President Trump, at Least Listen to this Prominent Republican

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Washington DC 20500

19 April 2017 

Dear President Trump,  

In the Hammond Times, a local newspaper near where I live, this past Monday, April 17, they ran a story about former Senator Richard Lugar.  Lugar, a lifelong Republican, represented Indiana for 36 years and in a recent speech to the Foreign Policy Association made some suggestions about how you might be more effective in dealing with other nations.  Lugar argues that your focus on building walls between us and our allies, extracting additional payments from our allies, pledging to deport undocumented immigrants and cutting funds for diplomacy will result in America losing its position as a world superpower.  As Lugar put it, “These are goals that normally would be associated with a selfish, inward-looking nation motivated by fear, not a great superpower with the capacity to shape global affairs.”

Lugar goes on to argue that the history of this century shows that military force alone cannot substitute for other types of geopolitical leverage like international alliances, better trade agreements, and a strong diplomatic corps. All of these are things you have vowed to cut or eliminate.  “We cannot bomb our way to security,” Lugar says.  “If strong and comprehensive American leadership is withdrawn from the global stage, broader efforts at conflict prevention will fail.  The people of the United States and most countries of the world will become poorer and will have to endure more frequent conflict.  Solutions to threats that impact us all, including climate change, extreme poverty and hunger, communicable diseases, nuclear proliferation, cyberwarfare, and terrorism, will be almost impossible to solve.”

We are a global society.  In order to make things better for US citizens, we need to work with the rest of the world.  Alienating our allies and dismantling diplomacy will leave us unable to form and lead coalitions to deal with that which is really important on a global scale.

I haven’t read your book The Art of the Deal, but in all your years in business, have you really never learned that getting along with people and developing friends can pay off later.  I worry that your idea of a perfect deal is one in which your side wins and the other side loses.  That approach to global relations may prove to be deadly for the United States.  I urge you to consider Lugar’s words carefully. 

Regards,

 

Bill Boerman-Cornell