The Real Trump Doctrine: 'We're Gonna Kill Them'

The president is not reluctant to use force. He jumps at the chance to use it.

The president repeated his promise to continue murdering people in his made-up “conflict”:

Well, I don’t think we will necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we are just gonna kill people who are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re gonna kill them. They’re gonna be, like, dead.

Trump’s statement sums up the core of his foreign policy and how he wields power in general. He is going to unleash death and destruction because he feels like it and because no one is stopping him, and he isn’t bothering with any pretense of respecting the law. The president will order U.S. forces to commit murder without end, and he makes no secret of it. He thinks it is something to boast about. It is the perfect encapsulation of Trump’s tyrannical rule.

Ryan Cooper accurately sums up what the administration has been doing since early September:

At this point, it seems reasonable to conclude that the administration, through Miller and his team, is selecting boats more or less at random, and intentionally killing people who could be captured, because they think it’s fun.

It tells us everything that we need to know about the president and his henchmen that they are choosing to resort to force and kill people when there is no possible justification for it. Contrary to a lot of bad analysis over the years, the president is not reluctant to use force. He jumps at the chance to use it, especially when there is no chance that the target can fight back. There are many non-lethal and non-military alternatives available, but he has decided that “we’re gonna kill them.” That is the real Trump “doctrine.”

While I was writing this, there was a report of another boat attack. That is the tenth time the U.S. military has murdered people on Trump’s orders that we know of, and it is the third attack this week. Six more civilians are dead because the president chose to snuff out their lives. He will continue the killing until he is forced to stop, and we must demand that Congress stops him.

There is also reason to fear that Trump will order attacks on Venezuela in the near future. The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. sent B-1 bombers close to Venezuela yesterday. This isn’t the first time this fall that the U.S. has menaced Venezuela with bombers. It is true that the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean isn’t large enough to launch a full-scale invasion, but there doesn’t have to be an invasion to inflict massive damage on a country with a bombing campaign. Trump has already done this in Yemen, and I see no reason why he wouldn’t do the same in Venezuela. The so-called peacemaker loves to rain bombs down on weaker countries.

Vincent Bevins, author of The Jakarta Method, made a good observation this week that “the implicit goal of military action is not to create a government; it is to destroy one.” Trumpists sometimes pretend not to like regime change wars, but the parts of regime change policies they object to most strongly are the clean-up and rebuilding phases. These people aren’t against using force to bring down foreign governments. They are perfecly fine with destroying another nation. Just don’t ask them to spend any time or effort on reconstruction.

Trump repeatedly mused about attacking Venezuela during his first term, but opted for cruel economic warfare instead. Rubio may have finally convinced him that the Venezuelan government is weak enough that the use of force will cause it to shatter. If the U.S. attacks Venezuela, it very well could shatter what remains of the state. That will be a catastrophe for the people of Venezuela and a major threat to Venezuela’s neighbors, but Trump and his allies obviously couldn’t care less about any of that. Much like their approach here at home, they are interested in wrecking things and then declaring victory in the ruins.