Daniel Wolfram
Both the WSJ and NY Post’s editorial boards break ranks to argue that dividing up the world alonside Russia and China would fatally shred America’s credibility.
Donald Trump is facing rare, fierce blowback from his most loyal media ally.
The New York Post published a scathing editorial urging him to reject a three-way summit with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping that the Russian president has proposed. Likewise, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) also eviscerated Trump over his perceived changing alliances.
That meeting was pitched for next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.
Playing with fire
Officially, Russia framed the trilateral meeting as an effort to resolve the war in Ukraine. Trump has said he is open to attending. Even so, he suggested denuclearization ought to be the real priority.
His conservative news allies see nothing but trouble. “If President Donald Trump wants a full-on riot within the Republican Party, going along with Vladimir Putin’s idea for a ‘Yalta 2’ summit with Xi Jinping is the way to do it,” the Post’s board cautioned.
By sitting down with them, the board warned, Trump would be “volunteering to be outnumbered by our determined foes.”
The global order could shift
Over at The Wall Street Journal, the warnings were just as grim. The WSJ cautioned that “his Yalta 2 courtship of Putin and Xi could blow up alliances at home and abroad.” Behind closed doors, the danger is that the three leaders might “try to carve up the globe.”
“A new triumvirate that divided the world into spheres of influence would blow up America’s global credibility as a reliable ally,” the Journal wrote. As the WSJ noted, alliances from NATO to Australia allow America to stop aggression before threats turn to attacks, even if foreign partners have become popular political targets.
The political price on Capitol Hill could be massive for Trump. According to the Post, simply announcing the summit would trigger an open GOP rebellion and damage the party’s midterm chances. The Post argues that if Trump agrees to the meeting, it would mean that he is brushing off the loudest alarms from the friends who are normally fiercely loyal to him.
