Brooks: ‘Consistency’ Between US Government and Governments in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued President Trump’s foreign policy outlook is that “whether the leaders from Russia or the Philippines or Saudi Arabia, people of bad character are people we can ally with. And, somehow, I think there is a consistency between the government here and some of the governments the Trump administration likes around the world.”

Brooks began by saying “[B]y the standards of some of the competence of the previous weeks, I’d say you’d have to say the trip was, by competence standards, a success. He did what he wanted to do in Saudi Arabia, at NATO, at various other places.”

He added, “I do think, as Mark suggested, the chief oddity of the entire trip is that we seem to be mean to our friends and kind to our foes. … And so some — but, somehow, we’re super nice to Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, we’re super mean to Germany and France and our — some of our NATO allies. And so there’s just been a perversion of American foreign policy, which is sort of based on the idea that character doesn’t matter, and you can — whether the leaders from Russia or the Philippines or Saudi Arabia, that people of bad character are people we can ally with.”

Brooks concluded, “And, somehow, I think there is a consistency between the government here and some of the governments the Trump administration likes around the world.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett