The International Incidents Sparked by Trump 's Twitter Feed in 2017
Donald J. Trump
An unscripted moment in foreign affairs can be a dangerous thing  which is why entire bureaucratic apparatuses exist just to avoid them. And even the most on-message president can slip up and cause an international incident  whether itâs Ronald Reagan joking into a hot mic that âwe begin bombing [the Soviet Union] in five minutes â prompting a brief red alert of Soviet forces  or Barack Obama referring to âPolish death campsâ and having to apologize for seeming to conflate the occupied Poles with the Nazis. The more spontaneous interactions a president has  the greater the chances for the dreaded gaffe  which is why the presidentâs Twitter feed has been known to cause heartburn among U.S. national-security professionals.  Trump  relies not just on national-security and media-relations teams to craft anodyne public statements  but also on  his  ability to communicate directly with the world via the internet. But thereâs a cost to this freedom. Since he became president in January  some of his tweets have caused his administration legal problems; others have resulted in full-blown diplomatic incidents. In some cases  his Cabinet officials have tried to articulate U.S. policy to allies and adversaries alike  only to be undercut by a conflicting tweet from the president.
Here are some of the highlights of the presidentâs unique brand of diplomacyâand its aftershocks. Tweet Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal! â  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)  February 2  2017 Background The âdumb dealâ the president referred to was an Obama-era agreement on refugees. The U.S. had agreed with Australia to let in 1 250 refugees who  under a controversial Australian policy  were housed in camps in the Pacific islands of Papua New Guinea and Nauru; Australia  in turn  would resettle refugees from El Salvador  Guatemala  and Honduras. By the time he sent the tweet on February 2   Trump  had signed an executive order that banned travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations. (That order was blocked by courts  though the Supreme Court has allowed another version of it to proceed while litigation is ongoing.)  He  had also conducted whatâs now an infamous phone call with Malcolm Turnbull  the Australian prime minister  in which  he  accused Turnbull of trying to export the ânext Boston bombersâ and hung up. The call and the tweet were unusually hostile for an ally thatâs fought alongside American troops in nearly every conflict since World War II. Upshot Despite initial speculation  Trump  would back out of the deal  the first refugees from the deal were resettled in the U.S. in September. U.S.-Australia relations are holding steady.
* * * Tweet My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.  â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)  February 19  2017 Give the public a break - The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT! â  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)  February 20  2017 Background At a rally in Florida in February   Trump  attacked Europeâs policy of allowing in refugees fleeing conflict or persecution in Syria and elsewhereâconnecting them to terrorist attacks and vowing to protect the U.S. âWeâve got to keep our country safe â  he  said. âYou look at whatâs happening in Germany  you look at whatâs happening last night in Sweden. Sweden  who would believe this?â Certainly not the Swedes. A spokesman for Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said âitâs hard to say what  Trump  is talking about.â The Swedish embassy in Washington tweeted: @SteveKopack On #swedenincident unclear to us what  President Trump  was referring to  have asked US officials for explanation â Embassy of Sweden US (@SwedeninUSA) February 19  2017 We look forward to informing the US administration about Swedish immigration and integration policies. https://t.co/x5G3euOWRh â Embassy of Sweden US (@SwedeninUSA) February 19  2017 Carl Bildt  the former center-right Swedish prime minister  who before  Trump âs election was one of the most active Twitter-using global figures  added: Sweden? Terror attack? What has  he  been smoking? Questions abound. https://t.co/XWgw8Fz7tj â Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 19  2017
The Fox News segment  Trump  cited in response to  his  critics has been discredited. But  he âs made similar remarks about Germany and France  linking their intake of refugees and migrants to terrorism. Europe more broadly is grappling with the challenge of integrating large numbers of migrants and refugees  and itâs an issue that has helped fuel far-right parties in several countries. But this year many European governments  including Sweden  have tightened immigration rules  and far-right parties are once again slipping in the polls. Upshot Trump hasnât tweeted about Sweden since February. In April  Sweden suffered what the Times described as its âworst terrorist attack in decadesâ when a driver plowed his truck into pedestrians in Stockholm; the man who admitted carrying out the attack was an Uzbek national whose asylum application had been rejected the previous year. * * * Tweet Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it! â  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5  2017 .@Theresa_May   donât focus on me  focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine! â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30  2017 Background Trumpâs feud with Sadiq Khan  the London mayor  dates back to the presidential campaign. Following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino in late 2015  the Republican called for a âtotal and complete shutdownâ of Muslims entering the U.S. Khan  the son of Pakistani immigrants to the U.K.  called Trumpâs remarks about Islam âignorant â and said he hoped Hillary Clinton  Trumpâs Democratic rival at the time  âtrounces him.â  Trump  told an interviewer that  he  would âremember those statements. They are very nasty statements.â He did. When a terrorist struck London over the summer  Khan told the cityâs residents not to be âalarmedâ by the âincreased police presence.â  Trump  seemed to take that remark out of context on Twitter to imply that Khan was underplaying the threat of terrorism.
