When Finland wanted to join NATO to prevent Russian aggression, it knew it had a friend living in the White House and could count on President Biden’s support. However, to ensure that the US Senate approves the membership proposal, the Finnish government has decided to also seek out a president who resides in Florida.
So Mikko Hautala, Finland’s ambassador to the United States at the time, spoke privately with former President Donald J. Trump to persuade him of the benefits of his country’s membership in the alliance. The aim was to fend off any opposition from Trump, who has long been openly hostile to NATO.
The strategy worked. Despite potentially sparking Republican opposition with a single rude post on social media, Trump remained publicly silent and the Senate decided to approve Finland’s membership in the alliance in August 2022. It was approved 95-1. , it would have taken just 34 votes to block the two-thirds supermajority needed for ratification.
For nearly four years since leaving the White House, Trump has operated out of what he once called the “Winter White House” in his Mar-a-Lago, Florida mansion, where he has maintained a shadow presidential position on international affairs. It has fulfilled its role. Even before Mr. Trump made a comeback to reclaim his old job, foreign governments recognized that he still had influence in U.S. politics and that they needed to take him into account in their dealings with the United States. .
Foreign leaders are even more supportive of Trump now that he is the Republican candidate for next month’s presidential election. A parade of world leaders made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago and New York’s Trump Tower, including leaders of Ukraine, Israel, Poland, Hungary, Argentina, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince called Trump’s cell phone. Britain’s newly elected Prime Minister stopped by for dinner last month.
“This is highly unusual for a former president,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official who is now head of the U.S. program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “I think that comes from his position as a former president and perhaps a future president, which is of course unique.”
“As a former president, he has connections and relationships,” Shapiro added. “As a future presidential candidate, he has the potential to serve foreign leaders in the not-too-distant future.”
The duplicitous president’s complex diplomacy has been reinforced by a new book by journalist Bob Woodward that will be published by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday. According to the book “War,” an unnamed Trump aide told Woodward that the former president had met with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin multiple times, perhaps as many as seven times, since leaving office. That’s what it means.
Mr. Trump and the Kremlin dispute the report, and 20 current and former officials and intelligence officials from Mr. Biden and the Trump administration told The New York Times they could not confirm the report. But veteran US officials said the two sides could have spoken without US intelligence detecting the call.
Many former presidents maintain contact with foreign leaders after leaving the White House. Richard Nixon regularly traveled the world as an elder statesman meeting with heads of state, while Jimmy Carter traveled the world as a troubleshooter in conflict zones or as an election observer in fragile democracies. established its position. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama often meet with foreign officials during their travels, at conferences and at charity events.
For the most part, these presidents, unlike Mr. Trump, are not seen as permanent power brokers in the United States and have generally acted within a certain range of coordination with the White House and State Department. Mr. Carter sometimes went beyond the wishes of the sitting president, negotiating with North Korea and appealing to United Nations members against the war in Iraq. But still, foreign leaders did not consider him a quasi-president or president-elect.
John R. Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser who has become a vocal critic, said former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger said foreign leaders typically visit the United States. He recalled that the reason he wanted to meet with him was as follows: He stopped by on a museum tour.
“They wanted to hear what Henry Kissinger had to say, and they wanted to hear what Richard Nixon had to say,” Bolton said. “That’s not what they’re calling Donald Trump. They’re trying to make him side with the side they want to have an advantage on, or at least lessen the downside if he were on the other side.” I’m thinking of doing something like that.
“Trump has been running the White House like a dictatorship in the Middle East, so these actions are not surprising,” said Brian Katouris, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “However, this is unusual and could pose a serious threat to national security for a variety of reasons.”
Trump has been charged with mishandling classified documents, but the case has so far been dismissed on procedural grounds. Amid the war, secret conversations with leaders of U.S.-sanctioned countries like Mr. Putin, especially since Mr. Trump has played a prominent role in the issue, have led to photos of him grinning at Mar-a-Lago. It will surpass photography. Assistance to Ukraine in the war against the Russian invaders.
