Trump's modus operandi puts US credibility on the line

WHEN US reconnaissance planes found evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba in the fall of 1962, President John Kennedy decided to declare a naval blockade of Cuba, with ships ordered to confront and board any vessel trying to enter the island's territorial waters.

President Kennedy then sent veteran diplomat Dean Acheson to Paris to show French President Charles de Gaulle the evidence. "Here, let me show you the photos," Mr Acheson told Mr de Gaulle. But the French leader waved them off : "No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me."

Imagine now if President Donald Trump announced that his intelligence agencies had collected evidence that Iran has developed a nuclear weapon and that he decided to impose a naval blockade of Iran, demanding that Tehran give up its nuclear capacity. How many world leaders would respond to Mr Trump's announcement the way President de Gaulle did in 1962? In fact, how many US lawmakers would take President Trump at his word? What would be the American people's response? That we don't know the answers to these questions tells us something about the level of credibility that the office of the presidency enjoys at home and abroad these days. Credibility is a major political asset of national leaders, allowing them to win the trust of their citizens and that of the country's foreign allies, especially when it comes to issues of war and peace.