Having just read the transcript of his big interview on it, I have a few thoughts:
1) There’s a reasonable case that the U.S. is overextended abroad and should retrench. I don’t see any reasonable case for freaking out our allies by casually musing about radical changes in our policies in an interview.
2) He’s right that if you signal that you’re never leaving an ally, you weaken your bargaining position with that ally. But part of a good bargaining strategy is having a good sense of what your interests in the negotiation are. Trump seems to place a higher value on getting money from allies and a lower value on maintaining the alliance than I think makes any sense.
3a) He says, “When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger.” These are words that should never have passed the lips of any presidential candidate of either party: “When the world looks at how bad the United States is.”
3b) There are real limits to how much we can do to promote human rights abroad. But we shouldn’t refrain from talking about them because we’re not perfect. (Or “bad.”)
4) Repeatedly pressed about how he wants to change NAFTA–against which he has railed for years–he has nothing specific to say.
5) He says that if we hadn’t had troops in Korea, “maybe you would have had a unified Korea.” Very probably so! That’s sort of the case for having troops there.
Trump's Thoughtless Foreign Policy