When US troops began fighting in World War I, it decided the outcome of the conflict. It lead to President Woodrow Wilson's foundation of a liberal world order under US leadership — which Trump is now destroying.
Image: picture-alliance/C. Kleponis
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On January 8, 1918, US President Woodrow Wilson stood before the two chambers of the US Congress and presented his Fourteen Points, a set of now-famous principles which outlined the US war aims in Europe and the Middle East.
Most importantly, they sketched a restructuring of the world order, in which the right of peoples to self-determination would be the guiding principle. Not only that: Wilson called for free trade, an end to secret diplomacy and the creation of a League of Nations.
In Wilson's principles, presented in the final year of World War I, the outline of the liberal world order eventually created under American leadership after World War II was already visible. It was a world order that would prevail as more and more countries chose to follow America's lead. Only now does it seem to be threatened — by another US president.
The current occupant of the White House, President Donald Trump, is one of a kind. Over the last century there hasn't been a single American head of state who would have questioned the foundations of US foreign policy as fundamentally as the 45th president.
There have, of course, always been isolationist forces in the United States. Wilson failed to convince his domestic audience of his ideas for an international framework for peace. But the rejection of his Fourteen Points program came from an isolationist Congress — not the White House, which is why Wilson is still seen as having paved the way for American internationalism. Until its controversial entry into World War I, the United States had traditionally tried to stay out of international conflicts, especially in Europe.
Wilson (right) would push for the formation of the League of Nations in 1920, though the US would never join upImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Wilson: Cooperative foreign policy
The horrors of the Great War led Wilson to conclude that the US should try to implement a multilateral foreign policy based on cooperation. This is also apparent in his much-quoted address to Congress in 1917 leading up to the declaration of war against Germany, in which Wilson emphasized that "the world must be made safe for democracy."
Wilson is often misquoted as having said that the United States must make the world safe for democracy — a small but significant difference. Wilson did not believe the US could do this alone, but that it was a job for the entire world, under American leadership.
His plan for a League of Nations would provide the framework for this cooperative, international political organization. Wilson wanted to create an organization in which action could be taken only if all the members agreed — so every nation would effectively have a right of veto. The fact that the League of Nations lasted just under three decades — and that the US itself never joined — shows just how controversial Wilson's idea was.
Donald Trump's biggest fights with journalists
The latest spat between the US president and CNN reporter Jim Acosta made headlines worldwide, but Donald Trump attacks journalists on a regular basis. Here are some of Trump's strongest outbursts against the press.
Image: Reuters/K. Lamarque
Trump has a habit of attacking journalists
During a post-midterm election press conference, Trump laid into CNN White House reporter Jim Acosta. After Acosta tried to get the president to answer his question, Trump yelled at him: "CNN should be ashamed of itself having you work for them. You are a rude, terrible person." After the spat, the White House suspended Acosta's press pass. CNN said the decision was an act of retaliation.
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
"I know you're not thinking. You never do."
In October, 2018 during a press conference at the White House, Donald Trump directed snarky comments at ABC reporter Cecilia Vega. When Trump came to Vega for a question, he commented: "She's shocked that I picked her. Like in a state of shock." Vega told him she was actually not surprised, to which Trump responded: "That's OK. I know you're not thinking. You never do."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L. Bevilaqua
Trump's name-calling on Twitter
During a Twitter rant in June, 2017 Donald Trump personally attacked MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski through a series of tweets. He called the journalist "low I.Q. Crazy Mika," and claimed she was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when she visited his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago. Trump went on to call her co-anchor Joe Scarborough "Psycho Joe."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Senne
Some journalists have been targeted for years
During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in March, 2018 Trump laid into NBC anchor Chuck Todd. Speaking about Todd's show Meet The Press, Trump referred to the journalist as "sleepy-eyes Todd." He then said to a cheering crowd: "He's a sleeping son of a b***h. I'll tell you." Trump has been calling Todd "sleepy" for years, and clearly hasn't stopped after he became President.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K. Frey
Twitter: Trump's favorite ranting-platform
Trump often takes to Twitter to attack one of his preferred targets: journalists. In July, 2017 he tweeted a video of himself hitting a man with a CNN logo for a head. In December, 2017 he used a tweet to call for Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel to be fired over a wrong tweet. And then his recurring favorite: calling media companies "fake news."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. D. Ake
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Trump: Unilateral decisions
Since Trump's inauguration in January 2017, the US has already pulled out of numerous treaties sanctioned by the United Nations and has withdrawn from several UN organizations. John Cooper, professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin, has written several books about Woodrow Wilson. He believes Trump can rightly be seen as the antithesis of Wilson because of his nationalistic approach.
