President Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from Syria and not to intervene in Turkey’s incursion into the border area between Turkey and Syria has suddenly united the Washington establishment in opposition to the President. It was not just Speaker Nancy Pelosi (“The President’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Northern Syria is a deeply disturbing development ….”) and leading Democrats who criticized the President, but also most Republicans. Senators McConnell, Romney, Cruz, Rubio and Graham all lined up against the President’s decision. Senators Romney (R-UT) and Murphy (D-CT) even issued a rare bipartisan statement castigating the President’s “disastrous” betrayal of our allies.
For all the outrage, however, the President stood firm stating on Twitter that he was “elected to get us out of the ridiculous endless wars.” The only senator to support the President was Senator Rand Paul whose libertarian, non-interventionist views are well known.
So how will the foreign policy play at home? We think Trump is determined to keep America out of wars and bring our troops home. His next move after getting out of Syria will likely be to draw down troops in Afghanistan. Despite opposition from the intelligence community and the military establishment, Trump is sticking to his instincts and wants to reduce our foreign entanglements. Trump’s strategy is to run a campaign on Peace and Prosperity. Strangely, Democrats — normally the party of doves — has suddenly become the party of global intervention. We doubt voters will really care about Syria and Turkey. That said, we think the issue is more likely to work in Trump’s favor. Ending wars is rarely a political liability, particularly in places like Northern Syria.
NewEnglandPolitics.com 