Stagnation and hope in Eric Trump’s foreign policy remarks

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President Trump’s first-term foreign policy has been marked by strength and fulfilled promises, his second son, Eric Trump, argued at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night. His father “rebuilt the mighty American military,” Eric said, “adding new jets, aircraft carriers. He increased wages for our incredible men and women in uniform. He expanded our military defense budget to $721 billion per year.” Moving beyond financials, Eric continued:

America was no longer weak in the eye of the enemy. The moment President Trump ordered special forces to kill some of the deadliest terrorists on the planet. The day the mighty MOAB [Massive Ordnance Air Blast, colloquially, “mother of all bombs”] was dropped on insurgent camps is the day America took a stance to never be defeated by the enemy. [Islamic State leader Abu Bakr] al Baghdadi and [Iranian Gen. Qasem] Soleimani, dead. Over and over, issue after issue … moving the embassy to Jerusalem, peace in the Middle East, never-ending wars were finally ended.

Coming three-quarters of the way through a presidential convention cycle with little foreign policy content from either party, Eric Trump’s remarks were, in that sense, a welcome change. They’re also revealing: of stagnant assumptions in this administration’s approach to foreign affairs, of what the public wants in our foreign policy, and of what could be accomplished in the next four years.

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