Washington, Jan. 3 (TNS): US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Wednesday that President Trump’s “foreign policy by tweet” is having serious ramifications on U.S. international relations a day after the president decided to attack the likes of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Iran, Palestine and Pakistan on the social media platform.
Schumer said Trump’s tweets offered “a very poor representation” of the U.S. on the world stage and his tweeting is “doing serious damage” to the country.
“Unfortunately, that moral authority is declining under President Trump’s leadership, and declining rapidly. It may have reached a low point yesterday when President Trump in tweet after tweet after tweet offered a very poor representation of the United States to the world,” Schumer said during his first floor speech of 2018.
“More than that, President Trump’s foreign policy by tweet is doing serious damage to the country,” Schumer said. “Where we have serious issues to address abroad, President Trump seems happy with macho boasts and belligerent threats that get us nowhere.”
“If anyone of us were in a classroom with someone who behaved as President Trump has, we’d ostracize them. We’d straighten them out,” Schumer said before going after his Republican colleagues. “We don’t hear a peep from the vast majority of our Republican colleagues about this, so many of whom are hawks.”
The New York Democrat said that the president’s actions “unsettle our allies and embolden our adversaries.”
Schumer also said if Trump continues with his “puerile” actions in dealing with nations abroad, then other nations may look to China for leadership on the world stage.
“The American people expect our president to represent the United States with dignity and strength,” Schumer said in conclusion. “That’s not what we saw yesterday. It’s time that we all start speaking out against it.”
In Trump’s most notable tweet, he told Kim his “nuclear button “is much bigger & more powerful” than that of the North Korean leader.
