The national security establishment is tremendously powerful in the U.S. — sometimes for ill, but very often for tremendous good. It has many branches, filled with men and women of extreme dedication and great acumen. If Donald Trump is a complete idiot, he will rebuff these people and surround himself with the kinds of henchmen and amateurs who will guarantee that he goes down in history as failing beyond all measure to make America win again in the world.

Or perhaps Trump will take note of the foreign policy faceplant of well-intentioned novices like Jimmy Carter and staff the hell up on talent. Both the American people and the U.S. defense establishment are ready to turn the page on both Bush’s and Obama’s legacies abroad. In the most general and important sense, Trump offers that chance. He can screw it up royally, to be sure. (Presidents do!) But he can also have the sense, the savvy, and the pride to let our best civil servants throw their energies into a new grand strategy that actually works.

If you think Trump is now all but certain to ruin your country, the rest of the world is probably not high on your mind. But if you think America has been through far worse in the past, only for us to wind up far higher on top than so many of the planet’s other peoples, you will likely agree that Trump’s moment of truth will arrive — if it does — when the time comes to re-establish America’s role in the world. At a moment when so little confidence has been placed in his rivals’ ability to do just that, Trump likely faces a rare opportunity to make a global legacy Americans won’t wear like an albatross.