{"id":1365980,"date":"2022-03-09T06:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T11:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1365980"},"modified":"2022-03-09T07:22:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T12:22:27","slug":"we-knew-before-he-took-office-that-joe-biden-would-set-foreign-policy-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/we-knew-before-he-took-office-that-joe-biden-would-set-foreign-policy-on-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"We Knew Before He Took Office That Joe Biden Would Set Foreign Policy On Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwe-knew-before-he-took-office-that-joe-biden-would-set-foreign-policy-on-fire%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1365980&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/joebidenisajoker.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>American voters usually prioritize domestic issues over foreign policy during presidential elections. But several major blunders just in President Biden\u2019s first year show the danger of not closely scrutinizing presidential candidates\u2019 records on foreign policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During the 2020 election, foreign policy-related questions barely came up in any of the debates between President Donald Trump and Biden. The presidential debate commission in fact <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/03\/reminder-the-presidential-debate-commission-worked-to-hide-joe-bidens-foreign-policy-from-voters\/\">pulled<\/a> foreign policy from their debate topics, perhaps to hide Biden\u2019s weakness.<\/p>\n<p>A YouGov\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/today.yougov.com\/topics\/politics\/articles-reports\/2020\/09\/10\/america-speaks-which-domestic-issue-will-dominate-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">survey<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 showed that 77 percent of Americans believed domestic issues were more important than foreign policy when choosing the next U.S. president.\u00a0Additionally, people may have assumed foreign policy was Biden\u2019s strong suit, since he was a U.S. senator for three decades and vice president under President Obama for eight. <\/p>\n<p>Such an assumption couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. Robert Gates, a defense secretary in the Obama administration, said Biden has \u201cbeen wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"trump-was-the-clear-foreign-policy-champ\">Trump Was the Clear Foreign Policy Champ<\/h2>\n<p>In contrast, foreign policy was one of the bright spots in the Trump presidency. He\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/09\/16\/trumps-middle-east-peace-deals-proved-experts-and-pundits-wrong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">orchestrated the historical Abraham Peace Accords<\/a>\u00a0among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. His pivot to the Indo-Pacific was far more successful than President Obama\u2019s pivot to Asia initiative.<\/p>\n<p>Under Trump, the United States took a hard line on China, improved its relationship with India (the only Asian power that could check China), and expanded cooperation with allies by establishing the Quad, an unofficial alliance with Australia, India, and Japan. However, since most corporate media were anti-Trump, few wanted to give him any credit for his foreign policy accomplishments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Instead, major media criticized Trump for being \u201csoft\u201d on Russia for his entire presidency. After Trump left the office, Fareed Zakaria of CNN finally\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/byronyork\/2021\/01\/06\/now-they-tell-us--trump-was-tough-on-russia-n2582618\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted<\/a>, \u201cthe Trump administration was pretty tough on the Russians. They armed Ukraine. They armed the Poles. They extended NATO operations and exercises in ways that even the Obama administration had not done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The combination of low public interest in foreign policy and a media that was willing to do everything to get Biden elected resulted in little scrutiny of Biden\u2019s extensive foreign policy failures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"joe-biden-botched-things-from-his-first-day\">Joe Biden Botched Things From His First Day<\/h2>\n<p>During his campaign, Biden promised the American people that he would \u201cgo toe-to-toe\u201d with Russia. But just within his first 48 hours in office, Biden delivered two gifts to Russia.<\/p>\n<p>First, he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/01\/26\/canceling-the-keystone-pipeline-and-reducing-u-s-arms-are-bidens-first-two-major-gifts-to-russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rescinded<\/a>\u00a0the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would have created tens of thousands of jobs for American workers and delivered 830,000 barrels of oil daily from Canada. The cancellation of Keystone was the first of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/economy\/biden-energy-policies-inflation-oil-gas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a series of the Biden administration\u2019s \u201cwar on fossil fuel\u201d policies<\/a>\u00a0that have strangled the U.S. energy industry and ended U.S. energy independence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s energy polices not only hurt American workers and the American economy, but also had