President Donald Trump is a man in a hurry. Whether it’s tariffs, international trade negotiations, or immigration raids in the workplace, he can be sporadic and shifty to the point where you might think he was diagnosed with multiple-personality disorder. One day, he will post about imminent universal tariffs on a specific date, only to delay the timeline the next.
Foreign policy analysts aren’t immune to the wild swings experienced by traders at the New York Stock Exchange. Trump talks a lot about ripping up the so-called rules-based international order that has dominated global affairs for the last seven decades and is more than happy to stick his thumb in the eyes of the closest allies for any number of sins. Yet his actual policies often lag behind his razor-sharp rhetoric. Trump, for example, rightly blasts the Europeans for taking too much comfort under America’s security umbrella but maintains tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Europe. Relatedly, he rightly lambastes his predecessors for unending, stupid wars in the Middle East but then experiences a Donald Rumsfeld-like conversion, authorizing a monthslong U.S. bombing campaign against the Houthis and a short air campaign against Iran’s nuclear program.
However, there is one niche area of U.S. foreign policy in which Trump is matching action with words: Syria. This medium-sized, war-wracked country in the heart of the Arab world has often been synonymous with death, destruction, and despair. But for Trump, Syria under its new leadership is not only an opportunity for U.S. grand strategy in the Middle East but a perfect wedge to distinguish himself from what he views as a litany of failed men who held the job before him.
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