Trump's Hardline Posturing and His 'Shadow Secretary of State' Ric Grenell

The prominent role of Ric Grenell acting as Trump’s envoy and “shadow Secretary of State” is a clue about what we can expect from a future Trump administration foreign policy, and it’s bad news.

Trump keeps making fools of the people that pretend he is some sort of antiwar candidate:

For example, at one event, he suggested that he would have bombed Moscow and Beijing if Russia invaded Ukraine or China invaded Taiwan, surprising some of the donors.

Trump was probably catering to what he thought the audience wanted to hear. If he thinks that insane hardline posturing is what he needs to get support, he will promise to have insane hardline policies. The standard Republican line is that Biden’s foreign policy is too weak, so it is almost inevitable that Trump is going to run against Biden by taking increasingly aggressive positions. That is clearly what he has decided to do in response to the war in Gaza, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he does the same with other issues. If that’s the way he campaigns, we shouldn’t expect him to govern any better once he is in power and won’t have to face voters again.

The trouble is that Trump is so obsessed with appearing “strong” that he will do reckless and belligerent things if he thinks doing so will project “strength.”