Trump’s calls to foreign leaders are raising alarms

On November 28, 2024By Pranco

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump had only been elected president for two days when he reportedly spoke by phone with the Russian president Vladimir Putin on November 7.

During the phone call, Trump advised the Russian president not to escalate the war with Ukraine and reminded him of the US military presence in Europe, according to a report first published by The Washington Postciting multiple sources familiar with the conversation.

The Kremlinhowever, denied that any meeting had ever taken place. “Pure fiction,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized.

Normally the US would be able to document that the call had taken place. But not this time.

That’s because the State Department, which traditionally helps coordinate phone calls between new presidents and world leaders, has been exclude of Trump’s phone calls to foreign dignitaries.

This means that the conversations did not take place over secure telephone lines, there were no State Department staff available to advise on the nuances of foreign policy, and there were no official interpreters on hand to overcome language barriers that sometimes cause confusion. or misunderstandings could lead to what exactly was going on. said.

For American foreign policy analysts: Trump’s calls with Putin and other world leaders afterward his victory above vice president Kamala Harris in the November 5 elections are cause for concern.

“We are entering a dangerous area of telephone games, where Trump is going to have private conversations with foreign leaders, and they are going to tell their teams one thing, and Trump is going to tell our national security team another,” he said. Brett Bruen, a former diplomat who worked in the White House under the president Barack Obama.

Different interpretations of private conversations arising from translation problems or misunderstandings could not only sow confusion, Bruen said, but also cause an international crisis.

Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions about why he has not included the State Department in his talks with foreign leaders.

Distrust of the ‘Deep State’

After winning another term as president, Trump waited three weeks before signing some of the conventions legal documents necessary to formally begin the transition of power from the president Joe Biden‘s administration. The delay in filing the documents — which are typically filed at least a month before the presidential election — meant the administration was unable to provide security clearances, briefings and resources to Trump’s new team.

Trump’s transition team announced Tuesday that it had finally signed one of the documents, allowing it to access non-public government information, receive government briefings and deploy staff within the federal agencies and departments it will soon take over. It was not immediately clear whether Trump would tap the State Department’s resources for his future talks with foreign leaders.

Historically, the State Department has helped coordinate phone calls between incoming presidents and foreign leaders because it is important to ensure during the transition that the government always speaks with one voice, especially when it comes to issues of national security and foreign policy, the nonpartisan said Center for Presidential Transition.

But since his first term as president, Trump has openly expressed his distrust and resentment of what he mocked calls “the deep state,” the government bureaucrats he believed were secretly working behind the scenes to sabotage his agenda.

A telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019 has increased Trump’s distrust of government employees. During the phone call, Trump threatened to withhold U.S. aid to Ukraine unless Zelenskyy investigated then-former Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. A summary of the call, made public by Trump’s Justice Department and prepared by an administration official who was allowed to listen to the call, helped reveal Trump’s first impeachment.

Trump has promised that fire bureaucrats which would hinder his agenda during his second term.

‘Sensitive discussions’ with foreign leaders

All presidents answer phone calls from world leaders after they win office – and not all of these calls are handled in coordination with the State Department. Some of Biden’s calls with foreign dignitaries after the 2020 election were made without State Department officials because Trump refused to concede he had lost, said Daniel Fried, a former diplomat who played a key role in implementing the US policy in Europe after the fall of the 2020 elections. the Soviet Union.

Trump began receiving calls from foreign leaders within hours of his victory over Harris. The callers included Zelenskyy, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all of whom publicly acknowledged contacting the president-elect. Two days after the election, Trump said he had already spoken to more than 70 world leaders.

In most cases, telephone conversations between the president-elect and a foreign head of state usually involve only congratulations and promises of cooperation with the new government. But some of Trump’s calls with world leaders appear to have gone beyond the routine and delved into policy discussions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a pair of posts on the social media platform X on November 10 that he had spoken to Trump three times since the election. “We face the Iranian threat in all its aspects, and the dangers they reflect,” Netanyahu said. “We also see the great opportunities that Israel faces, in peace and its expansion, and in other areas.”

Trump’s comments to Putin about not escalating the war with Ukraine raised eyebrows federal law makes it a crime for an unauthorized U.S. citizen to negotiate a dispute between the United States and a foreign government.

“There can only be one foreign policy at a time,” Bruen said. “What Trump is doing is saying you should do X or Y, even though he’s not sworn in, even though he has no control over American foreign policy right now.”

Russia’s denial that the call ever took place also shows why it is problematic for Trump to hold private conversations with foreign leaders without the involvement of the State Department, official interpreters or other support staff, said Fried, who served under Democratic and Republican administrations worked and is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“Someone isn’t telling the truth,” he said. “If the Trump people had used the State Department, the Kremlin would not have been able to get away with denying that the call took place, or at least there would be no doubt about it.”

Fried said private conversations with foreign dignitaries do not always take place over secure phone lines because some leaders may not have such lines available. Still, phone calls over unsecured lines are risky.

“Most of our adversaries are able to use these calls, which in itself is worrying because it means that the Russians are spying on the calls he has with Europe and the Middle East, and the Chinese have access to the same to call to action.” Bruen said. “These are sensitive discussions. They enable country leaders to understand where there may be potential compromises or vulnerabilities.”

When Zelenskyy called Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to congratulate him on his victory, Trump handed the phone to Elon Musk, the billionaire business titan who has become one of his advisers and a ubiquitous presence at his side. Musk, a government contractor, provided communications services to Ukraine through his Starlink satellite network during the war with Russia.

Musk also met with the Iranian ambassador to the United States on November 11 in an effort to help defuse tensions between the two countries. multiple reports. Iran later refused that the meeting had taken place.

Allowing Musk to participate in a private conversation with Zelenskyy is alarming, Bruen said, because “Musk has no government role. He doesn’t have security clearance. He is very interested in the outcome of what happens in Ukraine because of his business interests there.

Concerns about Trump’s calls with foreign leaders are compounded by questions about how he has handled classified documents in the past, Bruen said.

Trump suggested that his Democratic opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, should be jailed and disqualified over questions about her handling of classified information. Seven years later, after he left office, a federal grand jury in Florida indicted Trump on 40 counts of mishandling classified documents, some of which were stored in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. The special prosecutor, Jack Smith, effectively killed the case on Monday he dropped his profession of a judge’s ruling that had dismissed the charges.

Given Trump’s past, his unmonitored phone calls with foreign leaders should raise alarms, Bruen said.

“It’s a hot mess,” he said.

Contributors: Joey Garrison

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.