CLEVELAND — As Donald Trump lays official claim as the Republican presidential nominee, a few old Ronald Reagan hands and GOP officials used an event near the Republican National Convention to give their impending standard-bearer some foreign policy suggestions.
They offered analysis that felt like advice to Trump, perhaps because members of his national security team were in the audience. Former Reagan speechwriter K.T. MacFarland, who moderated one of the panels, took note of the fact. And the advice amounted to making sure that his populism stops at the water’s edge.
The panelists offered a reminder that Reagan built a powerful military but rarely deployed it; they defended foreign aid, at length; and they gave political tips for how to do this while maintaining the votes of his core supporters, who might have a “fear of the unknown” or doubt the value of spending money overseas when there is trouble at home. All in all, it seemed like a blueprint for sanding the rough edges off a candidate who has rattled establishment national security thinkers around the world.
“If Mr. Trump doesn’t already, I would encourage him to read the writings of Teddy Roosevelt, carry a big stick — but speak softly,” retired Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway said during a Global Oval panel with MacFarland and Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn.
Emmer, whose state is home to the largest Somali population outside that country, offered an implicit rebuke of Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail while emphasizing that Americans can prevent terrorist attacks by helping young Muslim immigrants assimilate into U.S. society rather than fall prey to radical imams.
“I think we’ve got far too many elected officials who would rather double down on the fear, double down on the potential hatred or the division because you know what, that gets people all jazzed up, it gets the votes, and it turns them out. The problem is, you’re exacerbating the situation,” the Minnesota Republican said. “We’re having a problem, though, in that we’ve got some longtime residents who whether it’s xenophobia or whatever it might be — fear, actually, of the unknown is what I think it is — they say there isn’t assimilation so they are actually [trying] to push the young people away at the same time.”
Emmer also described his own transition from being a radio host who favored nation-building at home to a lawmaker who learned to love foreign aid, despite representing a conservative district home to voters “who would prefer that we pull back” from the world. His story concluded with a statement that might well function as a sample talking point for Trump or similarly-situated politicians.
“It seems to me that a dollar that we spend today over there might save us millions, if not billions, of dollars in the future that we will not have to spend on bombs, bullets and God forbid, more of our own boots on the ground,” the Minnesota Republican said.
That message was reiterated in the next panel by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who worked was Reagan’s White House political director. Barbour credited U.S. foreign aid with facilitating treaties with Egypt that have prevented major Arab invasions of Israel in the last 30 years.
“The money that America has put into Egypt and Israel as the lubricant for these deals, I can’t think of any better bargain that we’ve had,” Barbour said.
At the time, the former governor was speaking with Jonathan Burks, who works as House Speaker Paul Ryan’s national security adviser. Barbour didn’t make the most direct recommendations to Trump’s team, but the points were made nonetheless. “Do you think if Trump is, like Emmer says, going to reach out, do you think he’ll find a receptive House?” Barbour asked. Burks said he “absolutely” would, because House lawmakers are already working on foreign aid reforms.
Emmer was even more emphatic that a hypothetical President Trump must be willing to rely on Congress and his own advisers in order to run an effective administration.
“Having a businessman doesn’t mean it’s suddenly going to be roses and daisies by any means, but I think the American public, what you’re seeing is they need something different and for us to be successful, he’s going to have to surround himself with people who know what he does not know and he’s going to have to take their advice and then negotiate the legislative process,” he said.
Conway, whom Emmer recommended as a potential adviser to Trump, included some praise for the nominee.
“There are other ways than just wielding that big stick,” the retired general said. “And I sense that that’s more his approach, his intended approach perhaps, even [more] than the other side at this point perhaps. And I sense from him that any involvement would be a very studied involvement and it would be after other approaches, dealmaking if you will, may not have worn through.”
