‘They Are Not Following The Rules’: MS NOW Analyst Praises Trump’s ‘Hard-Nosed’ Foreign Policy — Despite ‘Ethical’ Concerns

President Donald Trump’s Administration has been using an “unconventional” foreign policy playbook since his return to office — and that has led to some unforeseen “upsides,” according to Jonathan Guyer, the program director for the Institute for Global Affairs.

Guyer shared his thoughts on Trump’s foreign policy moves during an appearance on MS NOW’s The Weekend: Primetime on Saturday.

“I think the establishment in Washington has something to learn from Trump’s unconventional diplomacy, totally breaking diplomatic precedent,” Guyer said. “Look at his diplomats. I call them cowboy diplomats — Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff — They have no experience. And yet sometimes they get stuff done.”

He pointed to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as an obvious example. Guyer said that was a big deal that ex-President Joe Biden “did not achieve.”

Co-host Catherine Rampell said “part of the risk” of having Kushner and Witkoff making deals is “that we don’t know what their financial incentives are.”

“Witkoff’s son is running around the Middle East trying to pitch deals to to potential investors. Jared Kushner, same deal. He got $2 billion from the Saudis even before Trump came into office again,” she said. “So I take your point that they’re unconventional and they’re doing something different. But how do we know that they are actually operating in the country’s interest, as opposed to the interest of their own wallets?”

Guyer told her the “conflicts of interest could be legion here” and that it is “massively risky for American interests.”

“On the other hand, they just don’t care,” he continued. “They’re willing to talk with Hamas, lift sanctions on Syria, stop a bombing campaign in Yemen when it’s not working. They are not following the rules. And I think there are some upsides to that, even though we should be highly critical of them also, breaking all of the ethical strictures that have basically been definitional for U.S. officials over time.”

Co-host Elise Jordan said Guyer made a fair point, but that she believed the Trump Administration’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine War has been terrible.

Jordan said the administration proposed “preposterous” terms to Ukraine for ending the war, and that Trump has “made himself somewhat irrelevant in this negotiating process because Europe has had to step in.”

“Do you think that this is just a joke?” She asked. “You know, just going through the motions?”

Guyer said there are some “downsides” to how Trump has handled the war.

“But at the end of the day, President Biden wasn’t able to bring these two sides to the table,” he said. “And there may be a silver lining by getting a line to [Vladimir] Putin, a line to Russia.”

Guyer added, “You’re going to need hard-nosed diplomacy to get to the finish line. But I do think it’s a good thing we’re talking with Russia because that’s the first step here.”

Watch above.

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