A second term for Donald Trump would be “worse than first,” warns a former British ambassador to Washington. Particularly, the return of the Republican politician to the White House would be bad for US-UK relations, the diplomat assures. But he also believes that Kyiv will have a tough time.
The former British Ambassador to the US told Sky News that Donald Trump’s second term in the White House would be “even more difficult than the first.”
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, who served as the British Ambassador in Washington from 2007 to 2012, warned that the world would see a “supercharged Trump” if he “gets a second wind after re-election.”
President Joe Biden earlier this week said that his potential rival was “willing to sacrifice democracy,” while Donald Trump is trying to appeal the decision of the state of Colorado to disqualify him from voting due to the Capitol riots on January 6.
As polls show Donald Trump could be the favorite in the November elections, Sir Nigel Sheinwald said the world is “aghast” by his candidacy – and this will have a significant impact on Britain.
“The first term was bad enough for the alliance, for the UK – he humiliated the UK – disregarded the importance of NATO,” he said.
“But I think that the intervening years mean that this is going to be a sequel, and sequels are very often worse than the original films,” the diplomat assures. “So, I think that he will be an unfettered second-term president. There’ll be a lot of vengeful activity in the US And I think we have to take seriously his threats in relation to Ukraine, in defunding Ukraine in relation to NATO… not putting the money in that’s necessary to keep it going.”
A recent USA Today and Suffolk University poll shows that Trump has gained ground among Latino voters and leads Biden among voters under 35.
Meanwhile, as Sky News notes, according to several polls, Donald Trump is at least 30 points ahead of his closest rivals in the Republican Party nomination, where he is the absolute favorite, despite his former vice president promoting another candidate.
If he goes all the way, the fundamental problem any country trying to deal with the US under Trump faces is “unpredictability” and “huge personal vanity that goes into every decision,” said Sir Nigel.
His relationships with key allies, added the former British ambassador, were “fundamentally different” from those of any president since World War II, especially when it comes to Britain.”
“The country that’s affected most when America is in trouble when America is less potent, is the UK,” he said.
According to him, Britain has been on America’s side for so long that “when America is unable to project its influence in the way that it wants to… we get caught in the cold blast of that.”
“Let’s not be in any doubt, this will be a huge weakening of the alliance and of the international system,” added the former ambassador.
CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour echoed Sir Nigel’s warning about the consequences of a Trump victory.
Speaking on Sunday morning in a Sky News discussion with Trevor Phillips, she said that Donald Trump was an “chaos agent” during his first presidential term.
“I think what people need to understand is that when Donald Trump was president, just in terms of the world, he was actually a chaos agent. It’s not just we think he likes dictators – he does,” she said.
She also said that Trump would be “untrammeled” if he wins the presidency, warning that some of his statements were “Nazi talk”: “He went as far as to say ‘I will be a dictator for the first day’, he said ‘I will use my justice department to go after all my enemies’,” she said. “‘I am your retribution’ – what does that even mean?”
She said, “About immigrants, he said they infect the blood of Americans. This is Nazi talk, this is really dangerous and he has declared what he will do.”
She further said, “Now some say ‘your fears are just the fears of demented liberals’, others say that ‘actually he is a genuine, real and proven threat to not only us but also global democracy’.”
“And the 14th amendment actually says that any state or federal official who’s taken part in an insurrection is barred from taking office and holding office in the future,” she added.
“He likes Vladimir Putin. If Vladimir Putin wins in Ukraine, our entire post-World War II order will be destroyed,” shares her hidden fears with the CNN anchor.