Trumpâs feud with Khan fits his pattern of interaction with the London mayor  but his recent put-down of Theresa May was more surprising. It began when  late last month   Trump  retweeted anti-Muslim videos shared by a British far-right group. May said the president was âwrongâ to have shared the videos  which purported to show Muslims committing violent acts  and which have dubious provenance or have been debunked.  Trump  tweeted that  her  efforts might be better spent preventing âradical Islamic terrorismâ in the U.K. Upshot Khan is one of the most popular political figures in the U.K. May not so much. But  Trump  is so disliked within the country that Brits were united in outrage against  his  tweets and  his  rebuke of May. Calls for Trumpâs planned state visit to the U.K. to be canceled grew in the wake of the tweets. The lasting damage this particular episode has on U.S.-U.K. relations will likely be small  since  feuds aside  the âspecial relationshipâ continues to serve both countriesâ interests. Still  that relationship has long been more important to the U.K. than to the U.S. Trumpâs tweets make that even more apparent. * * * Tweet During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look! â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6  2017 Background The U.S. has forged close counterterrorism partnerships with Gulf countries  despite some of those countriesâ historical support for radical Islamist groups opposed to the U.S. This includes Qatar  which not only has oil and gas reserves  but is home to the largest U.S. military base in the region. Qatar also has what could euphemistically be called an accommodating foreign policy: It is close to Western countries but also maintains ties with U.S. adversaries like Iran  Hamas  and the Taliban. This summer  in part to punish what they called Qatarâs support for extremist groups and ties to Iran  Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies imposed a broad economic and travel blockade on Qatar and severed all relations with it.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson  who as chief executive of Exxon traveled widely in the region and has deep personal relations with the royals in Qatar and elsewhere  urged the countries involved âto sit down together and address these differences.â Trumpâs tweet took a different tone and  according to The New York Times  prompted the Qataris to begin âasking American officials whether their longtime alliance was in peril.â Despite Tillerson and othersâ attempts at diplomacy   Trump  followed up by publicly calling Qatar a âfunder of terrorism at a very high level.â Upshot Insulting allies may not do too much lasting damageâalliances outlast presidential term limits after all. But thereâs the separate question of what mixed messages do to short-term foreign-policy goals. Qatarâs emir said last month his country was a âthousand times better offâ without Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf nations imposing the blockadeâsuggesting that  if the U.S. wanted to see the split resolved quickly  the goal remains out of reach. And if the U.S. wanted to see Iranâs role in the Gulf diminished  that too is unlikely; Qatar has now turned to Iran and others for support. * * * Tweet I told Rex Tillerson  our wonderful Secretary of State  that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man... â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1  2017 ...Save your energy Rex  we'll do what has to be done! â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1  2017
An unscripted moment in foreign affairs can be a dangerous thing  which is why entire bureaucratic apparatuses exist just to avoid them. And even the most on-message president can slip up and cause an international incident  whether itâs Ronald Reagan joking into a hot mic that âwe begin bombing [the Soviet Union] in five minutes â prompting a brief red alert of Soviet forces  or Barack Obama referring to âPolish death campsâ and having to apologize for seeming to conflate the occupied Poles with the Nazis. The more spontaneous interactions a president has  the greater the chances for the dreaded gaffe  which is why the presidentâs Twitter feed has been known to cause heartburn among U.S. national-security professionals.  Trump  relies not just on national-security and media-relations teams to craft anodyne public statements  but also on  his  ability to communicate directly with the world via the internet. But thereâs a cost to this freedom. Since he became president in January  some of his tweets have caused his administration legal problems; others have resulted in full-blown diplomatic incidents. In some cases  his Cabinet officials have tried to articulate U.S. policy to allies and adversaries alike  only to be undercut by a conflicting tweet from the president.
Here are some of the highlights of the presidentâs unique brand of diplomacyâand its aftershocks. Tweet Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal! â  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)  February 2  2017 Background The âdumb dealâ the president referred to was an Obama-era agreement on refugees. The U.S. had agreed with Australia to let in 1 250 refugees who  under a controversial Australian policy  were housed in camps in the Pacific islands of Papua New Guinea and Nauru; Australia  in turn  would resettle refugees from El Salvador  Guatemala  and Honduras. By the time he sent the tweet on February 2   Trump  had signed an executive order that banned travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations. (That order was blocked by courts  though the Supreme Court has allowed another version of it to proceed while litigation is ongoing.)  He  had also conducted whatâs now an infamous phone call with Malcolm Turnbull  the Australian prime minister  in which  he  accused Turnbull of trying to export the ânext Boston bombersâ and hung up. The call and the tweet were unusually hostile for an ally thatâs fought alongside American troops in nearly every conflict since World War II. Upshot Despite initial speculation  Trump  would back out of the deal  the first refugees from the deal were resettled in the U.S. in September. U.S.-Australia relations are holding steady.
