On Monday, a longtime GOP insider and war expert declared that Republicans should help Democrats “rein in” President Donald Trump. According to military historian Max Boot — who has advised several Republican presidential campaigns over the past 20 years — the time has come for the GOP to push back against Trump’s “terrible foreign policy instincts.”
While foreign policy rarely has a major impact on domestic politics, writes Boot in the Washington Post, “this midterm election promises to be different. If, as now appears likely, this turns into a ‘blue wave’ election, Republicans can pin a great deal of the blame on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and trade agenda — and in particular on his foolhardy decisions to launch trade wars with many countries followed by a ‘forever war’ with Iran.” According to Boot, these “unforced errors” are driving inflation and, in turn, Trump’s historic unpopularity, and “he has nobody but himself to blame.”
As Boot elaborates, a new study has shown that — despite Trump’s claims to the contrary — Americans ended up footing 90 percent of the bill for tariffs in the form of inflation. At the same time, costs hikes have been exacerbated by the skyrocketing fuel prices caused by Trump’s war on Iran. Oil prices have shot up by 60 percent, and diesel prices are even worse with an increase of 70 percent. All told, the conflict accounted for a third of the inflation increase, and the war has cost every U.S. household an average of $1,100. In an effort to ease inflation, the Fed has been forced to hike interest rates, resulting in rising mortgage rates. Americans are not happy about any of this. As Boot notes, while Trump claims the affordability crisis is a “hoax,” voters are feeling the economic squeeze. Boot points to a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, in which 75 percent of respondents described economic conditions as “not so good” or “poor” – a major increase compared with the mere 34 percent who said the same during Trump’s last midterm election in 2018, when Democrats picked up 40 House seats. By a margin of 40-33, voters now trust Democrats more than Republicans on the economy.
What’s more, Trump’s “desperate” attempts to bring down prices have included unpopular moves like buying diesel from Russia. According to Boot, “That is unlikely to have any appreciable impact on prices, and it won’t help Trump’s slumping approval numbers, either. The more that Trump is seen as siding with Russia over Ukraine, the more he finds himself on the wrong side of U.S. public opinion. A recent Economist-YouGov poll found that 66 percent of registered voters sympathize with Ukraine compared with only 3 percent who sympathize with Russia. YouGov also found that Volodymyr Zelensky is the most popular foreign leader in the United States; his 53 percent approval rating is far higher than Trump’s. So insulting Zelensky, as Trump does with distressing regularity, isn’t a smart strategy for reversing the president’s crumbling popularity.” Not only has Trump’s war — exacerbated by trade wars — caused greater economic turmoil than other infamous conflicts like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Trump is now signaling that he plans to ramp up attacks after the midterms. He's even suggested starting another war.
In light of all this, Boot closes with a plea to his fellow conservatives, concluding, “Trump would be hard-put to engineer a more unpopular or more unsuccessful foreign policy if he tried. Republicans are likely to pay the price next week. Let us hope, for the sake of the entire world, that some of the Republicans who are left in office will be more willing to work with Democrats to rein in Trump’s terrible foreign-policy instincts.”