If You Didn't Already Think Trump Was Unfit for Office, Syria and Ukraine Should Change Your Mind

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https://time.com/5704178/trump-character-unfit-office/?fbclid=IwAR3oE2lnHXjC0SZ0FkbJi-2uCsAfrUavBLrPUaDiSkyQTRIa5RDH8n-p_Ug

If You Didn’t Already Think Trump Was Unfit for Office, Syria and Ukraine Should Change Your Mind
By David French October 17, 2019

French is a TIME columnist. A lawyer and senior fellow at the National Review Institute, he is a best-selling author whose next book will be The Great American Divorce.


Throughout the 2016 presidential primaries and through the presidential campaign, those of us who were classified as “Never Trump” or “anti-Trump” conservatives repeated the same mantra, time and time again: Character is destiny. A man’s temperament, knowledge, and integrity inevitably shape his conduct. As much as voters may hope that the weight of the office or the influence of advisers can shape or influence a flawed president, those flaws will still burst forth — especially when a man is as headstrong as Donald Trump.

While we have seen the consequences of Trump’s character throughout his presidency, no series of crises has demonstrated his profound flaws more thoroughly and completely than the twin foreign policy scandals in Ukraine and Syria. All of the character traits that Trump’s critics most feared are present — including his petty corruption, his temperamental unfitness, and his rank incompetence.

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But if there is anything we’ve since learned about the partisan mind, it’s that it’s capable of endless contortions and rationalizations in the pursuit of power. For the GOP partisan, character is no longer destiny. It’s an increasingly-irrelevant factor in the quest for power — even when the exercise of that power consistently and increasingly results in outcomes and policies that Republican stalwarts once opposed.

Imagine, just for a moment, the Republican outcry if the Obama administration had so abruptly abandoned the Kurds. Republicans, in fact, demanded that Obama intervene in Iraq in 2014 to save Iraqi Kurdistan from ISIS. And when he did, they demanded that he fight harder, that he “take the gloves off.”

While it’s gratifying to see a number of Republican senators and congressmen condemn Trump’s Syrian retreat, few are (publicly, at least) acknowledging the full truth of the moment. Trump’s Ukraine and Syria policies represent Trump unleashed. This is the man in full, and the man in full is demonstrating that he’s just as corrupt, unfit, and incompetent as his critics feared. Character doesn’t just count, character controls, and the diplomatic, military, and moral fruits of Trump’s are bitter indeed.