{"id":63792,"date":"2026-06-01T15:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/?p=63792"},"modified":"2026-06-01T15:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:44:30","slug":"paul-hare-on-trumps-truth-social-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/2026\/06\/01\/paul-hare-on-trumps-truth-social-diplomacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Hare on Trump\u2019s \u201cTruth Social Diplomacy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Webster Hare<\/a>, Master Lecturer at the Pardee School and former British ambassador to Cuba, was recently interviewed by the German magazine, Focus<\/em>, for a feature on Donald Trump\u2019s White House and its distinctive communication style.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Amb. Paul Webster Hare<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With more than three decades of diplomatic experience, including postings in Cuba and China and teaching at Harvard, Hare reflects what the article describes as \u201ca veteran of the old world of diplomacy.\u201d In the interview, he draws a sharp contrast between traditional statecraft and Trump\u2019s media-driven approach, recalling how figures such as Henry Kissinger and Richard Holbrooke were \u201ctrue dealmakers\u201d who treated negotiations as an art form, not merely \u201ca kind of \u2018reality show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hare argues that Trump\u2019s use of Truth Social\u2014an alt-tech social media platform <\/span>operating as a “free speech” alternative, primarily catering to conservative, pro-Trump users\u2014<\/span>encapsulates what he sees as a fundamentally different vision of presidential leadership. He describes the platform as \u201cthe perfect symbol of Trump\u2019s ideal vision of a presidency: Trump as a superhero at the center of attention, every word a thunderclap that shakes the world.\u201d This stands in stark contrast, he notes, to leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who \u201ccommunicate little, and when they do, every sentence seems carefully chosen with strategic calculation.\u201d For Hare, this difference is not stylistic but consequential: where restraint can enhance leverage, Trump\u2019s \u201cunbridled, unfiltered direct diplomacy\u201d risks diminishing both presidential authority and U.S. credibility on the global stage.<\/p>\n

He went on to criticize the substance and consistency of Trump\u2019s messaging. According to Hare, much of what appears on Truth Social about foreign policy is \u201cfalse, contradictory, or an outright lie,\u201d citing shifting ultimatums toward Iran as one example. He also highlights how Trump\u2019s posts reveal personal instincts and reactions, offering \u201cglimpses into his inner life\u201d that adversaries and allies alike could exploit.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Hare suggests that the platform blurs governance with personal business promotion, noting how Trump can pivot from threatening to \u201cunleash hell on Iran\u201d to advertising branded products. Taken together, Hare argues, this approach undermines the effectiveness of what he has elsewhere termed \u201cTruth Social public diplomacy,\u201d limiting its ability to produce meaningful diplomatic outcomes.<\/p>\n

The full article can be read here<\/a> in German.<\/p>\n

Paul Webster Hare<\/span><\/a> is a master lecturer at the<\/span> Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies<\/span><\/a>. He served as British Ambassador to Cuba from 2001 to 2004 and also represented the U.K. to the European Union in Brussels, New York, Portugal, and Venezuela as deputy head of mission. Hare has extensively written about Cuba for renowned news outlets including <\/span>The Financial Times<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>The Atlantic<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Newsweek<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>The Huffington Post<\/span><\/i>. He is also the co-editor of the<\/span> Palgrave Handbook of Diplomatic Reform and Innovation<\/span><\/i><\/a>, which analyzes current practices of diplomacy and proposes practical solutions to improve diplomatic outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Webster Hare, Master Lecturer at the Pardee School and former British ambassador to Cuba, was recently interviewed by the German magazine, Focus, for a feature on Donald Trump\u2019s White House and its distinctive communication style. With more than three decades of diplomatic experience, including postings in Cuba and China and teaching at Harvard, Hare…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25562,"featured_media":63109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8410],"tags":[9544,8646,8650,10365,9331,13032,9527],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63794,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63792\/revisions\/63794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}