By standards of good national leadership. President Trump did not have a good day on Tuesday.
First off, Trump used the Obama playbook and offered a muted tweet as Nicolás Maduro’s colectivo gangs smashed their way through peaceful protesters in Venezuela. Next, Trump decided to become a big-state liberal and apparently endorsed $2 trillion in new infrastructure spending. Following that, Trump decided to put politics before national security by keeping the Truman aircraft carrier in operation against Navy advice and threat assessment.
On the spending count, it was not surprising that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were singing Trump’s praises following their Oval Office meeting. After all, Trump appeared to give them everything they wanted without any consideration of cost or union profligacy. At least for Tuesday, Trump became a Democrat. Let us hope that his dealmaking skills with Democrats do not reflect a broader trend in his ongoing negotiations on the international stage.
Venezuela was little better. While not as egregious as President Barack Obama’s botching of the Syria chemical weapons red line, or his handling of Russia’s downing of the MH-17 airliner and its election attack, Trump’s Venezuela policy is an embarrassment that has cost America credibility. Heartfelt tweets from Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Vice President Mike Pence didn’t seem to have much tactical effect against Maduro’s armored vehicles as they ran over protesters. Trump can strengthen Guaidó, but doing so will require him to stop, as he said on Twitter, “monitoring” the situation, and instead start acting.
Then there was Pence’s announcement that Trump has decided to keep the USS Harry S. Truman in operational service. As Russ Read reports, this flies in the face of what the nation’s top naval officer had said was best for the nation just on Monday. Pence proclaimed proudly, “We are keeping the best carrier in the world in the fight! We are not retiring the Truman! The USS Harry S. Truman is gonna ‘Give ‘Em Hell’ for many years to come!”
The Chinese will laugh at this comment. But perhaps Trump and Pence are secret oceanic environmentalists. After all, Truman’s retention means a new opportunity for Chinese DF-21D missiles to create a new reef at the bottom of the South China Sea some day. It also means less money for things such as attack submarines, drones, and long-range missiles that can actually defeat the Chinese military. Trump’s choice represents one of populist domestic politics over warfighting capability. Trump’s decision is thus fundamentally counter to his responsibility as commander in chief.
So as I say, this was not a great Tuesday for the president. Hopefully Wednesday will be better.
