President-elect Donald Trump is sparking backlash because of his phone call to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen last Friday.
Trump is the first U.S. president or president-elect to speak to a Taiwanese leader since at least 1979, according to the New York Times. This policy had been in place in order to preserve relations between the U.S. and China, which considers Taiwan to rightfully be a part of China – not an independent nation.
News analyst and the director of the GroundTruth Project Charlie Sennott joined BPR to talk about what Trump’s historic call will mean for diplomacy.
“For the first time, we saw what happens when a guy ... shoots from the hip, and [seems] to be loved by many Americans for doing that, for shedding all the political correctness, all the reservations, all the caution of Washington,” said Sennott.
Trump’s candidacy and tenure as president-elect have been marked by departures from traditional behavior, including his unscripted calls with the leaders of Pakistan and the Philippines.
Sennott said Trump’s brashness might have negative effects.
“In the world, when you do that, it can reverberate in ways that can have unanticipated results and devastating results and really cause a global problem,” he said.
Sennott went on to say that Trump’s handling of diplomacy might improve with experience, but it will be important for him to tread more carefully.
“There’s a huge operating manual on the White House that Donald Trump is gonna have to read and engage with,” he said. “In the world of diplomacy, words matter.”
To hear Charlie Sennott’s interview on BPR in its entirety, click on the audio link above.
