Is the America First Coalition Breaking Apart?

Are Neocon advisers and cabinet members taking over the Trump foreign policy agenda? After the Trump campaign prevented neocons from making the arming of Ukraine a plank in the GOP platform, bureaucrats and long-time Washington hands are slowly pushing for just that course of action.

Will the Trump administration be run on America first principles, or revert to the same tired hegemonic tendencies pushed by the neocons every administration? Pat Buchanan asks the question “Is Trump’s Russia Policy Being Hijacked?” at The American Conservative.

In crafting the platform in Cleveland on which Donald Trump would run, America Firsters inflicted a major defeat on the War Party.

The platform committee rejected a plank to pull us deeper into Ukraine, by successfully opposing new U.S. arms transfers to Kiev.

Improved relations with Russia were what candidate Trump had promised, and what Americans would vote for in November.

Yet, this week, The Wall Street Journal reports:

“The U.S. Pentagon and State Department have devised plans to supply Ukraine with antitank missiles and other weaponry and are seeking White House approval … as Kiev battles Russia-backed separatists … Defense Secretary Mattis has endorsed the plan.”

Is President Trump losing control of Russia policy? Has he capitulated to the neocons?