By Robert Reich
Say you’re Vladimir Putin, and you
did a deal with Trump last year. I’m not suggesting there was any such deal,
mind you. But if you are Putin and you did do a
deal, what did Trump agree to do?
1. Repudiate NATO.
NATO is the biggest thorn in your side – the alliance that
both humiliates you and stymies your ambitions in the Baltics and elsewhere.
Trump almost delivered on this last week by pointedly not reaffirming Article
5, which states that an attack on one NATO ally is an attack on all.
2. Antagonize
Europe, especially Angela Merkel.
She’s the strongest leader in the West other than Trump, and you’d love to
drive a wedge between the U.S. and Germany.
Your larger goal is for Europe to
no longer depend on the United States, so you can increase Russia’s influence
in Europe. Trump has almost delivered one on this, too. Now Merkel even says
Europe can no longer depend on America.
3. Reject the
Paris accord on the environment.
This will anger America’s other allies around the world and produce a wave of
anti-Americanism – all to your advantage.
Nothing would satisfy you more than
isolating the United States. Trump delivered on this one,
too.
4. Embarks on a
new era of protectionism.
Or at
least anti-trade rhetoric. This will threaten the West’s economic
interdependence, and loosen America’s economic grip on the rest of the world.
Trump is on the way to delivering on this one.
5. End the
economic sanctions on Russia imposed
after the annexation of Crimea and Russian backing of separatists in eastern
Ukraine.
No delivery on this as yet, but you understand why. Trump has got to
cope with all the suspicion in the U.S. over the deal he made with you to win
him the presidency.
Once that dies down, he’ll end the sanctions. (In the
meantime, he’ll hand back to you two diplomatic compounds that were taken
by the U.S. in late December as punishment for Moscow’s interference in the
2016 presidential election.)
And what did you agree to
do, Vlad?
Not only help him win the presidency, but also shut up about it
so he wouldn’t be impeached and then convicted of treason.
In other words – if you
did do a deal – Trump is still in the process of delivering on his side of it,
as are you.
That’s the art of the deal.
ROBERT
B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving Capitalism." He is also
a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause,
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the
award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY FOR ALL.