If you ask President Joe Biden’s colleagues from his years as vice president, he is an “unguided missile” when under pressure, has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue” during the last 40 years, and allegedly has an underestimated ability to “f*** things up.”
Those — shall we say — brutal character flaws mean that as commander-in-chief, he is a remarkably bad international negotiator and does not understand how the world works.
In case you have not noticed, the entire globe is in disarray under Biden. The president’s lack of deal-making skills seems to be one of the main culprits behind the international disorder.
Consider the following: Biden asked Saudi Arabia to postpone petroleum production cuts until after the U.S. midterm elections, warned Russia not to invade Ukraine, and requested that oil companies lower the cost of high gas prices.
None of the three occurred, and it’s no surprise why.
Why would any of those entities go along with what Biden says if they weren’t given any incentives or genuine threats?
This week, it was reported that Biden asked Saudi Arabia to postpone cutting petroleum production until after the midterms. OPEC+ declined. Now, Biden is looking at all options, and his Democratic colleagues are calling upon the U.S. to block arms sales with the Middle Eastern nation as payback. “Quid pro quo” legalities aside, why wouldn’t Biden threaten to cut off military support prior to the Saudis’ decision?
It’s like this president does everything backward.
There are never any perfect comparisons in history, but we have a close one to this debacle from President Donald J. Trump’s time in office — with markedly different results.
In the middle of the pandemic in 2020, Saudi Arabia was threatening to increase the oil supply by millions of barrels, which would have cratered the American oil market and resulted in even more economic ruin. Once he caught wind of that plan, Trump told Saudi Arabia that he wouldn’t stop Congress from passing a law to pull U.S. troops out of the Kingdom. If Saudi cut oil production, the troops would stay.
It was an unprecedented threat, but it worked. OPEC didn’t increase production and instead reduced it. Here’s how the left-leaning Reuters described it:
The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that led to a landmark global deal to slash oil supply as demand collapsed in the coronavirus pandemic – scoring a diplomatic victory for the White House.
It would have been nice if Biden used that sort of strategy this time around. Trump secured diplomatic victories while Biden is now scrambling.
Regarding Russia, Biden also spent months leading up to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion cautioning the dictator that his country would suffer economic ruin, consequences, and more. Putin, obviously, ignored those messages and has been waging brutal military conflict ever since.
Trump, for his part, claimed that he told Putin outright that he would bomb Moscow if the country ever invaded Ukraine while he was in office. That claim cannot be confirmed, but it is a fact that Putin was aggressive toward Ukraine under both Biden and President Barack Obama — yet held off under Trump.
Furthermore, reports indicate that Biden’s fecklessness in Afghanistan played a role in Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. The current president withdrew our military, allowed the Taliban to take over the country within three days, and America was humiliated on the world stage.
Again, in Afghanistan, Biden did everything backward.
Then there are those pesky gas prices.
In late September, Biden said with a tone, “My message is simple. To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump: Bring down the prices you’re charging at the pump to reflect the cost you pay for the product. Do it now.”
The president also asked that in June as well, and was promptly manhandled by the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. API’s Mike Sommers gave Biden a detailed 10 points explaining how he could “prioritize unlocking U.S. energy resources – that are the envy of the world – instead of increasing reliance on foreign sources.”
It doesn’t seem like Biden listened at all.
Did the president think the Crown Prince, Putin, or gas company CEOs would act out of the kindness of their own hearts? Is he really that dense?
Unfortunately, Biden is what happens when a man who is praised by many and supported by none gets into the Oval Office. He has no executive skills because he has never been an executive decision-maker in his nearly 50 years in Washington, D.C.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
