So in this previous post I speculated that the Syrian missile strike would improve the polls for President Trump. Turns out, not so much:
Gallup notes in another article that, compared to similar actions by other Presidents, this action has relatively little support:
Reactions to the missile strikes President Donald Trump ordered are much more positive among Republicans (82%) than among Democrats (33%) nationwide.
And Independents are at 44 / 43. So we see a lot of partisanship here, while the Independents – the king-makers, if I may indulge in a completely inappropriate analogy – so far haven’t really swung one way or another. I hope they engage in a follow up poll, since the information that has emerged on the results seems to be mostly negative – airstrip not out of action, the planes destroyed may not have been operational, and the impact on the gas is not yet clear, at least to me. And then what is Trump going to do in the long term?
Kevin Drum thinks not much:
And yet, the US government is now officially committed to regime change in Syria even though it wasn’t last week. In fairness, so was Obama. But Obama was always clear that this was merely aspirational. Trump hasn’t said one way or another, and he’s avoiding the press, which would like to hear a little more about his new foreign policy. The problem, it appears, is that Trump doesn’t know what his foreign policy is. He doesn’t know what to do about ISIS. He doesn’t know what to do about Afghanistan. He doesn’t know what to do about China. He doesn’t know what to do about Syria. He doesn’t know what to do about North Korea. He only knows how to send tweets into the atmosphere about how all these folks better watch out because there’s a new sheriff in town. But there’s nothing more. Trump has taken strategic ambiguity to whole new levels.
Personally, I guess I’m rooting for the meaningless Twitter rants to continue. It’s better than the alternative.
As most anti-Trumpers feared, he now has access to advanced weaponry and may end up drunkenly shooting it off in frustrated bouts of anger. This will be no good for anyone, enemies or allies.
