Trump Cannot Replace Bolton from Bush and McCain Teams

President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, attends the Full Honors Ceremony for Secretary of Defense Esper Thursday, July 25, 2019, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

At The American Conservative, W. James Antle, III tells readers that if President Trump wants to achieve the America First foreign policy he campaigned on and that Americans voted for, he cannot recruit a replacement for John Bolton from the Bush/McCain faction of the GOP. Trump’s choice, explains Antle, is either “chart a different course or heed the advice of those who know only how to lose elections and wars.” He writes (abridged):

By sacking former national security adviser John Bolton, President Donald Trump has put himself in a better position to keep the campaign promises that distinguished him from the other

Finally, an example of regime change that could actually make our country safer. But while firing Bolton is prerequisite for pursuing a true “America First” foreign policy, it is not sufficient by itself. Trump needs reinforcements if he is to fulfill his pledges to end the wars in Syria and, especially, Afghanistan.

Trump cannot govern the way he wants to by recruit from the George W. Bush and John McCain B Teams.

Neocons will try to bait Trump into more forever war futility by saying he wants to make deals with America’s enemies and comparing him to Barack Obama.

What has listening to his vanquished Republican rivals gotten Trump?

No border wall, no broader immigration reform, no infrastructure bill, no Obamacare repeal or replacement, no credit for cutting taxes. They collaborated successfully on judges and jobs, which should be enough to turn out the conservative base, but Trump has less to sell to the working-class swing voters who changed Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan from blue to red.

Those Americans are tired of seeing their children sent to die in nation-building exercises overseas as their own community’s crumble around them at home. Many of these domestic policy initiatives are out of Trump’s reach as long as Democrats control at least one chamber of Congress. Yet he can still deliver on foreign policy, if he means what he says. Otherwise he can let B-Team Bushies once again get Republicans tossed out of the White House.

This time only after a single term. Trump can chart a difference course or heed the advice of those who know only how to lose elections and wars.