Thursday, March 5, 2020
By Greg Rushford
As I reported on January 18, foreign ministers of the ten ASEAN nations — the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — meeting in Bangkok the previous day, had tentatively agreed to accept U.S. President Donald Trump’s invitation to host a special summit for ASEAN’s presidents and prime ministers. As Trump had angered ASEAN leaders in recent years by refusing to attend their summits held in Asia, this appeared to be a welcome signal that the American president was now paying attention to the region.
Trump had insisted that the U.S.-ASEAN summit had to be in Las Vegas, on March 14, to accommodate his schedule. It turns out, however, that he has found something better to do that day than meeting Southeast Asian leaders—-but that’s getting ahead of a story of what (sadly) currently passes for American diplomacy in one of the world’s most dynamic regions.
As the second week in March was less than two months away, experienced diplomatic eyebrows immediately shot up when Trump’s plans for a Vegas summit surfaced in Bangkok. The normal planning process for such events that involve synchronizing the schedules of so many top leaders takes at least five months of hard work, at the minimum. Trump was asking a lot of his fellow presidents.
Skeptical questions were asked. Would there really be time for the U.S. State Department’s experienced Asian hands to organize the logistics? What diplomatic agenda would State and the National Security Council in the White House be pressing? Why was Trump insisting upon such an unserious venue as Las Vegas — known for casinos, spas and the international jet set — as the venue? And again, did it have to be on March 14?
The skeptics were prescient. By the time the Vegas summit was announced, “it was already too late,” as one insider who asked not to be identified put it. The necessary logistics remained murky; until the last minute nobody seemed entirely convinced that the summit would actually happen. And it won’t. Last Friday, U.S. officials cancelled the event, citing fears of the spreading coronavirus. That appears to be a cover story, if a somewhat plausible one, given Trump’s well-known germaphobia. Still, the failure opens a window into how important diplomatic opportunities are being handled in Donald Trump’s Washington. Or mis-handled.
First and foremost, there was never a serious diplomatic agenda for the summit. The State Department was largely sidelined. Inquiring reporters were referred, off the record, to the White House, which wasn’t talking. Even inside the White House, the National Security Council — which doesn’t have the professional staffing able to handle the complex logistics to put on such an event anyway — seemed to be also somewhat marginalized.
The real action was in the White House office of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner is the go-to guy for savvy foreign officials who have figured out how to pull the levers of power in today’s Washington, D.C. And the Kushner-Trump agenda, hardly for the first time, reflected a keen interest in private commercial dealings, not important U.S. national security interests.
Despite the information blackout, in Trump’s White House, people still talk, albeit sotto voce. So it was possible to piece together the general outlines of what was happening behind closed doors — or in this case, not happening — by applying a little old-fashioned journalistic shoe leather.
In short, Trump wanted just a generalized Saturday afternoon group meeting of the Southeast Asian top leaders, on March 14. That would have been followed by a group photo opportunity. (There appears to be no truth to the rumor that, in true Las Vegas spirit, the assorted presidents would have worn Elvis costumes.)
Trump, according to multiple sources, wasn’t much interested in meeting privately with fellow Southeast Asian presidents on the sidelines of the summit. Apparently pressed by Kushner, Trump only bothered to schedule one private bilateral diplomatic meeting with a Southeast Asian president. That lucky leader was Indonesian President Joko Widodo (who is often referred to by his nickname, Jokowi). But even that meeting — which seemed to be close, but never quite firmed up — would have involved mainly Trump’s interest in private commercial transactions, not important matters involving foreign policy and mutual national security interests.
One especially interesting commercial opportunity has caught Trump’s eye. Jokowi plans to move Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta, which is sinking into the sea thanks to global warming, to the wilderness of Borneo. This promises to be an estimated $30-plus billion construction business. One of Jokowi’s most senior officials, Luhut Pandjaitan, flew to Washington, D.C. last month to discuss this project (among others) with Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump.
According to a report in Singapore’s Straits Times, Luhut has told Asian journalists that Kushner had related that Trump very much “likes the idea of Indonesia moving its capital, with a commitment of creating a green city there, where only electric vehicles will be allowed on the roads.” The Straits Times’s article also revealed that Luhut had said that Kushner “wanted [the] Jokowi-Trump meeting to discuss details on this moving capital project.”
There are other commercial transactions in Indonesia that the White House seems interested in. Perhaps the most interesting involves an undersea fiber-optic telecommunications cable from Singapore and Indonesia to California that will be financed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. The IDFC has a healthy $60 billion in development funds to invest around the world, backed by the U.S. government. Its head, Adam Boehler, is a former college roommate of Kushner.
