Trump Is the Enemy of Restraint

Trump has been and will be an anti-restraint president in his foreign policy.

Christopher Fettweis warns advocates of restraint against siding with Trump:

Such a move would be a catastrophic mistake. The once and future president represents not a boon to strategic restraint but a dire, existential threat. No grand strategy will survive the association with Trump and the MAGA movement, and restraint is no exception.

I couldn’t agree more. Association with Trump would prove fatal for restraint, but it also makes no sense for restrainers to want to take his side. Trump has been and will be an anti-restraint president in his foreign policy. Restrainers want to have a less militarized foreign policy, while Trump wants more militarism.

Trump has no problem with a strategy of primacy, and he even entertains the idea of further territorial expansion. That is why he filled his first administration with hardliners, and that is why he has filled the next one with even more. Trump has been an enemy of restraint from the start, and he remains one today.