United States | The New York Times: Finland’s example shows how Trump works as a “shadow president”

of the United States former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has served as a sort of “shadow president” on foreign policy since his presidency ended in January 2021, tells the American newspaper The New York Times (NYT).

The foreign policy leaders had sought out Trump’s speeches even before he was chosen as the Republican candidate.

NYT uses the former Finnish ambassador to Washington as an example Mikko Hautalaawhose season ended in August. Hautala was said to have contacted Trump in 2022 to convince him of Finland’s value as a NATO member.

“The strategy worked. Trump, who could have ignited the Republican backlash with one ill-advised social media post, remained silent. The Senate decided by a vote of 95-1 to accept Finland’s entry into the military alliance in August 2022”, writes NYT.

Graveyard told in December of last year, that he had “some phone conversations” with Trump, which dealt with Finland’s NATO application in particular. According to him, the background was concern about the consequences that could have followed from Trump’s critical attitude.

“The goal was to highlight the reasons for Finland’s application and Finland’s strengths,” Hautala said at the time. According to him, “The reception of Finland’s views in this context was factual and constructive”.

Previously this week was told Trump was in contact with the Russian president to Vladimir Putin for the seventh time since Trump’s presidency ended. Supplier by Bob Woodward in the new one War– the claim about contact made in his book has not been officially confirmed.

CNN already wrote in 2021 Trump has acted as a “shadow president” when communicating with the families of US soldiers who died in Afghanistan through official channels.

This year the pace has accelerated, and key figures in the foreign policy of Ukraine, Israel, Poland, Hungary and Argentina, for example, have been in contact with Trump.

At the end of September, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi attended Trump’s speeches in New York with the aim of ensuring continued support even in the event that Trump wins the November elections.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda attended Trump’s speeches in New York in April to talk about NATO’s defense budget and Ukraine support, among other things. President of Argentina Javier Milei turned to Trump’s speeches in February at a conservative CPAP conference in Maryland.

of the United States former presidents, incl Barack Obama, Richard Nixon and recently turned one hundred years old Jimmy Carterhave of course been active in foreign policy even after their presidential terms. Also the country’s influential former foreign minister Henry Kissinger was a sought-after person even after his years in office.

What is extraordinary is that Trump has a real chance of winning the election again.

Trump’s former national security adviser John R. Bolton commented to NYT that foreign leaders often only asked Nixon and Kissinger for opinions and views. However, according to Bolton, the leaders want confirmation from Trump that the outcome of the election would not be problematic for the country in question in either case.

One proof of this is Zelensky’s visit, where he presented Trump with his winning plan. After the meeting, Trump and Zelenskyi both told the media that they wanted a “just” outcome to the war in Ukraine.