The common misunderstanding of Trump’s foreign policy emerged during the 2016 election, when his criticism of the Iraq War was central to his campaign for the Republican nomination and the presidency, particularly in contrast to the hawkish Hillary Clinton, who had been a cheerleader for that disastrous war. Trump did, to be fair, stand out in the Republican field for his scathing criticism of the handling of the war, but he was being more than a little opportunistic: His primary rival for the nomination was Jeb Bush, brother of George W. Bush. Even when he suggested he was against it, as he did in that September 2016 forum, it was often mixed with a contradictory idea: that the U.S. would have been more successful if it had been more rapacious, violent, and imperialistic.
Author: Alex Shephard
Published at: 2025-06-17 22:08:26
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