Trump, a longtime admirer of Putin, said Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was “very wise” and refused to say he hoped Ukraine would win. He even went so far as to say this year that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever they want” in terms of attacking NATO allies who are underspending their own military.
For months, Mr. Trump has been at the center of a fight in Congress over expanding military aid to Ukraine, with House Speaker Mike Johnson blocking Mr. Biden’s aid package in deference to the former president. Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to the United States, said this was “a source of great frustration for other countries seeking to strengthen Ukraine’s resistance”.
Mr. Trump was approached by competing world leaders. In March, he hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was skeptical about aid to Ukraine. Then in April, then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron visited Mar-a-Lago, and a week later, Polish President Andrzej Duda met with Trump in New York, both of which were released by the former president. I begged him to do so. Maintaining aid to Ukraine effectively.
Days later, Mr. Johnson finally passed the bill, and Congress passed the $60.8 billion Ukraine aid plan in both chambers on a strong bipartisan vote, although a majority of Republicans still voted against it in the House.
The controversy has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in an awkward position. A senior administration official said Zelenskyy had sought to deal with Trump only through formal channels, avoiding “backroom maneuvering and bargaining” with him.
Zelenskiy understands the need to maintain bipartisan support and is willing to work with whoever wins the election, the official said. Nevertheless, he accompanied Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris, on a visit to an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last month to thank the American people. , found itself caught in the middle of an American political barrage. military hardware. Mr Johnson criticized Mr Zelensky and called for the ambassador to be recalled.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Zelensky also questioned Trump’s claim that if elected, he could resolve the war within 24 hours. Trump fired back. “The president of Ukraine is coming to our country,” he said at a campaign event. “He’s going on a little bit of a mean tirade against your favorite president, which is me. We keep giving billions of dollars to Mr. Zelenskiy, who refuses to make a deal.”
Afterwards, Mr. Zelensky visited Mr. Trump at Trump Tower to smooth things over, but as the two faced cameras, Mr. Zelensky asked Mr. I told you what it is. Zelenskiy’s tens of thousands of people.
Zelenskiy is not the only foreign leader to come into close proximity to Trump this campaign season. Indeed, it has now become a ritual for some foreign leaders to meet three times while in the United States: first with Biden, then with Harris, and then with Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the three locations in July. The trip to Mar-a-Lago was Trump’s first face-to-face meeting since the former president left office and symbolized efforts to mend fences.
Mr. Trump, who once gave Mr. Netanyahu almost everything he wanted, became increasingly bitter toward the Israeli leader in the latter half of his term, erupting in anger when Mr. Netanyahu congratulated Mr. Biden on his victory after the election.
Trump made no mention of that when reporters sat down with him in July, insisting that he and Netanyahu “always had a very good relationship.” It looks like the kiss and make-out session had some success. Israeli leadership said in a statement that Trump called Netanyahu “of his own volition” and “praises Israel’s decisive and strong action against Hezbollah.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement said that South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham participated in the call, which was a sort of tell-all. Mr. Graham is Mr. Trump’s vocal ally and golfing partner, and has served as a go-between with many foreign leaders over the past four years. In March, Mr. Graham was in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and arranged a telephone conversation with Mr. Trump, the Times reported.
Relations between former presidents and foreign leaders are complicated by business as well as politics and diplomacy. Since leaving office, Trump has been active in deals through his sons in several Middle Eastern states, including building towers in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and luxury resorts in Oman. His son-in-law, former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, secured a $2 billion investment in his private equity firm from a Saudi government fund.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, was among those who visited Trump in three locations after meeting with Biden and Harris.
Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, dismissed questions about his father’s merging of business and foreign policy in a recent interview with the Financial Times. “I don’t do much business with foreign governments,” he said. If the father wins, “we will decide whether or not to intervene again,” but added that for now, “there is no conflict of interest.”
Andrew E. Kramer, in Kyiv. Aaron Boxerman in Jerusalem. and Ismaiel Naar in Dubai contributed reporting.
