Flynn exit creates vacuum that Trump’s pragmatists may fill
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is seen at the State Department in Washington on Feb. 10.
WASHINGTON >> The dramatic departure of President Donald Trump’s hard-hitting national security adviser creates a vacuum of power and raises a key question about U.S. foreign policy: Will the pragmatists in the administration now gain clout?
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, both known as levelheaded technocrats, stand to fill some of the void. It would be a shift that would mollify anxious U.S. allies and even Republicans who worry Trump is veering too far from traditional U.S. positions. But the duo will be contending with Steve Bannon, Trump’s influential senior adviser, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who is already playing an outsize role in his diplomacy.
Trump hasn’t named a replacement for Michael Flynn. Trump asked the former Army lieutenant general to resign Monday night amid revelations he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia while President Barack Obama was still in office. Trump has tasked retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg with filling the role temporarily but is also considering two other retired military leaders to permanently replace Flynn.
“It’s dysfunctional as far as national security is concerned,” Republican Sen. John McCain said. “Who is in charge? I don’t know of anyone outside of the White House who knows.”
Critics of Trump’s foreign policy plans are hoping the shakeup leads to a rethink of his desire to seek closer U.S.-Russian relations and a less hostile administration stance on Islam — a tone Flynn helped to set through often inflammatory statements about the religion. Many lawmakers from both parties were appalled to learn that Flynn, in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, discussed with Russia’s ambassador sanctions that the Obama administration was imposing as punishment for Russia’s alleged interference in the presidential election.
Flynn, who in 2015 was paid to appear at a gala for Russian state-controlled television network RT, was the face of Trump’s potential Russia reboot, designed around working with Russia to fight the Islamic State group. In Moscow, Russian lawmakers bitterly mused that American paranoia had forced Flynn out, while analysts there surmised that the Kremlin’s honeymoon with Trump was ending.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
With Flynn out, it could fall to Tillerson to step into the role of chief envoy to Russia. Tillerson, who heads to Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday on his first official trip, is widely expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the trip. He has long experience with Russian leaders and was awarded a friendship honor by President Vladimir Putin when he was Exxon Mobil CEO.
Much depends on who replaces Flynn. It’s unclear if Trump will go with someone having a similar world view and willingness to upset the status quo. In his brief three-week tenure, Flynn stepped up U.S. rhetoric toward Iran and helped spearhead Trump’s controversial immigration order that sparked consternation and threats of retaliation in the Muslim world.
“I don’t think it will slow the White House down too much,” said Jim Carafano, a Heritage Foundation scholar who advised Trump’s transition team on foreign policy. Carafano said Flynn’s departure “takes away a trusted voice of the president” but that Trump would turn to other valued national security hands.
That could also mean an expanded role for Bannon, the conservative media executive with outspoken views about Islam who has consolidated immense influence over Trump’s foreign policy. Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter, also could broaden his portfolio, which already has him as a prime Trump emissary to key regions like the Middle East and Latin America despite his dearth of diplomatic or government experience.
Tillerson, too, has elicited concerns about his ties to Putin. But the oil man portrayed himself in a Senate confirmation hearing as well within mainstream U.S. thinking on Russia. And that view is prevailing on policy, at least for now, as the White House said Tuesday it is upholding the sanctions President Barack Obama imposed on Russia over Ukraine and the election meddling.
Tillerson, who has kept a low public profile since being sworn in, hasn’t commented on Flynn’s departure or on Trump’s early handling of foreign policy.
But Mattis, speaking to reporters while traveling to a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels, said Flynn’s departure “has no effect at all” on him.
“It doesn’t change my message,” Mattis said.
Like Tillerson, Mattis has emerged as part of the global reassurance team — Cabinet members familiar to foreign leaders who are easing concerns that Trump will follow through on combative rhetoric about upending U.S. foreign policy. On his first official trip abroad, to South Korea and Japan, Mattis insisted the U.S. wouldn’t abandon its treaty allies despite Trump’s suggestions that Washington would no longer bear the burden of other nations’ defenses.
“The key question is what is the connective tissue between the president and the actual policy,” said Derek Chollett, who held various national security posts under Obama. “Every president reaches a point where they stop getting listened to. With Trump, it may happen sooner if there’s a sense what he says isn’t actually translated into policy.”
