Trump Is Still the Enemy of Restraint

Far from disentangling the U.S. from the Middle East, Trump is making sure that the U.S. remains mired in its conflicts and rivalries.

Steven Cook gets something partly right for once:

Noticeably absent from Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia was any rhetoric of restraint—the sort of blather about the need for U.S. withdrawal or “off-shore balancing” because Washington allegedly has few interests in the Middle East. Instead, it is clear that Trump wants the United States to stay in the Middle East, just in a different way than in the recent past.

Cook makes his point as snidely as possible, but it is true that Trump’s “vision” for the Middle East has nothing to do with restraint. When we look beyond Trump’s rhetoric and consider his administration’s policies in the Middle East, there is almost nothing that should please restrainers. The announcement that he is lifting sanctions on Syria is the one notable exception, and even there it remains to be seen if that declaration leads to a real change in policy. Trump remains an enemy of restraint, as anyone paying attention to his actions could tell you.