Michael Anton, National Security Council spokesman:
Trump “didn’t run as a pacifist and he didn’t run as an isolationist,” the spokesman said, nor did he “say America was going to cut and run out of every theater of war where we’re fighting.” Instead, Anton insisted, the president promised a smarter, more focused use of the U.S. military and an end to nation-building policies.
“This is consistent with the president’s campaign promises and themes from 2016. I think there’s an impulse among some to try to paint this as a departure, as a break,” Anton said of Trump’s Monday night announcement. “This idea that there’s some, you know, huge gap between what he promised and what he talked about in 2016 and what he laid out last night, I personally don’t see it. I was involved in the strategy development all throughout this process, never saw it."
He's right. Trump talked endlessly about building up the US Military, torturing, bombing the shit out of places, stealing resources, making sure that nobody "laughed at us anymore" during the campaign but for some reason nobody thought that meant anything. They kept looking at his tweets during the Obama administration and taking his word that he had secret plans that he wouldn't reveal because it would be "stupid."
Trump's previous complaints about Afghanistan and other wars were just trolling Obama and Bush. That's the extent of his strategic vision. Now he's got a chance to "win" and he is perfectly willing to use lethal force to do it.
"Shorter, more focused" means "bomb the shit out of 'em."
"No nation building" means "to the victors belong the spoils."
Why, after observing him for more than two years, would anyone doubt that?