13 responses to “Flynn exit creates vacuum that Trump’s pragmatists may fill”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
And yet, Mr. Trump found it necessary to belittle and humiliate Secretary Tillerson by overruling Tillerson’s choice for # 2 at State. The reason? Mr. Trump said that the candidate was “mean” to him. Acting like a nine year old.
Trump is obviously a psychotic.
The adults are now in charge. Like they say if you have nothing nice to sat. STFU
Follow your own advice.
sarge22 – Adults? Right. Like the kind of adults that betray their country by being pals with Russian intelligence officers?
I really feel sorry for you. You still believe that Trump is competent? People are going to end up in jail over this.
You need to read more. A lot more.
It’s even more surreal to watch Democrats act as though lying to the public is some grave firing offense when President Obama’s top national security official, James Clapper, got caught red-handed not only lying to the public but also to Congress — about a domestic surveillance program that courts ruled was illegal. And despite the fact that lying to Congress is a felony, he kept his job until the very last day of the Obama presidency. HiLIARY is the kind of adult that betrayed her country with the classified emails and private server. If you know anything about classified documents and their transmission you know she should be prosecuted. Still might happen.
IRT Klastri: the only ones acting like nine year olds are the Democratic Party and its left wing radical supporters. Time to grow up President Trump won Hilliar lost so as soon as The Democrats except it the better off the country will be.
You make the mistake of lumping all Democrats into a one-size-fit-all mold. That was the mistake Clinton made with Trump supporters.
@klastri –
Quite frankly I’m convinced that the entire far left population in our country is psychotic since Nov 8 2016 because of the hypocrisy, rioting, and bizarre rants displayed since then on a daily basis. It’s really sad to see. And if you think Hillary is any less psychotic than Trump then you better educate yourself more on her. She’s more shady than my living room with the curtains closed. Try google “Clinton scandals” her and her husband have been involved in. She didn’t lose because she’s a woman, she lost because of who she is with her lack of integrity.
Someone please explain to me, When Obama and his incompetent administration did something out of the norm or unethical the far left stood up in support saying he must of had a good reason BLAH,BLAH, BLAH. but when something happens in President Trumps administration all of a sudden the country is coming to an end. Ex. During 8 years of Obama I believe 2 million illegal aliens were deported and that was fine, President Trump comes along enforcing the immigration laws by deporting criminal illegal aliens and he is compared to Hitler. So I asked again what is the difference between the two. I will answer it for you, NOTHING. Except that the incompetent Democratic party and its left wing radical supporters along with the useless media can not accept the fact that a business man came along and put a beat down on their knight in shining armor and his successor to be. The hatred and evilness that The Democratic party exhibits towards this country and its citizens is exactly why President Trump won.
Someone please explain to me, why can’t davcon see the irony…#MAGA
Why ask someone else, you seem to have all the answers, you explain it. Just what I thought, jusris time to climb back in your safe place.
Sooooooo Hypocritical! Remember how much the Democrats were (still are) grumbling about how they lost the election? “Leaks and Wire Taps”.
That their Lost was due to the Russians and the Hackers of Wikileaks? Leaks into the DNC and so forth?Who may I remind you are still singing this same old Weak Tired song. The Russians did it,the Russians did it! But now it seems OK to Leak into the WH? How is that!
Kinda makes you wonder, are there still “molds” from the Obama administration that are still working in the WH? If The President is going to per say,”Drain The Swamp” he’s gonna have to dig deeper and yes dig in his own back yard.
I do agree with President:
He will get to the bottom of these leaks and prosecute those & the news agencies involved.Who are “Hell Bent” on discrediting the president in what ever or how good it is for the country. He is also right! That this has been going on for years and it needs to stop!
One thing I do disagree on, that Trump shouldn’t have accepted Gen. Flynn’s resignation. well…….Not yet at least ,until we can legitimize his story.
In the meantime….. Let’s get these Buggahs ,The Leakers and get the real story,because from the gist of things the Fake News Media is putting out? It still sounds Pretty Petty and obtuse for him to resign. It’s not like it was in the Case of Susan Rice lying about Bengahzi. And what happened to her? She skated right thru the end of Obama’s administration. In other words NOTHING!
The Dems and the “left” have displayed nothing but hypocrisy since Nov 8 and “we the people” won’t ever forget it. It’s disgusting.