foreign policy repercussions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/economy\/biden-energy-policies-inflation-oil-gas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">His policies caused gas price inflation<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/europe\/russias-oil-gas-revenue-windfall-2022-01-21\/\">provided Vladimir Putin the financial resources<\/a> to cause nuisance worldwide, including invading Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s second gift to Putin was to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, with Russia for another five years without fixing the treaty\u2019s many\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/01\/26\/canceling-the-keystone-pipeline-and-reducing-u-s-arms-are-bidens-first-two-major-gifts-to-russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">flaws<\/a>. For example, it doesn\u2019t limit Russia\u2019s capacity to pursue nuclear weapons outside the treaty. And China isn\u2019t part of the agreement, even though China has been rapidly building its nuclear weapon capacity.<\/p>\n<p>On Iran, rather than taking advantage of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crisisgroup.org\/middle-east-north-africa\/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula\/iran\/iran-sanctions-under-trump-administration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leverage<\/a>\u00a0gifted by the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d economic sanctions, Biden jumped right back to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/feature\/the-4-fatal-flaws-the-iran-deal-12551\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">disastrous 2015 nuclear deal<\/a>. His appointment of Robert Malley as his special envoy to Iran \u2014 a man with a long history of sympathy to Iran\u2019s authoritarian regime and overtly anti-Israeli sentiments \u2014 signals that appeasement is now U.S. foreign policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"groveling-before-china-and-russia\">Groveling Before China and Russia<\/h2>\n<p>China is the most significant strategic rival of the United States, and the Biden administration\u2019s China policies are full of contradictions. It extended some of the Trump administration\u2019s policies, such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/07\/10\/us-adds-14-chinese-companies-to-economic-black-list-over-xinjiang.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">adding Chinese companies to an economic blacklist over alleged human rights violations<\/a>\u00a0and imposing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Yet Biden\u2019s secretary of state refused to call China\u2019s treatment of Uyghur Muslims a \u201cgenocide,\u201d and the U.S. Department of Justice quietly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/02\/23\/doj-shuts-down-china-focused-anti-espionage-program-00011065\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shut down<\/a>\u00a0its China-focused anti-espionage investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The first sign of how Biden\u2019s domestic policy would affect his foreign policy occurred during a high-level Sino- U.S. meeting in Alaska in March 2021. Biden and his team have often\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/nikki-haley-biden-un-ambassadors-us-criticism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">publicly criticized\u00a0<\/a>the United States, and through an executive order, Biden\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thegrio.com\/2021\/01\/26\/biden-racial-equity-systemic-executive-orders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">promised<\/a>\u00a0to address systemic racism in the country. China\u2019s diplomats employed that same rhetoric to dress down American diplomats and attack America\u2019s moral leadership in Alaska. The U.S. diplomats couldn\u2019t mount a strong rebuttal because Democrats believe it.<\/p>\n<p>All these were early warning signs that Biden\u2019s foreign policy would end up\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/02\/24\/bidens-foreign-policy-is-obama-all-over-again-empowering-our-enemies-at-our-expense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">empowering America\u2019s adversaries at our expense<\/a>.\u00a0Then came the Biden administration\u2019s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. It revealed how incompetent and unfocused the Biden administration is. After it, Biden\u2019s approval rating dropped\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.opinium.com\/us\/resource-center\/us-biden-approval-rating-drops-in-afghanistan-aftermath\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">8 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Americans don\u2019t like to see our military and government humiliated by a group of ragtag militants. We were distraught over the loss of 13 American soldiers during the withdrawal. America\u2019s embarrassing retreat from Afghanistan emboldened adversaries from Moscow to Beijing to Tehran to achieve their aggressive geopolitical goals.