As the World Reacts to Trump's Election, Only Britain Avoids Knee-jerk Panic

President-Elect Donald Trump met with President Barack Obama in the oval Office for 90 minutes this morning. There was no live coverage of Trump's arrival or of their photo op in the Oval Office afterward, but in taped video provided by the White House, it was clear that Trump and Obama talked cordially about the transition in the presidency -- as Americans expect of their leaders and as the US Constitution and 240 years of tradition have solidified into the great American peaceful hand-over of executive power every four or eight years. The single false note came after the meeting when Obama press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama still considers Trump "dangerous" and "unfit" to be President. Obama and his Progressives die hard. • • • AN UNEXPECTED TRANSITION. President Obama and his White House aides have publicly responded to Donald Trump's presidential election win with stoic calm. But, Washington insiders report that they are anything but calm. Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote that workers in the West Wing are having a hard time coming to grips with Trump's triumph Tuesday night -- a victory that the political elites and mainstream media had labeled impossible for months. But, when Obama addressed the nation from the Rose Garden Wednesday, hours after the presidential race was officially called for Trump by news organizations, Obama called for unity, saying everyone simply wants what's best for the country -- regardless of which party they represent. Obama pledged to make the transition from his administration to Trump's smooth -- recalling the "gracious welcome" given by George and Laura Bush to Michelle and him in 2008. Yet, despite the positive front, White House staffers at the speech were seen crying about Hillary Clinton's loss. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, reports Politico, admitted : "the American people have rendered their judgment." Other Democrats are worried that much of what Obama accomplished during his eight-year presidency, from transgender issues to his executive actions on illegal immigration, could be erased when Trump takes office. House Speaker Mitch McConnell said Wednesday repealing Obamacare, which was signed into law in 2010, will be high on the agenda. Also in play is the Supreme Court, which has one vacancy and could have others over the next 4-8 years. The Republican-controlled House and Senate will presumably help Trump advance his White House agenda. • • • THE WORLD REACTS. Trump’s stunning election victory spread far beyond America’s boundaries, breaking unexpectedly upon the post-world War II international order and raising fundamental questions about America’s place as world leader. For the first time since before World War II, Americans chose a President who promised to reverse the international focus practiced by Presidents of both parties since 1945. Trump’s win will usher in a period that sees America more focused on its own affairs while leaving the world to take care of itself. • For Mexico, it could create a new era of confrontation with its northern neighbor. Agustín Barrios Gómez, a former congressman in Mexico and president of the Mexico Image Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting its reputation abroad, said : “All bets are off.” resident Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico congratulated the American people on their election and stressed his nation’s willingness to work with them. • For Europe and Asia, it may rewrite the rules of alliances, trade deals, and foreign aid. • Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat now teaching at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, said : “The question is whether you [the US] will continue to be involved in international affairs as a dependable ally to your friends and allies. If you stop doing that, then all the European, Middle Eastern and Asian allies to the United States will reconsider how they secure themselves.” • For the Middle East, it foreshadows a possible alignment with Russia and conflict with Iran. Most importantly, Israel will once again have a stalwart defender in the White House and at the UN. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement : “President-elect Trump is a true friend of the State of Israel, and I look forward to working with him to advance security, stability and peace in our region.” • Great Britain's prime minister, Theresa May, was the first foreign leader to call Trump, and reports say they spoke of the UK’s “enduring and special relationship” with the United States and their continuing work together. Trump invited May to come to the US to meet with him "as soon as possible." • Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Trump and offered her cooperation, but she emphasized that it must rest on human rights and nondiscrimination. • • • THE EU. The two top officials of the European Union -- Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission -- congratulated Trump and invited him to visit Europe. They wrote : “Europeans trust that America, whose democratic ideals have always been a beacon of hope around the globe, will continue to invest in its partnerships with friends and allies, to help make our citizens and the people of the world more secure and more prosperous." Later, Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland, warned that Britain’s decision to leave the EU, and the election of Trump, should raise alarm bells : “The events of the last months and days should be treated as a warning sign for all who believe in liberal democracy." And, Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of a prominent group of lawmakers in the European Parliament and a former prime minister of Belgium, called Trump’s victory “a wake-up call for European leaders,” adding, “Donald Trump has declared several times that our priorities are not his. We cannot be dependent anymore on the US, we have to take charge of our own destiny. Europe should get its act together, too, and set its internal differences aside.” • Many in Europe saw in Trump’s victory similarities to the British vote to exit the European Union, raising fears of a broader unraveling of the modern international system. Gérard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, wrote on Twitter : “After Brexit and this election, everything is now possible. A world is collapsing before our eyes.” Indeed, Trump's almost revolutionary