the 2012 election, while The Telegraph similarly pointed out that then-PM Gordon Brown had met with then-Democratic nominee Barack Obama before the 2008 election.
Politico also reported on a statement from the British Embassy which quoted Cameron as saying of his visit that “success for Ukraine and failure for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin are vital for American and European security. This will show that borders matter, that aggression doesn’t pay, and that countries like Ukraine are free to choose their own future.”
“The alternative would only encourage Putin in further attempts to re-draw European borders by force, and would be heard clearly in Beijing, Tehran, and North Korea,” the embassy’s statement added.
Americans prefer Trump to Biden on foreign policy and leadership issues
While the U.K. may want to gloss over how significant Cameron’s meeting with Trump is, undoubtedly to avoid damaging relations with the Biden administration, it is undeniable that numerous polls have shown that the American people trust the former president far more so than the incumbent when it comes to foreign policy matters.
Indeed, The Hill reported in November on a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll which found that pluralities of voters believed that Trump would fare better than Biden when it came to handling issues with communist China, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
More recently, Gallup reported on a March survey which found that, by a margin of 57-38%, Americans preferred Trump to Biden as a “strong and decisive leader” on the world stage, while by a 49-39% margin, Americans also believed Trump could “manage the government effectively” more so than Biden.
To be sure, Trump still needs to first win the 2024 election before he can completely take over for Biden’s utter mismanagement of U.S. foreign policy, but this meeting with the U.K.’s Cameron — and likely other imminent meetings with other high-ranking foreign officials — appears to be a good first step in that regard.
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Author: Ben Marquis
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