After days of meetings with European leaders, Israeli officials and other international security experts, Senator Adam Schiff offered a blister assessment of President Trump's approach to foreign policy this week.
In an interview with The Times, the California Democrat Trump and other administrative officials who leave Ukraine and other European allies to bow to the Russian President Vladimir Putin to shift right -wing extremists in Germany and to the frame in absurd conditions as a future Gaza The US-in possession of the resort, completely from Palestinians cleaned.
And he said that he repeated these concerns about a large number of others that he had met during a cross -party congress trip in both Munich and Israel in the past few days, including some of the steadfast European allies in the country.
“You are afraid. They see a president who reveals a democratic ally in the war who suddenly blames Ukraine for his own invasion by the Kremlin dictator who is responsible for the legitimacy of (Ukrainian President Volodmyr) Zelensky's leadership in Ukraine and which essentially one Mouthpiece for the Kremlin, ”said Schiff. “You are amazed. I think you believe that the president is not only an unreliable partner, but also an enemy partner. “
Schiff said that Republican congress members shared some of these views on the same journey and expressed them in meetings with closed doors. He said the Gaza or the US reconstruction of Gaza. “
Schiff's assessment followed a breathtaking route of the US foreign diplomacy in the past two weeks, in which Trump and other top administrative officers – including Vice President JD Vance, Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth and Foreign Minister Marco Rubio – have repeatedly shocked statements about the US -Colle in external relationships in the USA.
On his first trip to the NATO headquarters in Brussels on February 12, Hegseth suggested that the United States could no longer guarantee the security of Europe and that Ukraine would have to give up massive concessions – including the territory – to end the Russia's war.
Days later, Vance said little about the Russia's war at the Munich Security Conference, maintained European allies about what it means to be a democracy and met with leaders of the right-wing party in Germany just a few days before an election. And Rubio met with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to start negotiations without the Ukraine participation.
In the meantime, Trump praised Putin and repeatedly scolded Zelensky. He accused the Ukraine for the invasion of Russia and called Zelensky a “dictator” who tears off the United States and has “no cards to play” in ongoing negotiations with Russia.
He also suggested that Gaza could be a “Riviera of the Middle East” in the United States, among other things, outside the country that Canada should be converted into the 51st US state.
Several US foreign policy experts said that the administration measures, when they were taken to the nominal value, broke the long -term US policy reverse and with diplomatic norms in a massive and important way.
Robert English, an expert for Russian and Post-Soviet politics and director of Central European studies at USC, described the government's movements on the international stage as the “most disturbing break” in US transatlantic relationships since World War II and the creation of the North Atlantic Contract Organization and one “Sharp turn” of the USA with still unclear results.
The Senator of California, Adam Schiff, had hard words for the Trump administration after participating in the Munich Security Conference.
(Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call Inc. About Getty Images)
But he and others also left another way that the wave of amazing statements could be a negotiation tactic to shock allies and opponents to make moderate concessions in the USA
Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow in the Burkle Center for international relationships from UCLA, said he thinks that Trump's “bombastic positions” are indeed a tactic – and one that worked.
As an example, he pointed to a Friday summit, which was called in the Saudi capital Riad among leaders from Egypt, Jordan and other Arabic Gulf States to discuss a way for Gaza after Rubio proposed to Arab nations to create her own plan .
However, Trump has also shown the tendency to follow with unusual ideas, when nobody stands in the way, said Radd, so that even his wildest explanations cannot get out of control.
“It trolls until it is not,” said Radd. “If you don't come before, he will say:” Wait a minute, there is no one who actually stops me. “
Schiff said that he saw Trump as irresponsible, dangerous and willing to go so far – both in the USA and abroad. And he said it would be incredibly important for those who understand the important role that the United States plays in maintaining the world order to restore some guardrails and block its worst impulses.
It is unclear whether this will happen, he and the experts agreed.
Part of what will determine the next steps of the administration will be the ability of Europe to maintain a united front, including its support for Ukraine.
“If he is able to drive a wedge into the solidarity of the European Union, her determination will fall apart,” he said.
In the United States, Schiff said, a large part of the work will fall to the Republicans. Those in the Senate have “clearly decided together” that they would not stand in the way of the nominations of Trump's cabinet, but it remains to be seen whether they fully bend on foreign affairs.
If you are not ready to face Trump, Schiff said: If you are willing to keep standing, there is a lot to do, he added.
Schiff said, “and” if not in Ukraine that Russia had territorial ambitions against our NATO allies. “
Zelensky was also “concerns about the support of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, without really having security guarantees, to be pressed on things like mineral rights,” said Schiff.
The senators had expressed non -partisan support for Ukraine and Zelensky, he said, and now it is time to prove it. Ship said that Senators still had the authority to isolate Trump in his criticisms of Ukraine, but “beyond rhetorical support” for Ukraine and confirm them by the upcoming voices.
“I hope you stand for him for our country and our allies, our reputation in the world, the entire international rules that we have had since World War II.
Ship said that others in Munich, including the NATO leader, said he was concerned about “how many people suffer” and how the United States left the field like China by closing the US Agency for International Development, the Trump and His Trump and his billionaire consultant Elon Musk tried to make the closure.
US officials also have to resist these efforts and make Trump clear that the agency does important work abroad, serve and continue to serve and continue.
In Israel, Schiff said that he and a cross -party group of colleagues made Netanyahu clear that Trump's proposal for Gaza was unrealistic. They should make the same public clear, he said – forcing the administration to take a more responsible position that holds international law and protects the rights of the Palestinians.
Schiff said that he had personally informed Netanyahu and other Israeli executives that a two-state solution for the long-term stability of the region and Israel itself still had to be worked out for long-term stability.
“I hope that it will ultimately become a debate about the characteristics of a Palestinian state and not whether you will exist,” he said.
The United States can remain a guide and a force for the good, Schiff-but it will not be about Trump's shock-and-aging approach, either in overseas or inland. And he asked people to increase and play their role to demand a different way.
“We will all play an important role that can play in the preservation of our democracy in the next four years,” said Schiff. “It will require those of us in office to push back with every tool we have. It will require the courts to play their historical role. However, ordinary citizens will also demand to express themselves not to leave the country to a kind of one-man rule. “