rise to power over the Washington establishment in many ways reflects a fundamental shift in international politics already shaken this year by Britain’s referendum vote to leave the European Union and the rise of the French populist Marine Le Pen at the head of the Front National challenging traditional French ruling parties, as well as other populist, nationalist, closed-border movements already on the rise in Europe and spreading to other parts of the world. Trump's presidency could encourage these populist parties in France, Germany and The Netherlands, and others all over eastern Europe, to cast off the EU establishment that they see as overbearing, power-hungry and uninterested in ordinary people. Two anti-immigrant nationalist leaders -- Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen in France -- cheered Trump’s victory. Wilders, often considered an extremist, said : “The Americans are taking their country back.” Wilders, a lawmaker who leads the Party for Freedom and who faces hate-speech charges in his home country, called Mr. Trump’s election “a historic victory” and “a revolution.” Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front in France and a candidate for the French presidency, congratulated Trump on Twitter and declared the American people “free!” She called it “good news for our country.” • • • NATO AND A PERCEIVED MILITARY POWER VACUUM. Donald Trump has been excoriated for questioning Washington’s longstanding commitment to NATO allies, calling for cutting foreign aid, praising Russian President Vladimir Putin as someone to try to be friendly with, vowing to rip up international trade deals, assailing China and suggesting Asian allies could possibly develop nuclear weapons. Polls indicated that Hillary Clinton was favored in many countries, with the exception of Russia. Last summer, the Pew Research Center found that people in all 15 countries it surveyed trusted Clinton more than Trump to do the right thing in foreign affairs by ratios as high as 10 to 1. The thought of Trump pulling back militarily and economically has left many overseas contemplating a road ahead without an American ally. • In Germany, where American troops have been stationed for more than 70 years, the idea of a pullback seems bewildering. Henrik Müller, a journalism professor at the Technical University of Dortmund, wrote in Der Spiegel : “It would be the end of an era. The postwar era in which Americans’ atomic weapons and its military presence in Europe shielded first the west and later the central European states would be over. Europe would have to take care of its own security.” Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the German parliamentary committee for foreign policy and a member of Merkel's ruling party, said Trump was “completely inadequate” to his office : “That Trump’s election could lead to the worst estrangement between America and Europe since the Vietnam War would be the least of the damage." • Yohanan Plesner, a former member of the Israeli Parliament now serving as president of the Israel Democracy Institute, said : “Decisions cannot be postponed. The situation in Syria is very chaotic. The unrest in the region is continuing. America has to decide whether it wants to play an active role in shaping the developments of the region.” • Even China was concerned about Mr. Trump’s promise to pull American troops back from Asia. Shen Dingli, professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, said : “If he indeed withdraws the troops from Japan, the Japanese may develop their own nuclear weapons,” said “South Korea may also go nuclear if Trump cancels the missile deployment and leaves the country alone facing the North’s threats. How is that good for China?” • It is interesting to find that a world that often tells America to quit meddling in the affairs of other nations is now terrified that America could do just that -- go home. But, for American voters, after decades of worrying about what was good for other countries, they decided it was time to worry about what was good for America. DonaldTrump promised to do just that, even if the rest of the world might not like it. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, said it was “worth recalling and reaffirming that the unity in diversity of the United States is one of the country’s greatest strengths,” as if to tell President-Elect Trump to open his arms to the "diverse" world, reminding Trump that the United States' role as a guarantor of world stability is “an essential actor across the international agenda." Trump has demanded that the NATO allies of the US foot more of the bill for their collective defense. Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, offered on Wednesday to meet Mr. Trump “soon.” Stoltenberg noted that the alliance comes with legal obligations : “NATO’s security guarantee is a treaty commitment and all allies have made a solemn commitment -- a solemn commitment -- to defend each other. We have to remember that the only time that we have invoked Article 5, our collective defense clause, is after an attack on the United States, after 9/11.” • • • Dear readers, it will be several months before the outline of a Trump foreign policy emerges, but his choices for Secretary of State and Defense will give us clues. One thing is sure to be evident. Donald Trump has no desire to pull up the rug qnd close the door against the world. What he has often repeated is his desire for a more balanced defense alliance net around the world and for an abandonment of the 'regime change' and 'nation-building' policies of Obama and both Bushes that have killed many young Americans and unreasonably stretched America's defense capabilities without any result to show for it except a general political and social collapse in Syria, Iraq and Libya, and a Middle East that is rife with sectarian war and Iranian-supported terrorism. Donald Trump will surely end this American war-for-war's-sake insanity and return to a more finely crafted US foreign policy that defends allies and attempts to broker international disputes as an objective peacemaker. And his oft-repeated goal of rebuliding the US military so badly depleted and ignored by Obama will create the US defense net that will once more make the Pax Americana a reality. As this becomes evident, the generally leftist, one-world (paid for by America) leaders and intellectuals now reacting in knee-jerk unison to the election of Donald Trump will calm down and perhaps even behave as adults.