The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World

CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto demonstrates how Donald Trump has disrupted the world order, and lays out just how difficult it will be to restore it.

There's no denying that Donald Trump has disrupted American politics. But what about his legacy around the globe? Trump's election and subsequent foreign policy have changed the world order, but not for the better.

From praising dictators to alienating allies, Trump has made chaos his calling card, and the world has suffered for it. Trump's foreign policy is hurting the very people who have been on our side for more than seventy years, which leaves them, in turn, isolated and vulnerable without American support. Trump gives comfort to dictators, provides the Taliban with public relations coups, praises Kim Jong-un and their "love notes," and admires and flatters Vladimir Putin. The White House's revolving door of staff demonstrates that Trump has no real plan; all serious policymakers--and those who would be a check on his most destructive impulses--are jumping ship.

Trump's impact on the economy is no less disastrous. With every tweet he risks destabilizing world markets. He tells Americans they are winning on trade, while tarriffs have added to the cost of many goods. His reckless attacks on the Fed ("like a powerful golfer who can't score") have only made things worse.

In World War Trump, Jim Sciutto considers the breadth of Trump's calamitous legacy on the world stage and shows how his proclivity for chaos is creating a world which is more unstable, violent, and impoverished than it was before.