U.S. diplomat questions Trump's belief in the free world on eve of meeting Putin

"I hate to say this, but I'm not sure that President Trump believes in the free world, and I'm not sure he believes, as American presidents have believed for a hundred years, that American interests and American values are really the same," says Daniel Fried, who served for four decades in the American Foreign Service, including a term as U.S. ambassador to Poland when communist rule ended there.

In his conversation with The Sunday Edition guest host Nahlah Ayed, Ambassador Fried looks ahead to the meeting scheduled for July 16 between the U.S. and Russian presidents, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

There are real risks to the kind of isolationist cynicism that I hear sometimes from the American president.- Daniel Fried

Fried left the U.S. government last year, after serving as senior director of the National Security Council for both Democratic and Republican administrations, and as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. He was a key player in crafting American policy in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, and is now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States.

In his analysis of the Trump-Putin meeting, the ambassador invokes the lessons of history: "The last time America was in the grip of isolationism was the 1930s. It trapped the Roosevelt administration and kept us from doing anything about Hitler. The result was disaster. Millions of people lost their lives because America had pulled itself out of the game. There are real risks to the kind of isolationist cynicism that I hear sometimes from the American president."

He also drew parallels between the meeting of Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the upcoming summit in Helsinki.

"The president seems to have nothing but bad things to say about his democratically elected counterparts, and yet he seems to have good things to say about Putin and Kim Jong Un," says Fried. 

"I'm afraid it's more than a tactic. I'm afraid that this really represents President Trump's deeper strategic convictions, that American values have nothing to do with American interests, that we should not try to lead the free world, that there is no such thing as the free world: it's merely a sham, and that we ought to be just another grasping superpower trying to take our cut."

Although he says he is encouraged that Trump has said he will raise contentious issues with Putin, such as Russia's interventions in Syria and Ukraine, Fried adds a note of caution: "There's raising an issue just to say you raised it, to check the box.  And then there's raising it in a way that the other guy knows you're serious. That's what he needs to do."

If we can get over this current period of distraction, then we'll be okay.- Daniel Fried

Fried, who has met Putin himself several times, says the leader has already benefited simply because the meeting with Trump is happening. He also expresses concern that the Russian president will have the upper hand on Monday: "Putin is smart, tough, knows what he wants. He excels at manipulating any conversation to his advantage, which is not a reason not to meet with him. It's a reason to be on your toes and pay attention."

Despite all his concerns, the ambassador leaves room to correct the course: "Those of us who believe in the free world and America's role as part of the west, not alone but with our allies, need to remember who we are and what we've stood for a hundred years. If we bring that to the table, if we can get over this current period of distraction, then we'll be okay."