In an abrupt, if not entirely shocking, turn of events on Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that National Security Advisor John Bolton would be headed for the doorway, having been in conflict with the president’s vision for foreign policy.
The biggest surprise about the firing (Bolton claims it was a voluntary resignation) is that it didn’t happen sooner. Bolton – a fierce hawk on foreign policy – never seemed like the right guy to stand by Trump’s side, considering the latter’s skeptical view of America’s adventures in military intervention. The two were reportedly clashing on any number of important national security issues – Bolton is known to have taken a dim view of Trump’s willingness to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, had no interest whatsoever in giving North Korea’s Kim Jong Un any further meetings with the president, and was not on board with a military drawdown in either Syria or Afghanistan.
While much is still unknown about Bolton’s sudden departure, it is thought that he was vehemently against Trump’s decision to host the leaders of the Taliban at Camp David – a meeting that was ultimately canceled due to the Taliban’s attack on U.S. allies in Afghanistan. One could hardly blame Bolton for being against that particular meeting (we wonder, actually, who was FOR that particular invitation), but we have a feeling it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Trump needs a national security advisor who shares his view of the world, and Bolton…well, he was never that.
The Trump Doctrine, expressed time and again throughout the campaign, is to get the U.S. out of these neverending foreign quagmires that do little else but drain America’s treasury and risk the lives of our troops. To say nothing of creating another generation of America-hating terrorists who we’ll have to deal with in perpetuity. Not saying that we agree that withdrawing from the world is the right idea – indeed, it is, itself, an idea fraught with danger. But if Trump is going to have any success on this front, he needs likeminded people by his side. Not yes men, by any means, but men who are at least on the same page.
Bolton, again, was not that guy. Neither was H.R. McMaster.
So who could be the guy?
“One contender worth watching is retired Army colonel Douglas Macgregor. Macgregor, who won a Bronze Star with a V device for actions during the Army’s largest post-World War II tank battle, was on Tucker Carlson’s show just last night praising the president’s instincts on Afghanistan,” noted John Allen Gay over at The Federalist.
At Trump’s State of the Union Address this year, he said, “Great nations don’t fight endless wars.”
Whether it’s MacGregor or someone else, his new national security advisor needs to share that opinion.
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