The Trump's presidency is trying hard to make sense of the chaotic twists and turns of its foreign policy.
The unexpected and hurried withdrawal from Syria has been exposed as mostly unplanned, incoherent and self-defeating. Key allies such as Turkey, NATO and the kurds have been left in chaos, set against each other and deeply upset and deeply distrustful of Donald J. Trump and his emasculated Department of State and intelligence officials.
Returns are clearly negative and start mounting to levels that made the most sycophantic loyalists such as Fox News anchors, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and golf buddy Lindsay Graham break files and distance from the self-proclaimed "very stable genius" tweeting policy 180s at odd hours from the White House.
The difference between genius and foolishness has always been hard to judge in politics, but at this point President Trump seems lost in a fog of war of his own making, a dangerous mix of reality show-like daily spats and consequential, long-term 180 degrees turns and counter-turns.
Foreign policy is way too complex to trust a single individual -even a very stable genius- bouts of intuition. Particularly when such intuitive impulses come in 30 minute-sequences.
Trump's language has also deteriorated dangerously from his usual one-liners to bursts of fury and personal aggression towards formidable foes -such as House Speaker Pelosi-, heads of state -such as the President of Italy-, his own appointees -from DOJs to DoDs, to DoEs to Fed Chairs- and critical allies such as the President of Turkey, EU, NATO, Canada, G7 and G20.
Those who want to keep hope and positive expectations towards the atypical president they voted in office have an increasingly hard time.
Those looking for a method in the madness, a strategy behind stratagems are finding more the latter than the former. And stratagems that might work in closing a one-time, zero-sum real estate deal, a TV contract or handling a poker hand are a poor substitute for strategy.
Those who try to find pragmatism as a positive in Trump's over-simplistic and changing choices instead of poll-driven domestic populism are likely deluding themselves.
Those who asked for a wrecking ball to wipe out US government have certainly gotten what they wished for. Only that the wrecking ball operator seems increasingly erratic and unable to distinguish between his circunstancial political enemies and the columns that support vital institutions.
Those looking for a method in the madness, a strategy behind stratagems are finding more the latter than the former. And stratagems that might work in closing a one-time, zero-sum real estate deal, a TV contract or handling a poker hand are a poor substitute for strategy.
Those who try to find pragmatism as a positive in Trump's over-simplistic and changing choices instead of poll-driven domestic populism are likely deluding themselves.
Those who asked for a wrecking ball to wipe out US government have certainly gotten what they wished for. Only that the wrecking ball operator seems increasingly erratic and unable to distinguish between his circunstancial political enemies and the columns that support vital institutions.
Trump's leadership style is becoming worryingly similar to that he showed in his reality show "The Apprentice".
Only that this time he's also one of them.
