Yeah but...These foreign policy gurus didn’t fail in their patriotic duty to warn us
By Jennifer Rubin March 4 at 12:00 PM
Two years ago this past Friday, a group of Republican foreign policy experts (ultimately numbering 122) wrote an open letter warning the country about then-candidate Donald Trump’s unfitness to lead as commander in chief. Among their concerns:
- His vision of American influence and power in the world is wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle. He swings from isolationism to military adventurism within the space of one sentence.
- His advocacy for aggressively waging trade wars is a recipe for economic disaster in a globally connected world. . . .
- His hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric undercuts the seriousness of combating Islamic radicalism by alienating partners in the Islamic world making significant contributions to the effort. Furthermore, it endangers the safety and Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of American Muslims.
- Controlling our border and preventing illegal immigration is a serious issue, but his insistence that Mexico will fund a wall on the southern border inflames unhelpful passions, and rests on an utter misreading of, and contempt for, our southern neighbor. . . .
- His admiration for foreign dictators such as Vladimir Putin is unacceptable for the leader of the world’s greatest democracy.
They cited his “fundamentally dishonest” statements and derided the notion that his business background was applicable to national security matters. (“Not all lethal conflicts can be resolved as a real estate deal might, and there is no recourse to bankruptcy court in international affairs.”)
“Mr. Trump’s own statements lead us to conclude that as president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world.
Furthermore, his expansive view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors poses a distinct threat o act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world,” they warned. “Furthermore, his expansive view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors poses a distinct threat to civil liberty in the United States.”
The degree to which they accurately spotted dangers to our national security and our democracy is on one hand remarkable, and on the other, an unhappy reminder that virtually all of the behaviors we now see in President Trump were plain to see in candidate Trump. The only difference was that these foreign policy gurus were willing to say so and thereby to jeopardize their chances to get plum jobs in a Trump administration. Eliot Cohen, one of the letter organizers, told me, “We were right then, and we’re right now. I would not change a word.” Recent events bear this out.
Consider their observation of Trump’s wild inconsistency. His rhetorical excess suggests war with North Korea is a real option; yet, he allows Syria to fall under Russian-Iranian dominance, thereby making a war between Israel and Iran (or the latter’s client, Hezbollah) more likely. He threatens to rip up the Iran nuclear agreement but does virtually nothing about Iran’s aggression in the region (including Syria, of course), human rights atrocities and missile testing.
On trade, his protectionist rhetoric this past week became a declaration of and praise for (!) a trade war, throwing our trading partners, including our closest allies, into panic.
His anti-Muslim bigotry became a key factor in multiple court decisions striking down three versions of his Muslim travel ban. His obsession with the threat of Muslim outsiders coming to attack us has led him to ignore (or mischaracterize) terrorist attacks by white nationalists and self-radicalized young men who have been in the country for years. His determination to reduce the number of refugees (who undergo the most exacting vetting) is a stain on the United States and contributes to the unimaginable suffering in Syria and other war zones.
Likewise, his fixation on the border has so disrupted the U.S.-Mexico relationship that President Enrique Peña Nieto canceled a recent trip. Combined with his efforts to scuttle NAFTA, the U.S.-Mexico relationship is the worst it has been in decades.
Lastly and most importantly, Trump’s Russia problem has embroiled the administration in a criminal and counterintelligence investigation, raising the prospect of impeachment and/or multiple indictments of senior officials. He has refused to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin on any matter, and worse, ignored a threat to our electoral sovereignty by refusing to take action against future meddling. His decision to side with Putin rather than the U.S. intelligence services’ unanimous assessment has hurt morale, poisoned the oversight process and undercut our allies’ willingness to share intelligence information with us. Trump’s decision to turn over code-word-protected intelligence to the Russians in the Oval Office marks one of the most remarkable acts of intelligence self- sabotage in American history. And just as anticipated, Trump has gone out of his way to snuggle up to brutal dictators in the Philippines and Turkey.
The foreign policy experts’ admonition about Trump’s undemocratic impulses could not have been more precise. From Trump’s attacks on courts to his smearing of the FBI to his contempt for the First Amendment to his assault on the very concept of truth, he has undermined our democratic institutions and norms. Trump’s rule by tantrum has led to new lows in opinion about America around the world and a rebuke from outside groups such as Freedom House that now cite the United States as a force in undermining democracy around the world.
Eric Edelman, one of the signatories, tells me that their warning “has been borne out by the chaotic, shambolic administration that we have seen over the past 15 months. His unfitness for the office he holds could not be more clear. It has been his good luck that so far he has faced no really dangerous international challenge but I am not sure how long that luck can hold.”
Of course, the signers of the March 2016 letter could not have anticipated everything — the degree to which Jared Kushner has infected international affairs with the appearance of corruption, the intelligence clearance debacle that allowed dozens of White House aides (including Kushner) to operate with only an interim clearance or Trump’s selection of an oil executive ill-suited to the role of secretary of state who was intent on “downsizing” the State Department, with disastrous results. In fairness, however, these and scores of other horrors were encompassed in the signers’ catchall warning that we should not elect “someone so utterly unfitted to the office.” And yet we did, and yet Republicans continue to defend the indefensible. When we elect someone unfit, the lesson should be, we will face inconceivable and unexpected scandals and threats. It is why character must come first, not last.
At least he's not Hillary.
