Former GOP senator shreds President Trump's 'simplistic, prosaic, and reactive' foreign policy

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 12 April 2017

It's safe to say that former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) isn't a fan of President Trump's foreign policy plans. In a scathing speech Tuesday at a Foreign Policy Association event, Lugar tore into Trump's "simplistic, prosaic, and reactive" foreign policy goals, The Indianapolis Star reported, citing a transcript of Lugar's prepared remarks.

While Lugar slammed Trump on everything from his plans to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall to his recent decision to strike Syria, noting the U.S. "cannot bomb our way to security," he was most critical of Trump's "America first" outlook. Lugar, a senator for 36 years and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, deemed Trump's approach indicative of "a selfish, inward-looking nation that is being motivated by fear, not a great superpower with capacity to shape global affairs."

Lugar warned that without "a strong and comprehensive American leadership" on the global stage, "the people of the United States and most countries of the world will become poorer and will have to endure more frequent conflict." "Other power structures will occupy the void," he said, "and many of them are not sympathetic to American values and interests."