From Mexico to China, POTUS makes policy perfectly unclear
President Donald Trump speaks during an inspection of border wall prototypes in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. Credit: AFP/Getty Images / MANDEL NGAN
President Donald Trump keeps making statements that sound strident but give the public only the muddiest idea of what his administration is doing or about to do.
First, there’s the Syrian involvement. “I want to get out,” he said at a news conference Tuesday. “I want to bring our troops back home.”
At the same time, U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Mideast, said the ISIS presence in Syria is diminished but not gone. “Our mission isn’t over,” he said.
“The hard part, I think, is in front of us, and that is stabilizing [certain] areas, consolidating our gains, getting people back into their homes,” Votel said.
This is the same Trump who blasted predecessor Barack Obama for telegraphing his military plans.
Then there’s the matter of the Mexico border. On Tuesday, Trump said: “Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step.”
But during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, thousands of National Guard troops were deployed at times with helicopters to help intercept illegal border-crossers or to shore up border fences.
How Trump’s plan will depart from those appears unknown since it has been reported that this “big step” at first took Pentagon officials by surprise.
Trump grouses about Mexico having stronger immigration laws, but the U.S. Congress isn’t changing them.
The president has linked border security to NAFTA talks. Yet he already pledged during the campaign to pull out of the pact, and his plan and strategy remain vaporous.
As for a “caravan” of 1,000 or so Central Americans who were migrating north through Mexico, vexing Trump, the Mexican government has begun handing out transit visas and the group has started to disperse. What has changed for the U. S.?
Amazon, which dominates e-commerce and lures shoppers away from stores, is a favorite political target of Trumpian tweets.
But there is no plan to tax the company more heavily or charge it more to use the U.S. Postal Service. There also is no hint that the executive branch is planning antitrust action against Jeff Bezos’ company.
Joe Nocera of Bloomberg View even argues that Trump’s broadsides cause antitrust experts and Justice Department officials “to shrink from the subject because they don’t want to be seen as doing Trump’s dirty work.”
Trump’s preparations for new tariffs and China’s threats of retaliation are driving worries on Wall Street. On March 2 the president tweeted: “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “We are not in a trade war with China.” Given the trade imbalance, he added, “you can’t lose” with his strategy.
New Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow was asked by reporters outside the White House if he agreed with the tweeted sentiment that you can’t lose a trade war.
Kudlow replied: “I’m not sure what exactly he’s referring to.”
He was not alone.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
