Trump repeating past policy mistakes, former US official says

A former senior US State Department official said President Donald Trump is repeating decades of foreign and domestic policy mistakes, sharply criticising his approach to governance.

Richard Stengel, who served as under secretary of state during the Obama administration, said Trump’s actions lack precedent.

In a post on X, Stengel said Trump is acting “with a gracelessness, cluelessness, and corruption that has no precedent.”

He has previously criticised Trump’s approach to diplomacy, describing him as a “one-man negotiator-in-chief” with “no fidelity to the truth.”

He is repeating every foreign and domestic policy mistake the US has made over the last five decades, but he's doing it with a gracelessness, cluelessness, and corruption that has no precedent.

— Richard Stengel (@stengel) March 30, 2026