Trump and the unprepared populists

And in the United States, Donald Trump won the election with a promise of populist economics and some hints at a more peaceful foreign policy. But his Republican partners in Congress are working on a supply-side agenda of massive tax cuts for the wealthy. They don’t have plans to make good on his promise “to take care of people” who can’t afford health care, or to re-industrialize the Rust Belt, even if it means tariffs or confronting our trading partners on their currency devaluation.

Staffing up an administration is difficult for any transition team, but for Trump it is proving immensely difficult. His support among Republican elected officials was hardly genuine or deep. His ability to attract the finest policy minds on the right is practically non-existent. His foreign policy advisors during the campaign were D-listers and cranks. His policy repulsed neoconservative thinkers who wanted to use American power to spread democratic values. But instead of attracting sober realists, he has brought on hawks who are just indifferent to democratic values, men like John Bolton or retired general Mike Flynn. Almost everyone else who thinks about foreign policy seriously seems to be afraid to step out and help him, for fear of participating in a botch-job or disaster. It is difficult to execute on policy that you don’t believe in. And it is almost impossible to do a good job of it when you believe the policies are actively harmful.