Donald Trump’s Very Republican Foreign-Policy Speech
For a long time, sophisticated conservatives were supposed to understand that Republicans only did this with a wink and a nod. Yes, on the campaign trail, a candidate could talk about harsh immigration enforcement, but in office he was supposed to support comprehensive immigration reform. Sure, he could scare people about terrorism, but he would never really listen to the worst anti-Muslim voices on the right, let alone adopt their policies. And while Republicans could flirt with white identity politics to win a state here or there, they weren’t supposed to run as Rush Limbaugh and base an entire campaign around it.
What scares so many Republican élites is that Trump has refused to play by the traditional rule book, which says G.O.P. candidates can stoke flames but they’re not supposed to create bonfires.
.. Like many conservatives—and liberals—Trump looks back at the period from the Second World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall with fondness. Far from planting himself in the isolationist tradition, Trump on Wednesday declared America’s entry into the Second World War and aggressive prosecution of the Cold War as the nation’s greatest triumphs. When he says he wants to make America great again, this is the era to which he’s referring.
.. When it came to his proposals, though, Trump was again as uninteresting and conventional as his more prominent Republican rivals ..