Biden’s actions echo Trump’s isolationism and populism | Politics

If the US’s allies thought the era of Trump-style populism was over, the last few weeks have shattered that impression. When he became president, Joe Biden – elected under the premise of being a calm and experienced statesman – declared, “America is back”. But it hasn’t felt like that.

Trump’s term as president was deeply damaging to international relations, with many world leaders finding US policymaking unpredictable at best, and reckless at worst. This was most prominently seen in the random and chaotic way policy decisions were announced via social media, the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the scrapping of painstakingly negotiated agreements such as the Iran nuclear deal and the way many previously trusted allies and institutions, such as the EU and NATO, were alienated.

Trump’s policies set the bar very low for his successor to reassert the country’s status as a global superpower. So Biden won early praise for his soothing tones of unity and for returning the US to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Accord, both of which Trump had withdrawn the US from.

‘Not listening to sensible advice’

However, the Afghanistan debacle has offered a reality check, with Biden’s approach bearing a striking resemblance to his predecessor’s. While US presidents have been looking for a way out of Afghanistan for years, the way Biden handled the withdrawal has belied his reputation for steady competency and inclusive coordination with close partners.

This may be because Biden, like Trump, has heaps of self-confidence – or, as his detractors would more likely have it, an arrogant streak that stops him listening to sensible advice. Both his secretary of state and secretary of defence are thought to have been against an abrupt departure from Afghanistan.

Joe Biden’s top generals recently testified under oath in the Senate Armed Forces Committee that they had recommended keeping 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan, directly contradicting Biden’s statements that he received no such military advice.

The US also barely consulted their allies when, after 20 years, they withdrew from the country, despite there being 7,000 NATO allies wholly reliant on US infrastructure there. The sudden abandonment of the strategically important Bagram airport overnight is an example of this unilateral decision making, with the US leaving its biggest base in the country without even informing its Afghan partners, who woke up the next morning with no electricity. This lack of communication no doubt contributed to plummeting morale among Afghan forces, thus helping to accelerate the Taliban takeover.

Biden’s Afghanistan plan eerily echoed Trump’s.

While the timetable moved by a few months, the US government insisted upon following Trump’s departure blueprint, which had been negotiated with the Taliban. This is strange, considering the general tendency of most politicians is to quickly disown previous administration’s…