The prospect of oil money was the only reason Trump decided to leave a couple hundred troops in Syria, for the time being. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended the politicization of national security last week. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy,” Mulvaney said, defending Trump’s withholding of aid while calling on Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. But prioritizing politics over national security used to be a bad thing that administrations denied or were at least embarrassed about. ADADOver the next year, expect Trump’s political calculations to have even greater influence on foreign policy across the board: China, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan.

Source: Washington Post October 22, 2019 17:48 UTC