Just after Donald Trump’s historic victory on Tuesday, I explained what our incoming commander-in-chief needs to be thinking about as he prepares to move into the Oval Office. The national security challenges our new president will face are serious and complex. They would tax the most experienced foreign policy maven.
Which Trump assuredly is not. He will be inaugurated on January 20 with essentially no experience in national security or foreign policy. All presidents are dependent on their staff—“cadres decide everything” in Stalin’s famous words—and when it comes to defending our country and its interests, Trump will be relying heavily on his key staffers and what they bring.
Obama, too, came to the White House with very limited experience in security issues, then brought in many staffers who had not much more; we saw where that led. That mistake cannot be repeated. Platoons of neophytes who think they’re geniuses led Obama’s bloated and politicized National Security Council into one disaster after another. Trump must do better.
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