'Rope-a-dope': Ex-White House chief of staff warns Trump just gave up winning strategy
President Donald Trump is destroying generations of U.S. relationships to hand wins to Russia and China, according to Barack Obama's former chief of staff.
Rahm Emanuel penned a column in the Washington Post comparing the United States and Russia to prizefighter Muhammad Ali's “rope-a-dope” strategy.
During a 1974 fight between Ali and George Foreman, Emanuel said Ali "tilted the boxing ring to his advantage."
"He could defeat a younger and stronger man like George Foreman because Foreman was compelled to fight on Ali’s terms. This is a tactic the United States has adopted in its approach to international affairs. Playing to our strengths, we defeated the Soviet Union during the Cold War and, more recently, pursued a strategy to isolate an imperious China," said Emanuel.
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Trump, he said, has tried the opposite approach: "Helping Moscow’s and Beijing’s explicit intentions to replace the U.S.-led international order."
However, according to Emanuel, Trump's approach offers "nothing" to gain; there is "a lot to lose."
He explained that many of Trump's plots, including buying Greenland, taking back the Panama Canal, and occupying Canada, will never happen. And he's "eliminating the credibility and durability of our alliances to achieve goals that aren’t even worth pursuing," said Emanuel.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping "must be delighted" watching as Trump "squanders 80 years of international credibility."
"Trump is helping Russia and China achieve their explicit mission of replacing the United States as the world’s preeminent superpower," he continued. "Moscow’s goal has long been to break up the North Atlantic alliance. Who would have thought that an American president would do its dirty work?"
