North Korea’s Missile Test Leaves Trump with Three Options
You have to hand it to Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s unpredictable president: Launching a new ballistic missile just as President Trump and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe were meeting in Washington couldn’t have been more provocative. Factor in the assassination of…
Trump’s Tough Stance on Iran: Nothing to Gain, a Lot to Lose
President Trump said all along he was going to go after the Iran nuclear pact—another of his “worst evers.” During his campaign, he promised more sanctions, a promise which he has now kept after Iran fired a ballistic missile test…
Trump Takes a Running Whack at the Liberal Interventionists
He’s erratic and he’s no progressive, but at least he’s challenging the high priests of the foreign-policy establishment. Do not say Donald Trump the candidate hid his foreign-policy plans under a bushel, or that President-elect Trump did not hang in…
Trump Talks to Putin, and Suddenly Ukraine’s in Play
Fighting erupted in Ukraine after many months of uneasy but consistent calm after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the U.S. and Russian presidents, finally spoke for the first time last weekend by telephone. Instantly, the Trump White House is faced…
Trump Just Blew His Chance to Renegotiate NAFTA
President Donald Trump’s determination to upend the accords that frame American trade policy are taking root. Even before Trump spiked the Trans–Pacific Partnership on Monday, the White House had signaled that the new president would renegotiate the North American Free…
The Liberal, Postwar ‘Order’ Is Dying—and That’s a Good Thing
Decades of unchallenged pre-eminence have left Americans fearful of change but also greatly in need of it. Very curious to watch Donald Trump’s inauguration last week. These rituals are always heavy on signifiers and light on substance, as they are…
Trump’s Blunders on NATO and Russia Make Our European Allies Cringe
If you thought Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions were politically calculated toss-offs, think again. The interview he gave The Times of London last week put the world on notice: The views Trump expressed as he campaigned last year—notably on NATO,…
On Day One, Trump Faces Two Huge Foreign Policy Challenges
Barack Obama isn’t handing Donald Trump any portfolio of foreign-policy successes as he passes the baton the next president. Trump is about to step into a world that his peace-prize-winning predecessor has made measurably more unstable and dangerous than it…
Trump, Russia, and the Return of Scapegoating, a Timeless American Tradition
Our bipartisan tendency to blame others for our own failures will be the cause of American decline. Now that the intelligence chiefs’ report on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election is available in expurgated form—and we have no reason…
Trump’s Job No. 1: Recoup the Jobs, Wages and Security Lost to Trade Deals
President-elect Trump’s choice of Robert Lighthizer as his special trade representative, announced Tuesday afternoon, completes the first string of the new administration’s trade team. So it’s time to draw a couple of clear conclusions. Conclusion No. 1: Trump is a…
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