New York Times: Letter to the Editor: Foreign Policy Under Trump
Stuart Gottlieb, adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs

“The only thing more disturbing to me than Donald Trump’s presidency is the tendency to hold him accountable for all of the changes and challenges in the world today, including what [Ivan] Krastev laments [in a December 4th op-ed] as America’s ‘lost’ sense of global leadership and rising tensions with China. … Even President Trump’s hard-line approach to China predates him. George W. Bush formally changed China’s label from ‘strategic partner’ to ‘strategic competitor.’ And [Barack] Obama began an aggressive ‘pivot to Asia’ to help contain a rising China. … Yes, Donald Trump’s style is corrosive and destructive. And many of his polices are without nuance. But if America is to rebound from the Trump presidency — which it certainly can — the first step is to candidly recognize how we got here” (12/11).