Trump Rips Anti-War Mantle From Democrats on Eve of Election
Peter Van Buren argues that Trump Foreign Policy II will be better for the country
We are just days away from the presidential election, in fact we are entering the final weekend. Interestingly, Donald Trump appears to have seized on all of Kamala Harris’s weaknesses on foreign policy — particularly the hell she has been taking from her left flank over Gaza — to try and peel off voters in key swing states including Michigan and Wisconsin, which we know have big Muslim-American populations.
So while Kamala Harris has been campaigning with neoconservative Liz Cheney, blowing the minds of her progressive base, many of whom no doubt see the looming face of Dick Cheney and both father and daughter’s support for the Global War on Terror in every step they make on the campaign trail, Trump has been talking about peace in the Middle East, ending the War in Ukraine and reanimating his attacks on the George W. Bush administration.
His running mate Senator J.D. Vance, meanwhile, actually posted on X late last week that “Israel has the right to defend itself, but America's interest is sometimes going to be distinct. Sometimes we're going to have overlapping interests, and sometimes we're going to have distinct interests. And our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran.”
He also criticized the Harris team squarely on Gaza.
“Even though they say they want to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties, they pursued the pathway that maximizes those casualties,” Vance said. “They say that they're pro-Israel. They've pursued the pathway that has prolonged the war as long as possible, which is bad for Israel.”
While Harris has been talking tough on foreign policy, indicating that she would not change Biden’s policies, multiple polling has found that Americans are more confident in Trump’s ability to steer foreign policy in 2025.
Why is this? My guess this week has written a great article about it and is in his own right a U.S. foreign policy expert. Peter Van Buren spent over two decades in the foreign service, including a stint in Iraq during the war, before retiring from the State Department in 2012. Today he is a regular columnist for The American Conservative and the author of three books, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, Hooper's War: A Novel of WWII Japan and Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent.
More from Peter:
What Will Trump II Do for Foreign Policy?
If Trump wins, the period between the election and the inauguration could be extremely dangerous. Biden may not be running things now, but someone is, has been, and will continue to do so during the "interregnum." There may very well be an effort to act in a way so as to undermine any effort to bring peace to Ukraine or to the Middle East, or otherwise to shape the wars there in a way that hamstrings Trump's administration.
And there are legal limits to what Trump, even if elected, can do before the inauguration, and he will likely be accused of exceeding those limits, whether there is a basis for such accusations or not.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-150725410
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