Would Trump’s foreign policy serve U.S. interests, or his own?

(Photo: Evan Vucci – AP)

Of all the reasons for concern about a potential Donald Trump administration’s foreign policy, one of the most troublesome — aside from Trump’s impulsive personality — would be the conflicts of interest posed by his investments abroad, and by his debts to foreign banks.

There are many other reasons to worry, including the fact that Trump would be the Islamic State’s dream president — one who would unite the whole Muslim world against the United States — and the likelihood that key U.S. allies might come to think that America has become a banana republic ruled by a clown, and could hold back their intelligence cooperation with Washington.

But of all these potential problems, the most immediate one would be that the billionaire Republican candidate would be a greater target for foreign pressures than any other president in recent U.S. history.

That’s because, unlike previous U.S. presidents for the past five decades, he says he won’t set up a blind trust or convert his assets into conflict-free U.S. government bonds. Instead, Trump says that if elected, he would turn over his business empire to his children, as if that would prevent any of the 22 countries in which he has hotels, golf courses and other investments from exerting pressure on his business empire, or using its business ties to ask for favors.

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