President Trump delivers remarks to reporters during his meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday at the White House in Washington. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
President Trump campaigned on the promise that he’d restore the United States’ standing in the world, vanquish Islamist terrorists and rebuild our military. So far he’s mostly managed to frighten voters, at least one poll suggests:
A new Unisys Security Index reveals that national security is the top security concern for Americans, overtaking financial security.
The index found that 68 percent of Americans said they were “seriously concerned” about national security, which includes the threat of war or terrorism. That was a marked 44 percent jump since the last Unisys Security Index in 2014, when 47 percent said they were seriously concerned about those issues.
The security index also found growing anxiety over cybersecurity and hacking. Thirty-six percent of Americans said they were concerned with malware and hacking in 2014, a figure that is now at 56 percent.
That’s a rational reaction to a spate of terror attacks in Europe, an even more aggressive North Korea, an expanded U.S. force in Afghanistan and new military clashes in Syria. Moreover, it’s hard to ignore how erratic, impetuous and undisciplined Trump has been as commander in chief. By wide margins, the public says Trump is not “levelheaded,” nor does he exhibit good leadership skills.
Trump picks fights with NATO allies, makes vague promises to hold North Korea responsible for the death of Otto Warmbier and orders strikes on Syria — only to suggest that retaliation for use of chemical weapons did not signal a change in policy. He wants to shrink and marginalize soft power (by cutting the State Department by 30 percent) over the objections of Congress. And he still refuses to acknowledge the consensus of the entire intelligence community and members of both parties in Congress that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Unbelievably, in testimony from former FBI director James B. Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, we learned that Trump has shown zero interest in protecting the United States from further electoral interference by Russia. Obsessed with reaffirming the legitimacy of his election win, Trump seems utterly uninterested in defending the United States. He blasts the courts on a series of decisions blocking his travel ban with alarming declarations threatening to hold the courts responsible for subsequent terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, we have yet to see any evidence that he has developed “extreme vetting” techniques that he insisted were essential to U.S. security.
Trump’s constant lies — be it on the whereabouts of a U.S. fleet or the terms of the Paris climate agreement — coupled with his blunders into areas about which he has little understanding (e.g. Qatar) naturally shake Americans’ confidence in the commander in chief. He certainly has shaken our allies, who now openly discuss the need to fend for themselves.
The president’s utter failure to explain our intentions and goals has Democrats waxing nostalgically for President George W. Bush, along with President Barack Obama. John Podesta and Brian Katulis write in The Post:
Unlike the 2007 Iraq surge under President George W. Bush and the 2010 Afghanistan surge under President Barack Obama, this surge by the Trump administration is occurring without an engaged public discussion of the risks or about diplomacy and other tools of national power needed to protect the United States. Although today’s surge doesn’t involve hundreds of thousands of troops occupying major urban areas, it represents an increasing military presence, particularly of Special Operations forces, that is not transparent.
It is one thing to delegate troop-level decisions to the Pentagon. It is another to abandon the job of explaining foreign policy to the American people and rallying the country behind it. Add in Trump’s failure to name a slew of foreign policy appointees, and we have an administration careening from one episode to the next without sound, experienced leadership. Trump’s personal recklessness, combined with a weak and ineffective secretary of state, has tipped our foreign policy dramatically in the direction of hard power, so much so that he seems to be setting up binary choices — war or capitulation — around the globe.
Here Congress must play a role. Lawmakers should hold bipartisan oversight hearings, refuse to confirm unqualified nominees and exercise tighter control on the purse strings to rein in and help stabilize a shaky administration. A derelict commander in chief creates uncertainty, instability and miscalculation by allies and foes alike. Accordingly, Congress had better take a stronger hand before we wind up in a series of unnecessary and dangerous confrontations.