The urgency of the present moment is to separate President
Trump from all matters concerning national security and, by extension, national
defense. Last week he purportedly shared
information with the Russian foreign minister that had been intended to remain
classified. While it may be true that,
as General McMaster later pointed out, the President didn’t reveal sources and
methods in the course of the conversation, the concern is that the Russians,
whose interests are in many areas not aligned with those of the US, might
easily infer those sources and methods.
That appears to be a concern to the unnamed ally who had initially provided
the intelligence to the US. Our allies
will be less eager to share secrets with us if they believe that US officials
can’t be trusted with them.
More importantly, we cannot risk another, potentially more
devastating mistake of this sort (assuming that it was, in fact, a mistake). Nevertheless, the President does not need to
resign or to be impeached for this to happen relatively quickly, as it must.
President Trump came to office (it would be stretching the
truth to say that he was elected) with a promise to disrupt the policy-making
process. He also promised to destroy
ISIS, rebuild our defense capability, restore American influence and stature
among nations, and reduce unnecessary American involvement in foreign
conflicts. Taken
together, that's a set of aspirations, not a policy outline. The nearly
contradictory tension between these goals is simply lost on Mr. Trump.
At this point, we’ve become familiar with how he operates,
which generally involves little or no preparation, saying whatever pops into
his head, and letting his staff sort out the policy in the wake of his random
improvisations. The jury is still out on
whether this could work in the domestic sphere of crafting legislation and issuing
executive orders. It should now be
obvious to everyone involved that it won’t work in international relations, and
that the stakes for our national security are too high for the nation to
continue in this manner.
One possible solution that occurs to me is for a delegation
of legislators from his own party to visit the President at the White House, to
work out an agreement by which Vice President Pence would agree to manage the
national security apparatus, and deal with foreign governments on defense,
security and diplomatic matters, and President Trump would agree to recuse
himself from them.
The duties of the President are laid out in Article II,
section 2 of the US Constitution. There
is nothing there that suggests this type of arrangement, but there is,
arguably, nothing that expressly forbids it.
In due course the Supreme Court might be asked to affirm the validity of
the resulting state of affairs.
But how could a bunch of congresspersons convince the
President of the United States to set aside his official prerogatives, and
become in effect the President for Trade, Immigration, and Domestic Policy,
even as his actions and business dealings remain under investigation by the FBI
and Congress? It’s a tall order for
sure. In general Trump doesn’t really trust the Congressional GOP, and they consider him an
unreliable ally. But most of them
are fluent in Trump’s native
language--of flattery, cajolery and threats.
They will find a way.
Finally, is Mike Pence really suited to this job? It’s true that the Vice President has no
particular experience in foreign affairs.
However, there are some reassuring facts. First, Mr. Pence is, psychologically, a
grown-up, with a sufficient attention span and proper impulse control. Furthermore, he is an accomplished
politician, with experience both as a legislator and as a governor. Thirdly, as evidenced from his remarks early
in the 2016 presidential campaign, he seems to really dislike Vladimir Putin,
whom he called a “small and bullying leader.”
That’s ironic, perhaps, but somehow very comforting.
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