RIP GOP After RNC in CLE?

Dan Senor's observation about a divided Republican Party was epitomized by a recent gathering on Capitol Hill. The Dubliner Pub hosted an unusual viewing party for Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump's (R-NY) acceptance speech.  Former Hill Rats and GOP Administration alumni gathered for a wake for the Republican Party. 

Lest one be lured into a facile understanding that these are just sour grapes of Republican Establishment flunkies chaffing at meeting the new boss of the party, the chasm between outsiders and establishment is not a clean cut.  While four GOP standard bearers including former President George H.W. Bush ('88 and; '92 nominee),  former President George W. Bush ('00 and '04 nominee), ex Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA '12 nominee) and  Senator John McCain (R-AZ  '08 nominee) consciously chose to skip the RNC in CLE, this disdain was not universal.  Melania Trump recognized from the dais ex Senator Bob Dole ( R-KS '96 nominee). Of course ,Dole conveniently endorsed Trump in December.  Moreover, many former Dole staffers have been joining the Trump campaign.

Establishment Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also attended the Trump Show. Trump winning works into the Cocktail Party agenda of eliminating pesky Tea Party types from between the beltways.  There may be a calculus by Cocktail Party chiefs that if Trump wins, they can cut backroom deals with him.  If Trump goes to ignominious defeat, then the Grand Old Party will have to rely on the Establishment as they lick their wounds in the 115th Congress.

Obviously, Senator Ted Cruz's non-endorsement of Trump illustrates the Republican Party in exile.  Cruz's Constitutional conservatism may make strange bedfellows with more moderate Republicans in exile.  But they can probably agree that threatening to trash trade deals like NAFTA, effectively blowing up NATO and ignoring back actors in the world under the guise of America First neo-isolationism is anathematic to the Post World War II Republican Party. 

Circumnavigating Trump's World View

During the Republican National Convention in Cleveland which nominated Donald Trump (R-NY) as the GOP Presidential standard bearer, the candidate granted a 45 minute interview to the New York Times on Defense and  Foreign Policy issues. 

His expressed policies point toward an America First priority, a slogan which has an unfortunate history of being associated the Charles Limbergh and 1940 American isolationism. But Trump thinks this is a brand new, modern term which connotes "We are going to take care of everyone in this country before we worry about everyone else in the world."

To his credit, Trump did not pussy foot around a self interested, national weltanschaaung in seeking to "Make America Great Again.".  Trump demurred from dictating how Turkey should resolve their internal politics, noting that "America has to fix its own mess" before trying to alter the behavior of other nations. In fact, Trump mused: "How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?” So moral equivalence, a politically correct thought, shuts down America speaking against evil in the world. 

Trump reiterated his threat to pull back American troops deployed to keep stability around the world. Trump chided “We are spending a fortune on military in order to lose $800 billion [in America's trade loss]. That doesn’t sound very smart to me.”  Trump thinks that if there is a threat to the United States, we can deploy troops from our shores. 

Trump echoed his ambition to pull out of NAFTA in a split second, unless Canada and Mexico can be bullied to renegotiate more favorable terms for the United States. And probably that Mexico will pay for a border wall. 


What was truly shocking was Trump's ambivalence to adhering to Article V of the NATO Treaty for joint defense. When pressed on whether the United States would come to the defense of the Baltic States if there was an invasion by the Russian Federation, Trump implied that there would be a cost benefit analysis which was premised on whether those nations are "fulfilling their obligations to us."  So signed and ratified treaties are only bargaining positions in Trump's World. Well, at least Trump seemed to know that Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are under the NATO security umbrella, unlike Ben Carson.

Former Reagan Foreign Policy and current American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar Gary Schmitt, the Trump America First policy is likened to a child who picks up his ball and goes home to lock himself up in a room. 

And that's a viewpoint from a CONSERVATIVE think tank. 

Is this the serious Trump which Trump Convention Manager Paul Manafort promised in the second phase of the campaign (Trump 2.0).  If so, Trump's views on foreign affairs and defense are seriously askew.

H/T: New York Times
        AEI