FOREIGN AFFAIRS/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump has been commander in chief for 14 months, but to an uncanny degree, he still sounds like the armchair statesman who ran for the White House in 2016. ‘I want to get out,’ Mr. Trump said of the United States’ military engagement in Syria, at a news conference on Tuesday [4-3-18] with leaders of the Baltic States. ‘I want to bring our troops back home.’ Mr. Trump’s words were at odds with the strategy his administration is pursuing in Syria. But they were almost verbatim what he said in pre-election tweets, as well as in debates two years ago against Republican challengers and his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Far from learning on the job or modifying his views to fit the imperatives of America’s global role — as did so many of his predecessors — Mr. Trump is falling back on the familiar mix of belligerence and isolationism that fueled his ‘America First’ campaign.”
-Mark Landler, “On Foreign Policy, President Trump Reverts to Candidate Trump,” The New York Times online, April 3, 2018