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While we have seen the consequences of Trump’s character throughout his presidency, no series of crises has demonstrated his profound flaws more thoroughly and completely than the twin foreign policy scandals in Ukraine and Syria. All of the character traits that Trump’s critics most feared are present — including his petty corruption, his temperamental unfitness, and his rank incompetence.
Let’s begin with Trump’s incompetence. There is no question that Trump faced a difficult strategic and diplomatic challenge in northern Syria. He inherited command of a complex military conflict, and then proceeded to make terrible decisions that had immediate and profound consequences.
Two weeks ago, America enjoyed an alliance with Kurdish allies who had borne the brunt of ground combat (and taken horrific casualties) in the successful fight against the ISIS caliphate. America also enjoyed a longstanding (though increasingly difficult) alliance with Turkey. In mere days, however, his abrupt and shocking retreat after a single call with Turkish President Erdogan destroyed our nation’s alliance with the Syrian Kurds, granted ISIS a lifeline as allied Kurdish forces lost control of ISIS detention facilities, and put our alliance with NATO partner Turkey under unprecedented strain as Trump then imposed sanctions that were too little, too late to avoid a profound military and diplomatic setback.
Adding insult to injury, Americans watched in shame and embarrassment as Russian mercenaries and Russian media toured a former American base — a base that was abandoned so hastily that American soldiers left equipment, food, and even personal belongings behind.
The disaster in Syria pushed temporarily shoved Ukraine from the headlines, but the impeachment inquiry further reveals Trump’s corruption and unfitness.
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Even the most defensible of Trump’s requests — that Ukraine help investigate foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election — is tainted by his unfitness. As the transcript makes clear, he is obsessed with fringe conspiracy theories, including the bizarre idea that there exists a Crowdstrike server in Ukraine that’s indispensable to disrupting the mainstream narrative of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf. The idea is that proof of the “real” story of 2016 (and perhaps even copies of Hillary Clinton’s missing emails) is located in a missing server stashed in Ukraine. There is no evidence any such server exists.
While Trump’s entire presidency has been marred by his chaotic behavior, his defenders have long accurately noted that many of his policies—on taxes, abortion rights, court appointments—have been squarely in the Republican mainstream. They’ve also accurately noted that many of his advisers tempered his worst impulses. But all that is changing. The guardrails have collapsed.
Trump’s character chased off his best advisers. General Mattis is long gone. He resigned after Trump’s first attempt to destroy the American alliance with Syrian Kurds. White House Counsel Don McGahn is long gone. He arguably saved Trump’s presidency by refusing to fire special counsel Bob Mueller. John Kelly is gone. H.R. McMaster is gone. The list goes on.
So now Trump’s character has free reign. Just this week we learned that he tried to engineer a jolting surprise meeting (with photographers present to document the moment) between grieving British parents and the American diplomat who killed their son and then fled the country under diplomatic immunity. It’s hard to conceive of a more insensitive idea. And then today we learned that Trump intends to host the 2020 G7 summit at his company’s own property, the Trump Doral resort near Miami. Only a man who cares nothing for reasonable advice (or negative public perception) could engage in such brazen self-dealing.
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But if there is anything we’ve since learned about the partisan mind, it’s that it’s capable of endless contortions and rationalizations in the pursuit of power. For the GOP partisan, character is no longer destiny. It’s an increasingly-irrelevant factor in the quest for power — even when the exercise of that power consistently and increasingly results in outcomes and policies that Republican stalwarts once opposed.
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While it’s gratifying to see a number of Republican senators and congressmen condemn Trump’s Syrian retreat, few are (publicly, at least) acknowledging the full truth of the moment. Trump’s Ukraine and Syria policies represent Trump unleashed. This is the man in full, and the man in full is demonstrating that he’s just as corrupt, unfit, and incompetent as his critics feared. Character doesn’t just count, character controls, and the diplomatic, military, and moral fruits of Trump’s are bitter indeed.
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As my friend and soon-to-be colleague @JonahDispatch has long said, "Character is destiny."
The Syria and Ukraine debacles represent the essence of Trump — corruption compounded by incompetence and compounded by unfitness: https://t.co/XIRcUKF5U9
— David French (@DavidAFrench) October 17, 2019
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