David Sanger on President Trump's Erratic Foreign Policy

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Minutes before his high-stakes meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Thursday, President Trump took to social media to say the U.S. would resume nuclear weapons tests for the first time in decades. It’s the latest in a foreign policy approach that veteran New York Times national security reporter David Sanger calls a mix of instinct, grievance and ego, marked by swerves and reversals. We talk to Sanger about how Trump’s approach is affecting our standing on the world stage. Guests: David Sanger, White House and national security correspondent, The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:29.9	From KQED.
0:32.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. President Trump, in the hour before his meeting with China's
0:38.4	President Xi Jinping, over major economic issues, posted on his social media site that he'd instructed
0:44.4	the, quote, Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis with other
0:50.6	countries, suddenly casting the shadow of a nuclear arms race over the high-stakes meeting.
0:56.1	The New York Times, David Sanger, who has covered five presidents, has recently taken stock of
1:01.3	Trump's approach to foreign policy from Ukraine to Venezuela, and joins me now to talk about
1:06.5	whether he's found a coherent strategy on global affairs. Listeners, how would you describe the president's foreign policy?
1:14.5	Sanger is White House and National Security correspondent for the Times,
1:17.5	whose 2024 book is New Cold Wars, China's rise, Russia's invasion, and America's struggle to save the West.
1:25.5	David, welcome back to Forum.
1:27.4	It's so great to be back with you. It's been a year or so, and wonderful to talk to you.
1:32.5	Yeah, and a lot has happened as we approached this Halloween day. Yes. So, David, I can hear
1:39.3	some of our listeners thinking, coherent foreign policy strategy. There isn't one. Would they essentially be
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