At annual experts’ debate on strategy, zero Republicans make the case for Trump - By David Ignatius
ASPEN, Colo.
For 32 years, a group of Republican and Democratic foreign-policy experts has gathered here each summer to debate strategic issues facing the country. This year the bipartisan group had a strange imbalance: None of the Republicans was prepared to argue the case of the GOP nominee, Donald Trump.
Trump would probably be pleased to know that he failed to muster support from the Aspen Strategy Group, as this gathering is known. In a sense, he’s running against the elite foreign-policy establishment that the group represents. He is happy to lose the Aspen primary if that strengthens his populist appeal in November.
Trump’s shadow hung over the meeting here. Fifteen prominent Republicans who had served in past GOP administrations met Sunday for a private soul-searching session that one attendee described as “painful and empathetic.” The next day, eight of them joined in signing the public declaration by 50 top GOP former national security officials warning that Trump would be “the most reckless President” in U.S. history.
“We’re seeing a mass exodus of senior and experienced Republicans from Trump on national security. They are deserting him because he has denigrated NATO, appeased [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and shown little faith in American power,” argued Nicholas Burns, director of the Aspen Strategy Group, who served as undersecretary of state under President George W. Bush. Burns had earlier announced that he would support Hillary Clinton for president.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/at-annual-experts-debate-on-strategy-zero-republicans-make-the-case-for-trump/2016/08/09/4cb456ce-5e5c-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
