viewpoint: ben cohen

It’s time to fret about Trump’s foreign policy

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When I last wrote about Donald Trump in this column, back in December 2015, I voiced concern about what the Middle East policy of a Trump administration might look like, pointing out that his failure to address Iran’s hegemonic ambitions, along with his deference to Russian autocrat President Vladimir Putin, was perilously similar to the approach of President Obama.

Six months later, Trump has overwhelmed his GOP competitors. The prospect of a Trump victory in November is suddenly real, and only a fool would claim otherwise. 

Still, recognition of Trump’s extraordinary achievement hasn’t altered my worries about how he would shape American foreign policy. First, some general observations about Trump’s approach to politics, to put this in context.

One has to distinguish between Trump’s sensibilities and Trump’s abilities. He is not a stupid man—far from it—and he flourishes when his rivals underestimate him. But he distrusts intellectuals, cares little for history, and disdains the kinds of political speeches that are peppered with literary and philosophical references. For all his bombast about making America great again, the Founding Fathers, the U.S. Constitution, and the endurance of the American republic across nearly three centuries, all are conspicuous by their absence from his podium addresses. All we are told is that “it’s gonna be fabulous.” We just don’t know quite how.

Yet when it comes to the operational aspects of his campaign, Trump has proven a master communicator in the timing of his messages. In every tussle and every confrontation, he has proved that whatever doesn’t kill him makes him stronger. If Hillary Clinton’s campaign believes that facing off against Trump is a political gift, then that is a potentially fatal strategic error, as all the eliminated Republican contenders—16 of them—can affirm.

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