#WTH Maybe the times demand Donald Trump

It’s not as crazy as you think

Trigger warning: This is for my very dear friends who think Donald Trump is a unique menace. In this piece, I try to face up to the reality that he is likely to be our next president.

If you were to build a president for the current global challenges facing the United States, he might look like Donald Trump. Hear me out for a moment…

• Iran is working towards a nuclear weapons arsenal.

• Russia is occupying and seeking to annihilate Ukraine, as Putin holds U.S. hostages and threatens NATO allies.

• China is threatening Taiwan, and spreading its tentacles throughout the Middle East, Africa, Eurasia, and Latin America.

• ISIS is resurging in Syria.

• Hamas holds U.S. hostages in Gaza.

• Hezbollah is threatening war against Israel.

• The Houthis attacked Tel Aviv, hoping to strike the U.S. consulate.

I’ve left a lot out, but here’s what Joe Biden thinks of this record:

How can I say this without sounding too self-serving?  I’m not having any of my European allies come up to me and say, “Joe, don’t run.”  What I hear them say is, “You’ve got to win.  You can’t let this guy come forward.  He’d be a disaster.  He’d be a disaster.” 

Dude. You’ve been a disaster.

It’s commonly understood that Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan was the beginning of his dismal polling and historically low levels of approval that dog him to this day. But the more important thing to understand is that he doesn’t think Afghanistan was a disaster. He thinks it went great. And the great shrinking of American power that began in Kabul that day has only continued.

You think we’re helping Ukraine? Think again. We’ve done everything possible to slow their victory, even as the taxpayer fronts more money. Why? Because Biden’s policy has been to limit the power, sophistication and permitted uses of the weapons we give to Ukraine, consistently providing the weapons they would have needed prevail in the last phase of the war only after it’s too late for them to make a difference. Even today, President Zelensky complains about being forced by the Biden Administration to fight with one arm tied behind its back.

It’s the same pattern with Israel. Biden began strong after October 7, but his dithering fearfulness of “escalation” and his leftist staff have combined to slow Israel’s victory in Gaza. He has no Iran policy. No China policy. No real NATO policy. Everything Biden has done he has done with fear of American power and leadership at the forefront.

Like-minded friends will tell me that before abandoning Kabul was a glimmer in Joe’s eye, it was a confirmed Trump plan. That’s right, but he didn’t execute that crap idea. That was Biden. They will tell me that Trump wasn’t tough enough on Russia because he admires Putin. They’re right, he has terrible taste. Then again, Putin didn’t take American hostages or invade Ukraine on his watch. Insiders say Trump told them he wanted to pull out of NATO in a second term. It’s a terrible idea — dangerous and stupid. But that’s not what Trump did; what he did was revitalize NATO in an era of disinvestment and rubber stamp commitment.

It’s completely true that Trump lost the 2020 election, desperately tried to subvert the will of the American people, dicked around with classified documents, betrayed his Vice President, and other and sundry sins that are discussed repeatedly to this day in the national media. These sins should preclude him from the presidency and a second term, but they haven’t. And we live in a democracy. If Trump is going to be president again, the job of outside kibbitzers is to encourage him to do the right thing, not stroke our own virtue by condemning him ad nauseam. Only when we need to.

So back to what a foreign policy that meets the moment is. Trump has said he wants to end the Ukraine war. OK, so do the Ukrainians. Russia can withdraw and the war will end. Putin won’t do that unless he fears for his own rule, and if Donald Trump were smart, he would invest heavily in his first six months in a massive Ukrainian victory that brings peace. What that will require is money, and all the arms and ammunition that have been denied Ukraine by Joe Biden. And it will require sanctions on Russian oil exports — on all of the customers: China, India, everyone.

Trump needs to reimpose the maximum pressure campaign on Iran. Think the Chinese and Russians won’t go along? Maybe not. But that’s what we — me too — said last time. And they folded.

Trump needs to make clear to our NATO allies that we are all under threat, and that reinvestment in defense must begin now. Otherwise the U.S. defensive umbrella will weaken. Pulling out will be counterproductive. A kick in the ass will not. Marc lays that out here.

It’s also time to get out of every part of the United Nations that opposes the United States and spends its time nurturing global antisemitism. Biden wouldn’t do it. Congress won’t finish the job. But Trump can. Indeed, it’s something that probably only Donald Trump could do.

Tariffs are Trump’s beloved economic tool; trade wars are mindless, unconservative, and will kick the living daylights out of the poor in this country. The right way to take on China is to redouble the U.S. defense of Taiwan and our allies in Southeast and East Asia. That will require Taiwan to step up in ways it has yet to do, and will require some serious deterrents to escalating Chinese threats. Biden knows the problem, but China has grown steadily more aggressive on his watch. Because Xi knows he can.

All of the isolationists and neo-Lindberghs in our midsts have welcomed the idea that Donald Trump is going to run away from the world, build a big wall, invest in a giant dome (oy vey that is not how Iron Dome works), and we will all go back to living our happy lives while watching I Love Lucy. That’s an illusion. When we withdraw, the world follows us. When we disinvest, we are weak, and tempt our enemies. The world is a mess and sometimes Nixon’s Madman Theory (look it up) isn’t a crazy way to remind the world that actually, the United States remains a power to be reckoned with.

Now, everyone will tell me that J.D. “Charles Lindbergh” Vance will never let this happen. That my Reaganite nostalgia has nothing to do with Donald Trump. And I will tell you, the last time a vice president ran anything was never. Read Trump’s acceptance speech and tell me he’s not up for the kind of challenges we face.

It could all go to hell. Vance could be the most important terrible vice president ever. Trump could do every stupid thing he has ever suggested. All I am saying is, sometimes the world throws up challenges that might best be faced by someone who doesn’t give a damn what the State Department, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the New York Times thinks.

I suspect we shall see.