To be sure, moving Jakarta’s capital is an attractive idea. And U.S. government financing for worthwhile telecommunications contracts could well be defended on its merits. But what business does a senior White House political adviser have in injecting himself, and the president of the United States, into such commercial transactions? This isn’t diplomacy. It’s deal making.
And why would any American president’s keen interest in meeting the president of Indonesia involve talking about billions of dollars in future construction opportunities in Borneo — not serious matters of mutual diplomatic- and security importance?
It’s not difficult to think of important matters of state that a president of the United States might want to talk to his Indonesian counterpart about. They might exchange ideas on how Indonesia and the United States might work more effectively to counter illegal Chinese aggression in the waters of the China Sea. After all, those waters are positioned astride some of the world most important shipping lanes. Just because of Indonesia’s position om the map, that country will always be important to U.S. security interests.
Or they might want to talk about how to work effectively with the World Trade Organization’s ongoing negotiations to cut back government subsidies that lead to overfishing in the same South China Sea. Beyond that, Jokowi and Trump might well consider how to advance some mutually beneficial international trade-liberalization deals to enhance the flows of commerce throughout ASEAN? They might even talk about working to take more effective action about global warming, instead of simply looking for ways for private contractors to profit from such.
Readers will already have noticed that taking effective action on global warming and liberalizing international trade flows are hardly Donald Trump’s strong suit. On U.S.-ASEAN trade, there is no American agenda.
Trump’s interest in Indonesia, put starkly, involves matters of money. Last August, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Jakarta to talk up the Trump Organization’s two plush Indonesian resorts (one in Bali, and another a theme-park complex south of Jakarta). Donald Jr. told reporters that the Trump family had turned down “a lot of deals” since his father became president. Should such statements be taken at face value?
To be sure, the Trumps are well-connected in influential Indonesian commercial and political circles. Trump’s Indonesian business partner, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who chairs the MNC Group, is in tight with Jokowi. Hary’s daughter Angela Tanoesoedibjo is Jokowi’s deputy minister of tourism and creative economy. And when Donald Trump was inaugurated as U.S. president in 2017, Hary was there at the invitation of the new president.
As for the answer to the last question that ASEAN watchers have been asking: Why was Trump so insistent upon holding only a quick afternoon summit in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon, March 14? Why weren’t there supposed to be any bilateral meetings on the sidelines (at least until Indonesia’s savvy Luhut buttonholed Jared Kushner)?
Inquiring Asian diplomats were told simply that March 14 was the only date that fit the president’s schedule.
As I reported in January, March 14 is only three days before the Democratic presidential primaries in the key electoral U.S. states of Ohio, Illinois, and Florida. A photo opportunity with important Asian presidents would have allowed Trump to appear presidential, conducting serious diplomacy instead of mere politicking.
Obviously, drawing the ASEAN leaders to Vegas, where the president has a hotel, would have been good for the Trump brand. And ten Asian presidents, prime ministers, and their entourages would have injected always-welcome cash into the Nevada resort industry in general. (The March 14 ASEAN event was supposed to have been held in the Westin Lake resort and spa in Henderson, a short drive from the action down on the Strip.)
Bringing money into Nevada is also important to Trump, who hopes to carry the state in this November’s presidential election.
But there is another, more important, reason the weekend of March 14 was important to Trump. One of Trump’s biggest sources of campaign cash, gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, will be in town that weekend.
Adelson has pledged to fork over as much as $100 million dollars to help Trump be elected to a second term in the White House on November 3. Adelson’s other chief political interests revolve around his strong support for Israel.
During the weekend of March 13-15, the Republican Jewish Coalition has announced plans for top Republicans to convene for the RJC’s annual leadership meeting. It will be “a terrific weekend of politics, policy, and poker at the fabulous Venetian/Palazzo Resort and Hotel, on the Vegas Strip,” the group’s literature promises.
Sheldon Adelson is on the RJC board, which runs one of the most influential lobbies in the Republican Party. Adelson also owns the Venetian and Palazzo. And the weekend of March 13-15 will bring Jewish Republican activists “from across the country” to Vegas, the RJC’s website notes.
And guess who’s speaking on March 14 to the Jewish Republicans at the Venetian? Donald Trump — who was not interested in spending much quality time with ASEAN presidents, some of whom are Muslims anyway — will be busy hanging out on the Strip with people he is really interested in.
Tickets for Trump’s appearance at the Venetian are $1,750 per person. But they are going fast, according to an RJC press release.
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