FOREIGN POLICY/NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “During his first year in office, President Donald Trump often acceded to the advice of cautious national security aides. At their urging, he added troops to the war in Afghanistan, delayed plans to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and preserved a nuclear-containment deal with Iran even though he reviled it. Now, Mr. Trump has come to trust that his own efforts to prod, cajole and intimidate global rivals can do what his predecessors couldn’t, according to people familiar with his thinking. With a new national security team at his side, Mr. Trump is moving ahead with efforts to dismantle pillars of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, pushing the boundaries of traditional foreign policy and national-security decision making in the process. On Tuesday [5-8-18], he took his latest such step by dismissing appeals from European allies and pulling out of Mr. Obama’s 2015 agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program.”
-Dion Nissenbaum, “In His Foreign Policy, Trump Values Action Over D.C.’s Caution,” The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2018 5:30 am