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"now-comes-russia-s-invasion-of-ukraine\">Now Comes Russia\u2019s Invasion of Ukraine<\/h2>\n<p>Biden\u2019s poor handling of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine is a perfect example of how one foreign policy failure led to another and Biden\u2019s domestic agenda constrains his foreign policy. Biden waited until Russia attacked Ukraine to impose his first round of economic sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>After Germany announced it will finally increase its defense budget, Biden followed by stepping up\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/u-s-is-levying-sanctions-against-russias-central-bank-11646052061\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new rounds of severe sanctions<\/a>. However, he initially exempted Russia\u2019s energy sector from sanctions, hoping energy imports from Russia would help check U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/06\/business\/gas-prices-4-dollars-per-gallon.html\">gas inflation<\/a> caused by Biden\u2019s anti-energy policies. Putin uses every dollar we pay for his oil and gas to finance his war on Ukraine as energy prices continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/gas-prices-5-dollars-gallon-russia-ukraine-oil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rise<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Only after huge domestic pressure did Biden announce he will finally ban Russian oil imports. This means even more pain for Americans, as it will likely hike gas prices even further, and gas prices affect the price of just about everything Americans buy.<\/p>\n<p>Yet as recently as his State of the Union speech Biden has made it clear that he remains committed to his \u201cgreen energy\u201d agenda that means strangling U.S. energy, causing high prices for Americans. Rather than rescinding his ruinous energy policies, the Biden administration is actively courting other authoritarian regimes from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/axios\/status\/1500597503800090625\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Saudi Arabia<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/latino\/us-reaches-venezuela-possible-russia-oil-embargo-rcna19033\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Venezuela<\/a>, hoping to increase their oil imports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"one-horrific-failure-after-another\">One Horrific Failure After Another<\/h2>\n<p>Even more incredibly, while sanctioning Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/biden-admin-relies-on-russia-to-finalize-iran-nuclear-deal-as-putin-invades-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly<\/a>\u00a0has relied on Russia to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, which would shower another murderous regime with billions of dollars with no guarantee of any change of behaviors. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia\u2019s chief negotiator,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/polarisnatsec\/status\/1500466439018491905\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">openly bragged<\/a>\u00a0that Iran has gotten more than it had expected.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration has refused to share any details with the U.S. Congress and the American people. But we can be sure that any good deal for Iran\u2019s mullahs will harm Americans\u2019 safety, our national security, and peace in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s foreign policy blunders have weakened America\u2019s international standing and sped up America\u2019s decline. Biden\u2019s flaws, especially his stubbornness and refusal to change course even when proven wrong, have become a significant obstacle to America\u2019s prosperity and security.<\/p>\n<p>As the saying goes, \u201cElections have consequences.\u201d One of the biggest lessons learned from the Biden presidency is that foreign policy and domestic issues are often closely intertwined.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s presidency still has three long years to go and will encounter many more foreign policy challenges, including the biggest one: China\u2019s likely invasion of Taiwan. If past history is an indicator of the future, thanks to too many Americans\u2019 foolish votes for a known foreign policy bungler, China may end up replacing the United States as the dominant superpower in the new autocracy-friendly world order at the end of Biden\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Helen Raleigh, CFA, is an American entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. She&#8217;s a senior contributor at The Federalist. Her writings appear in other national media, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.  Helen is the author of several books, including &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Confucius-Never-Said-Helen-Raleigh\/dp\/1499185278\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&#038;keywords=Helen+Raleigh+Confucius+Never+Said&#038;qid=1606079469&#038;sr=8-1\">Confucius Never Said<\/a>&#8221; and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Backlash-How-Chinas-Aggression-Backfired\/dp\/1736008501\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1606006113&#038;sr=8-1\">Backlash: How Communist China&#8217;s Aggression Has Backfired<\/a>.&#8221; Follow her on Parler and Twitter: @HRaleighspeaks.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American voters usually prioritize domestic issues over foreign policy during presidential elections. But several major blunders just in President Biden\u2019s first year show the danger of not closely scrutinizing presidential<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1365980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1365980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1365980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1365980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1365980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}