Why can’t Donald Trump close the deal with any foreign policy advisers?

[sinkspur]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/03/09/why-cant-donald-trump-close-the-deal-with-any-foreign-policy-advisers/

Why can’t Donald Trump close the deal with any foreign policy advisers?

The GOP candidate's foreign policy advisers are as real as Trump Steaks

By Daniel W. Drezner March 9 at 9:15 AM

It seems more and more likely that Donald Trump will be the GOP presidential nominee. And so the hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts has been paying keen attention to when Trump will announce who will be helping him to hammer out his foreign policy platform.

As it turns out, it has been very easy to keep track of Trump’s public promises and pledges on this question:

1. Sept. 16, 2015: At that night’s GOP debate, Trump promises to put the “finest team anyone has put together” on foreign policy.

2. Sept. 21, 2015: Trump promises Hugh Hewitt on his radio show that he’ll be announcing his foreign policy team “very soon.”

3. Throughout the fall: Trump names foreign policy people as advisers; those people say they have not talked to the candidate.

4. Feb. 9, 2016: Trump promises Fox News Channel’s Martha MacCallum that he’ll name his foreign policy team, saying, “I’m gonna release a list in about two weeks.”

5. Feb. 17, 2016:  At an MSNBC town hall event, Trump says, “I’m going to be announcing a team in about a week that is really a good team.”

6. March 2, 2016: GOP foreign policy experts release a petition stating that they are “united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency.” That list is now at 117 people (full disclosure: I am one of the signatories).

6. March 3, 2016: Trump responds to Mika Brzezinski’s question on “Morning Joe” about his foreign policy team and when he’ll announce it by saying, “I’ve met and I’ve spoken to the team. I’m going to do it shortly.”

7. Later on March 3, 2016: Trump names a chairman of his national security advisory committee. It’s Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Admittedly, as Reuters reports, “Sessions is not known as one of the party’s leading foreign policy voices in the Senate.”  Still, it’s … a name! So all Trump and Sessions need is an actual team!

8. March 8, 2016: Again on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Trump offers what might be the quickest flip-flop in campaign history:

“Yes, there is a team,” Trump said, before reversing himself within seconds, “There’s not a team. I’m going to be forming a team. I’ve met with far more than three people, and I’ll be forming a team at the appropriate time.”

Pointing to Sessions, “who wasn’t on board the last time I spoke to you because he just endorsed me last week,” Trump said he is “dealing with numerous other people,” adding that he will be making a decision “in a fairly short period of time.”

Which brings us to — scans news feed — the present moment. By my count, Trump has broken at least three explicit promises to name his team by a certain date.

Now far be it for me to distrust a man who blatantly lies about his own brand-name products, but I’m beginning to suspect that maybe, just maybe, Trump is not going to be naming his foreign policy team anytime soon. It’s almost like he can’t close the deal with anyone who knows anything about international relations, like they know his foreign policy proposals are unworkable or something. Sad!


Fortunately, the hard-working staff at the Truman National Security Project have created a clock to keep track of how long Trump has made this promise and not kept it:

http://the-whistlestop.tumblr.com/post/140690398851/how-long-has-it-been-since-donald-trump-promised-a

So in case you’re wondering whether or how Trump will honor any foreign policy pledge he has made during this presidential campaign, remember that he has not kept the one concrete, tangible promise he has made during this election cycle.

[Bill Cipher]

Probably because they know Trump only wants yes men who will validate all his decisions, no matter how bad. 

[Free Vulcan]

Trump is in a predicament here. He cannot say he has foreign policy experience, or that the being commander-in-chief is like running a business, or any of the usual bravado.

In otherwards, he's a complete newby, something he doesn't like to admit he is.

Nor can he whine about the Establishment here, as the Establishment are usually foreign policy hawks, and Trump even more so with his foreign policy machismo. So why then can't he line up foreign policy people, who should be flocking to his door?

[EC]

So why then can't he line up foreign policy people, who should be flocking to his door?

Policy wonks are timid beasts. But they do have some conditions and one of those conditions is invariably that their policies have some chance of success.

You can not make policy - which requires careful planning - for someone who shoots from the lip and who is looked at with extreme distrust by your allies.
Throw in the fact that Trump is an almost classic isolationist, and who would want the job?

[Free Vulcan]

Policy wonks are timid beasts. But they do have some conditions and one of those conditions is invariably that their policies have some chance of success.

You can not make policy - which requires careful planning - for someone who shoots from the lip and who is looked at with extreme distrust by your allies.
Throw in the fact that Trump is an almost classic isolationist, and who would want the job?

Yep, exactly.

[GAJohnnie]

Because he offers the Caucus for Perpetual war nothing. These "National Security Experts" are a who is who of K Street Defense Lobbyists.

When Trump did not back their play to have an armed confrontation with Russia over Syria last fall, he made it clear that as President he not going to be yet another  "blank check to the Defense Contractors" President.

[truth_seeker]

Trump has emulated Reagan, who before getting elected, from time to time "shot from the lip."

It is part of negotiating. Keep your opponent off-balance, uncertain of how far you might go.

He will have no difficulty putting together a top notch team of advisors. His policy is "peace through strength."

Heard that before??