"[Trump] is a repudiation of 100 years of internationalism. He just wants to go it alone in the world, throw his weight around and make unilateral decisions based upon his whims," said Cooper.
It's not just their attitude to the international role of the US that makes Trump and Wilson polar opposites. Their views on immigration — then, as now, a fiercely debated topic — could not be more different.
Wilson took a clear stand against the anti-immigrant sentiment that arose in the US during World War I, directed toward war refugees from Europe in particular. When the US Congress passed a law in 1917 that limited immigration, Wilson vetoed it. Congress, however, overruled the veto with a two-thirds majority — an indication of the strength of anti-immigrant feeling at the time.
'Wilson hated demagogues'
Here, too, parallels with the present day are obvious. Instead of confronting rampant xenophobia, Trump has been fueling it since the first day of his candidacy. And he hasn't just been all talk — he has used the full power of his office to split up families at the border and deport undocumented immigrants. He also wants to restrict legal immigration to the US, and reduce the number of refugees the country takes in to a historic low.
It's still too soon to judge how Trump's confrontation with the politics of internationalism will end. However, with nearly two years of his presidency behind us, Cooper has seen enough to know that Wilson "would view Trump with horror and alarm. […] Trump just wants to wants to roil things up — and Wilson absolutely hated demagogues."
That, in itself, is a key difference between the two US presidents at either end of a century.
Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary
Large crowds have gathered for observances all over the world to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. From Wellington to London, as silence fell, people honored the estimated 40 million dead and wounded.
Image: Getty Images/C. Furlong
New Zealand leads the remembrance
A 10-cannon salute was held at the Wellington waterfront on Sunday morning to mark the armistice centenary. A kilometer away at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, hundreds of people gathered for a service attended by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Some 100,000 New Zealand soldiers and nurses served overseas in World War I, and more than 16,000 never came back.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Melville
Poppies adorn Sydney Opera House
The sails of Sydney's iconic opera house were illuminated with red poppies for Remembrance Day to signify the bright red flowers that grew on the Western Front battlefields following the war. Around a sixth of Australia's then less than 5 million population enlisted to fight. More than half of them were either killed, wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Mooy
Asian countries pay respects to war dead
Observances were held in Myanmar and Hong Kong (pictured), where school children laid wreaths in remembrance at the Cenotaph war memorial, while veterans saluted. In India, a ceremony at New Delhi's War Cemetary was attended by relatives of many soldiers. The Indian Army sent a million troops to Africa, the Middle East and Europe to fight in World War I.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/V. Prakash
World leaders gather in Paris
A moving armistice ceremony was held in Paris, watched by around 70 world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump. The leaders missed the exact moment of the armistice anniversary as they were running late. The memorial included classical music and the reading aloud of letters by WWI soldiers.
Image: picture-alliance/TASS/M. Metzel
Millions of fallen soldiers remembered
France's Republican guards took part in the parade close to Paris' Arc de Triomphe. At the exact moment 100 years ago that Allied and German weapons fell silent, French Fighter jets passed over the commemorations. Hundreds of miles away, bells rang across Europe's Western Front, the main theater of conflict during World War I.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Ludovic
Britain's royals lay wreaths
Britain's commemorations at the Cenotaph war memorial in London were led by the Queen, who watched from a nearby balcony, and Prime Minister Theresa May. Princes William and Harry also laid wreaths for the 900,000 British soldiers killed in the 'Great War.'
Image: picture-alliance/empics/A. Matthews
Steinmeier's 'historic act of reconciliation'
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first German head of state to attend the annual Remembrance commemorations in London. The British government said before the ceremony that he would lay the wreath at the Cenotaph "on behalf of the German people in a historic act of reconciliation." Germany lost 1.8 million soldiers out of 13 million mobilized for World War I.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/A. Matthews
Respect for lives lost on the Eastern Front
While Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the armistice centenary observance in Paris, Russia's military paid its own respects at a cemetery for WW1 heroes near St. Petersburg. Members of military history clubs donned 'Great War'-era military uniforms to mark the occasion. More than 2.4 million Russians lost their lives in one of the world's most devasting conflicts.
