Opinion | How Trump, by threatening US foreign aid, undermines democracy globally

Robert Delaney says that as the American public focuses on scandals and political brinkmanship over the government shutdown, the Trump administration has subtly undermined agencies the US uses to promote democratic institutions around the world

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US President Donald Trump speaks about his administration's National Security Strategy in Washington on December 18. While attention has focused on the government shutdown in recent days, funding cuts at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention may intimate a stark change in the US global role in years to come. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:32pm, 22 Jan 2018Updated: 10:56pm, 22 Jan 2018

When White House aides are batting away news reports about President Donald Trump’s hush money to a porn star, you know Washington has hit a new low.

Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, insists the president’s relationship with Stephanie Clifford, aka “Stormy Daniels”, wasn’t sexual or romantic. Perhaps they discussed tax policy or international relations.

But the Clifford connection fell off the radar quickly; the US electorate is suffering from outrage fatigue. Since taking office, Trump has, among many other things, lobbed a racial slur at US Senator Elizabeth Warren at an event honouring Native Americans.

Recently, we have been treated to another spectacle of government dysfunction in the form of a shutdown. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer met Trump on Friday, but anyone hoping the meeting would yield a breakthrough is not familiar with Trump’s modus operandi: division generating headlines that feed his ego and undermine discussion of controversies that erupted days or weeks earlier.

Democrats and Republicans have implicated each other for the shutdown, but Trump’s party controls Congress, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell voted against the government funding patch, making it hard to blame the Democrats.

But Washington’s descent drowns out important details in the story of America’s retreat from global leadership.