Michael Cohen - Trump's Diplomacy Is America's Weakness

President Trump thinks foreign policy works the same way he ran the Trump Organization: walk into the room, declare yourself the boss, and everyone falls in line. That might have worked in a boardroom stacked with sycophants and family members, but on the global stage it’s a completely different story. The world doesn’t bend to Trump’s ego. And now, as Putin, Xi, and Modi convene in Tianjin under the banner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), America finds itself sidelined in a way that should terrify us all.

In July 2024, Xi Jinping said, “No mountain or ocean can distance people who have shared aspirations.” At the time, it sounded like some empty Chinese rhetoric. Modi didn’t even show up to the SCO summit that year. But fast-forward twelve months, and Trump’s tariffs—50 percent on Indian goods—have pushed India straight into Beijing’s arms. Modi, for the first time since 2018, is on Chinese soil, shaking hands with Xi, smiling for the cameras, and signaling that America can no longer be counted on as India’s preferred partner. That is not a small shift; it’s a tectonic one.

The SCO, once a loose post-Soviet bloc, now represents 43 percent of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of the global economy. Leaders from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, and even the UN Secretary-General are present. Xi is playing host, Putin is reinforcing ties, and Modi is quietly repositioning India for a world where Washington can’t be trusted. Trump, meanwhile, is nowhere to be found—except on Truth Social, raging about tariffs and calling the Global South “anti-American.”

But here’s the truth: Trump’s strategy of bludgeoning countries with tariffs and threats has not brought them to heel. It has driven them into the waiting arms of our adversaries. Analysts are already saying this summit is China’s opportunity to project itself as a “stabilizing force” while Trump burns every bridge in sight. Beijing is casting itself as the unifier of the Global South while Trump is the divider-in-chief.

https://www.meidasplus.com/p/trumps-diplomacy-is-americas-weakness