“Mr. Trump, Dr. Carson just referenced the single most important job of the president, the command, the control and the care of our nuclear forces. And he mentioned the triad. The B-52s are older than I am. The missiles are old. The submarines are aging out. It’s an executive order. It’s a commander-in-chief decision.
“What’s your priority among our nuclear triad?”
“Well, first of all, I think we need somebody absolutely that we can trust, who is totally responsible, who really knows what he or she is doing. That is so powerful and so important.”
“And one of the things that I’m frankly most proud of is that in 2003, 2004, I was totally against going into Iraq because you’re going to destabilize the Middle East. I called it. I called it very strongly. And it was very important.”
This may be the most incompetent debate answer in history. I think it was the 2016 CNN GOP primary debate, and the moderator is conservative Hugh Hewitt. I seem to recall Trump would later complain Hewitt fed him a gotcha question.
No, in fact, Hugh basically didn't even quiz him on the components. Let me rephrase what Hewitt si asking, "Components of our nuclear defense infrastructure, land-based missiles, nuclear subs and bombers, are aging and need to be upgraded. We have a limited military budget. How would you prioritize these objectives?"
Trumps's response has nothing to do with nuclear deterrence. It seems to be, I don't care what you asked me, I want to hit my talking points on foreign policy. I want to talk about our mistaken policies in the Gulf Region, the proliferation of nuclear weapons by nefarious actors, etc. And even his own response on its own terms really begged the question: what does a real estate developer and reality TV star know about being Commander in Chief? Does he have any military experience or acquired credentials in foreign policy? He seems to have a simplistic response: I'm not part of the status quo, and they're responsible for this mess.
Whatever the merits of Trump's messages his nonresponsive reply suggests a lack of familiarity with a key responsibility of the Commander in Chief. It is hard to see how someone who is not fluent with the nature and extent of the US military, its resources, capabilities and limitations is up to the job. Can the military handle multiple front engagements? We don't necessarily need a candidate to be a SME, but he should have some general guiding principles and draw on others who may augment his approach and bridge any gaps and advise accordingly.
The problem is that Trump really didn't have an in-depth political philosophy. It was mostly a hodgepodge of general bumper-sticker slogans of "America First", "the swamp", "the establishment", "globalism", etc. He likes being perceived as unconventional and being able to define others, As I have critically noted elsewhere, he is undisciplined and impulsive, and demands total loyalty on his own terms. There were all sorts of audibles, like asking Russia for assistance in recovering Hillary Clinton's emails, not exactly helpful considering we were talking about an adversary potentially gaining access to our nation's secrets, He would later argue he had been joking tongue in cheek, but it opened a question of a quid pro quo, exacerbated by a later meeting of Russians with his oldest son, lending an appearance of Russia intervening in our elections.
Trump kept stumbling from one kerfuffle to the next, at one point raising our commitment to the NATO alliance. He then sends puzzling signals by naming an oil executive as Secretary of State and interventionist nominees for Defense Secretary and National Security Adviser.
I won't assess Trump's term in office here. I will say I'm a believer in the libertarian maxim "when goods do not cross borders, soldiers will", and not only did Trump drop us counterproductively from European and trans pacific trade pacts, he destabilized our existing NAFTA with protectionist policies and started a trade war with China. He hinted of possible intervention in Venezuela, flirted with war with Iran by assassinating a government official, and escalated civilian casualties with drone attacks. He shamefully supported Saudi Arabia's horrific attacks on Yemen. Despite his America Firs agenda, he increased the defense budget and did not scale back our footprint overseas.
What I found particularly troubling was an incident in 2017 where Trump, trying to impress Russian diplomats, exposed an allied operative.. He not only revealed classified data but undermined trust of an ally sharing the information. Trump's narcissism is a vulnerability to national secrets.
But I think nothing affected my opinion of Trump's unfitness as Commander in Chief as much as his mismanagement of classified data. I've already discussed Trump's criminal indictment in past essays (e.g., here). First, it's Trump's blatant hypocrisy on the issue. He had basically run his campaign against Clinton and some classified documents that ended up on her private email server. Second, he has targeted others, like Snowden, who have disclosed classified data, and suggested a death sentence. Third, he signed legislation toughening mishandling penalties.
There are anecdotal incidents I've republished. One is that a classified document had been found in a woman's White House rest room under Trump's tenure. There are also reports that aides needed to retrieve classified documents from Trump's living quarters. This is in the context that no one should access a document without a need to know, and classified documents should be secured after use.
Then there's the whole kerfuffle involving Trump's noncompliance with the Presidential Records Act. Let's be clear: classified data aren't Presidential records. Ex-Presidents do not have a need-to-know classified data. It turns out Trump stole over 300 classified documents on leaving the White House, some of which were included in NARA's pickup of 15 boxes. NARA escalated; Trump got a subpoena for remaining documents; Trump didn't fully return and there was a follow-up search, including one in his personal desk.
MAL was hardly one to vet visitors and documents were stored, at most under padlock and limited surveillance. There is evidence of Trump trying to use documents to impress others.
Trump has tried to excuse his noncompliance and obstruction of justice.
But the bottom line is I have zero trust in Trump safeguarding our national secrets. As far as I'm concerned, he cannot be trusted as Commander in Chief.
