Is Trump Our Greatest National Security Threat?

So another chaos-tipped missile has been launched by Trump, this time hitting the Pentagon and finally convincing defense secretary Mattis to resign. Although Trump tweeted that Mattis was “retiring”, Mattis released a professional but unusually scathing resignation letter describing all of the reasonable and traditional things he believes about defense and foreign policy, which by inference Trump does not share. This is reportedly the first cabinet member to resign in protest over policy disagreements with the president since the Carter administration! There goes probably the last mature adult in the house!  The last straw of  many in this increasingly dysfunctional relationship was Trump’s decision, reportedly against the recommendation of all of his military and national security advisers, to unilaterally pull all US troops out of Syria, with reported additional plans to withdraw about half our troops from Afghanistan. Almost all military experts as well as most Democratic and (finally!) many Republican congressional leaders, including usual Trump ally Lindsey Graham, are blasting this decision as misguided, shortsighted and destabilizing, with potential negative security consequences for the US as well as its allies. There is probably an underlying perceived political motive for this move, whether to distract from the spreading net of the Mueller investigation or trying to play to his base, although a more sinister possible explanation is pandering to the will of his idol Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan, the latter now threatening to attack our Kurdish allies within Syria, who will likely be decimated without our protection. There is clearly no real coherent strategy behind all of this. Of course this is just the latest in a long list of statements and actions by Trump ever since taking office which have denigrated and alienated our allies, as well as our own intelligence services, played up to our adversaries, effectively diminished our leadership and power in world affairs, and generally destabilized the global situation, thereby ultimately jeopardizing our own national security. Former Defense Secretary William Cohen summed it up perfectly on CNN: “The president has taken a wrecking ball to every pillar of stability and security we’ve erected over the past 60-70 years.” The main unexplained question is still WHY??  Is he doing these things out of some perverse sense of power, thinking that doing the opposite of all of his predecessors, particularly Obama, and rejecting what his advisers recommend will somehow make him look brilliant if things go well, although they probably won’t (as with his absurd claim during the campaign that he knows more about ISIS than the generals)? Is he just trying to play to his base? Is he doing Putin‘s bidding for him for some nefarious or personal (e.g. personality disorder) reason? It will be interesting to see how many people turn down the chance to replace Mattis before they find a willing replacement, who if he agrees with Trump’s policies will probably be a disaster.

Meanwhile, we are heading toward a partial government shutdown due to Trump’s insistence on $5 billion in additional funds for his border wall (wasn't Mexico going to pay for that?), which Democrats will not go along with and therefore will just not get through the Senate, although it was passed by the Republican controlled House. Alarmingly, Trump’s decision to not back down on holding the government hostage over this issue was apparently due to criticism of him by conservative pundits Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh!! How appalling is it when a president’s major decisions are determined by political commentators?! And predictably, although Trump almost boasted about owning the shutdown in his televised Oval Office meeting with Pelosi and Shumer, he is now blaming the Democrats!

Also meanwhile, it has come out that acting AG Matt Whitaker is ignoring the recommendation of the Justice Department’s own ethics advisers that he recuse himself from the Mueller investigation based on the appearance of a conflict of interest from his public statements against the investigation before being appointed acting AG. Also scary! Hopefully he realizes that his reputation and political future would be toast if he is responsible for interfering with or shutting down the investigation!