* * * Tweet My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.  â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)  February 19  2017 Give the public a break - The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT! â  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)  February 20  2017 Background At a rally in Florida in February   Trump  attacked Europeâs policy of allowing in refugees fleeing conflict or persecution in Syria and elsewhereâconnecting them to terrorist attacks and vowing to protect the U.S. âWeâve got to keep our country safe â  he  said. âYou look at whatâs happening in Germany  you look at whatâs happening last night in Sweden. Sweden  who would believe this?â Certainly not the Swedes. A spokesman for Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said âitâs hard to say what  Trump  is talking about.â The Swedish embassy in Washington tweeted: @SteveKopack On #swedenincident unclear to us what  President Trump  was referring to  have asked US officials for explanation â Embassy of Sweden US (@SwedeninUSA) February 19  2017 We look forward to informing the US administration about Swedish immigration and integration policies. https://t.co/x5G3euOWRh â Embassy of Sweden US (@SwedeninUSA) February 19  2017 Carl Bildt  the former center-right Swedish prime minister  who before  Trump âs election was one of the most active Twitter-using global figures  added: Sweden? Terror attack? What has  he  been smoking? Questions abound. https://t.co/XWgw8Fz7tj â Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 19  2017
The Fox News segment  Trump  cited in response to  his  critics has been discredited. But  he âs made similar remarks about Germany and France  linking their intake of refugees and migrants to terrorism. Europe more broadly is grappling with the challenge of integrating large numbers of migrants and refugees  and itâs an issue that has helped fuel far-right parties in several countries. But this year many European governments  including Sweden  have tightened immigration rules  and far-right parties are once again slipping in the polls. Upshot Trump hasnât tweeted about Sweden since February. In April  Sweden suffered what the Times described as its âworst terrorist attack in decadesâ when a driver plowed his truck into pedestrians in Stockholm; the man who admitted carrying out the attack was an Uzbek national whose asylum application had been rejected the previous year. * * * Tweet Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it! â   [TGT] 2017 .@Theresa_May   donât focus on me  focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine! â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30  2017 Background Trumpâs feud with Sadiq Khan  the London mayor  dates back to the presidential campaign. Following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino in late 2015  the Republican called for a âtotal and complete shutdownâ of Muslims entering the U.S. Khan  the son of Pakistani immigrants to the U.K.  called Trumpâs remarks about Islam âignorant â and said he hoped Hillary Clinton  Trumpâs Democratic rival at the time  âtrounces him.â   [TGT] told an interviewer that   [TGT]   would âremember those statements. They are very nasty statements.â He did. When a terrorist struck London over the summer  Khan told the cityâs residents not to be âalarmedâ by the âincreased police presence.â   [TGT] seemed to take that remark out of context on Twitter to imply that Khan was underplaying the threat of terrorism.
Trumpâs feud with Khan fits his pattern of interaction with the London mayor  but his recent put-down of Theresa May was more surprising. It began when  late last month    [TGT]   retweeted anti-Muslim videos shared by a British far-right group. May said the president was âwrongâ to have shared the videos  which purported to show Muslims committing violent acts  and which have dubious provenance or have been debunked.   [TGT] tweeted that   [TGT]   efforts might be better spent preventing âradical Islamic terrorismâ in the U.K. Upshot Khan is one of the most popular political figures in the U.K. May not so much. But   [TGT] is so disliked within the country that Brits were united in outrage against   [TGT]   tweets and   [TGT]   rebuke of May. Calls for Trumpâs planned state visit to the U.K. to be canceled grew in the wake of the tweets. The lasting damage this particular episode has on U.S.-U.K. relations will likely be small  since  feuds aside  the âspecial relationshipâ continues to serve both countriesâ interests. Still  that relationship has long been more important to the U.K. than to the U.S. Trumpâs tweets make that even more apparent. * * * Tweet During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look! â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6  2017 Background The U.S. has forged close counterterrorism partnerships with Gulf countries  despite some of those countriesâ historical support for radical Islamist groups opposed to the U.S. This includes Qatar  which not only has oil and gas reserves  but is home to the largest U.S. military base in the region. Qatar also has what could euphemistically be called an accommodating foreign policy: It is close to Western countries but also maintains ties with U.S. adversaries like Iran  Hamas  and the Taliban. This summer  in part to punish what they called Qatarâs support for extremist groups and ties to Iran  Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies imposed a broad economic and travel blockade on Qatar and severed all relations with it.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson  who as chief executive of Exxon traveled widely in the region and has deep personal relations with the royals in Qatar and elsewhere  urged the countries involved âto sit down together and address these differences.â Trumpâs tweet took a different tone and  according to The New York Times  prompted the Qataris to begin âasking American officials whether their longtime alliance was in peril.â Despite Tillerson and othersâ attempts at diplomacy    [TGT] followed up by publicly calling Qatar a âfunder of terrorism at a very high level.â Upshot Insulting allies may not do too much lasting damageâalliances outlast presidential term limits after all. But thereâs the separate question of what mixed messages do to short-term foreign-policy goals. Qatarâs emir said last month his country was a âthousand times better offâ without Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf nations imposing the blockadeâsuggesting that  if the U.S. wanted to see the split resolved quickly  the goal remains out of reach. And if the U.S. wanted to see Iranâs role in the Gulf diminished  that too is unlikely; Qatar has now turned to Iran and others for support. * * * Tweet I told Rex Tillerson  our wonderful Secretary of State  that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man... â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1  2017 ...Save your energy Rex  we'll do what has to be done! â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1  2017