Twitter as Trump’s Foreign Policy Strategy

Technology could be considered as good, bad or a little of both. Everyday the power of technology amazes us giving everyone power to voice opinions at the comfort of their desks. We have often made comments about the role of social media in making the globe more of a village. Countries have been able to carry out foreign policy more effectively. Historically, presidents of the United States have had a foreign policy strategy that shapes their foreign policy decision.  Question is, does the United States’ current president have a foreign policy strategy? And if so, is his strategy twitter? And how effective is twitter as a foreign policy strategy?

Donald Trump has send out different tweets targeting different countries. The BBC dedicated an article to look up countries that President Donald Trump has tweeted about. This list includes, Canada, Argentina, Afghanistan, Australia, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, North Korea, Saudi Arabia among others. These tweets have stated the Executive branch’s opinion on several foreign policies or stated the office’s stance on foreign issues. The tweets have sparked debates, angered countries, and in some instances reaffirmed relations between countries.

In 2017, Trump openly twitted “Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”. This is a tweet sparked a reaction from Australians and the Australian Prime Minister responded claiming that this view of America was being hostile to an ally who has often fought side by side with American troops. Following this, Trump has tweeted attacking Sweden and its immigration and integration policies and Swedish official asked the United States officials to work on being informed of Swedish immigration and integration processes. Donald Trump has tweeted at North Korean leader Kim Jon Un, he has tweeted and retweeted contents from Islamophobic groups in the United Kingdom.

To answer the question asked, is this Donald Trump’s foreign policy strategy? Simple answer, yes. The beauty of twitter is that the president has all the control, at least in part, he gets to shape foreign policy without having those around him rewriting his ideas. The President has himself has tweeted stating that, “I use Social Media not because I like to, but because it is the only way to fight a VERY dishonest and unfair “press”, now often referred to as Fake News Media…”. To the President, twitter is an important tool for his foreign policy. Congress and the media tend to take longer to relay a president’s position to the public, the control and effectiveness that comes with twitter is valuable to President Donald Trump.

Presidents have often relied on the public to influence congressional support for their foreign policies. Obama, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan among others chose to go public to influence the reactions of other policy actors. Trump’s decision to use twitter may be considered as an act of going public to ensure that foreign policy actors recognize the continuous presence of the United States in foreign policy. Enemies and allies keep constant checks on the president’s twitter to get an idea of where the United States’ foreign policy stands.

In the last few days, the president has praised China for having plans that align with the United States and has made the diplomatic talks with North Korea. He has also expressed his concerns for Mexico and Canada. Trade wars are being discusses on  twitter feeds and agendas are being formulated on these twitter feeds. Donald Trump’s twitter is a governing tool, it is a governing strategy that he uses to set his foreign policy agenda.

The effectiveness of twitter as a foreign policy strategy cannot be immediately be evaluated. Twitter wars have been initiated by the Presidents reaction to tweets or by his original tweets. Countries get an idea of what is coming their way from the President of the United States’ official account. However, it is important to note that the president has also sent out diplomatic tweets that have been helpful in strengthening ties with allies.  

The issue with having twitter as a foreign policy strategy is changing of strategy or of a policy could be directly traced back to the presidential account. The effectiveness of twitter as a foreign policy strategy is subject to the success of the policies passed. As country, the United States should probably consider whether they are comfortable with having their foreign policy to be largely managed on twitter.