The Worst Mistake of
Trump’s First 100 Days
There’s plenty of
blunders to choose from, but only one clear winner.
STEPHEN WALT, FOREIGN
POLICY, VOICE
April 26, 2017
After 100 days in office, what is
President Donald Trump’s biggest foreign-policy mistake? I’m sure each of you
will have your particular favorites. Personally, I’ve found there have been so
many blunders it’s been a bit hard to keep track. Let’s consider the options.
Was his biggest error appointing
an oddball like Michael Flynn to serve as White House national security advisor?
Flynn lasted 20 days, which sounds more like a stint in rehab than a period of
government service, and was ultimately done in by his dubious activities, his
inability to tell a straight story about them, and a flood of leaks suggesting
he had no idea how to do his job. His replacement, retired Army Gen. H.R.
McMaster, has been cleaning house and made some mainstream appointments, but
unqualified hacks like Sebastian Gorka still have jobs while dozens of other
key positions at State, Defense, and other agencies remain unfilled.
Or did Trump err by failing to
monitor, control, or straighten out his associates’ tangled connections to
Russia, a failure compounded when people like Flynn and Attorney General Jeff
Sessions proved unable to tell a straight story about them? We still don’t know
what Trump’s connections in Russia really are, and it’s entirely possible that
there’s no fire behind all the smoke. But the upshot of the whole debacle is
that Trump couldn’t pursue a reset with Russia now if it wanted to. The whole
mess is deeply unfortunate from a geopolitical perspective, because the United
States could still use Moscow’s cooperation on a number of issues and there are
some serious disagreements between the two states that need to be worked out in
a disciplined and hard-headed fashion. Trump’s carelessness in this regard has
constrained his diplomatic latitude significantly.
