{"id":65715,"date":"2017-02-09T15:59:04","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T19:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=65715"},"modified":"2017-02-09T15:59:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T19:59:04","slug":"why-trump-should-not-appoint-elliott-abrams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=65715","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump Should Not Appoint Elliott Abrams"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A longstanding neocon, Abrams denounced Trump during the campaign and has consistently promoted reckless intervention abroad.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Daniel R. DePetris
\nThe National Interest\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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After a news report out this week that President Donald Trump\u2019s team is zeroing in on former NSC official Elliott Abrams for the Deputy Secretary of State position<\/a>, it\u2019s not illogical to think that what is left of the #NeverTrump movement may be feeling a moment of relief. Abrams is a prominent neocon and served as assistant secretary of state for Inter-American Affairs during the Reagan administration and as Middle East director on George W. Bush\u2019s National Security Council staff. Abrams cut his teeth in politics working on Capitol Hill, where he served on the staffs of Sen. Henry M. \u201cScoop\u201d Jackson and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Jackson was a fierce critic of detente with the Soviet Union and many neocons served on his staff. Moynihan, too, was a neoconservative throughout the 1970s but moved to the left in the 1980s when he attacked the Reagan administration.<\/p>\n

By the Reagan years, Abrams, like not a few neocons, abandoned the Democratic party to join the GOP and the administration. Now, as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and as a regular contributor to the Weekly Standard<\/em>, Abrams has spent much of the previous year pointing out where Trump has gone wrong on foreign policy, why his positions are dangerous to America\u2019s exceptional character and global power, and why other foreign-policy luminaries like him would be mistaken to support him. If the #NeverTrump crowd currently shut out of the Trump administration is happy about the Abrams news, it\u2019s because Abrams is one of them.<\/p>\n

A far better candidate would be Paula J. Dobriansky, the undersecretary of global affairs at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration. Dobriansky, who never signed any of the national-security letters denouncing Trump, is said to be the other chief administration candidate for the number-two post at State. She is a lifelong Republican, a seasoned foreign-policy expert, a skillful diplomat and widely respected. Having served in five presidential administrations, both Republican and Democratic, she epitomizes the idea of government service.<\/p>\n

The contrast with Abrams could hardly be starker. Given that Trump places a premium on loyalty, it\u2019s more than a little surprising that he would allow his national-security team to vet and put on a shortlist Abrams, who told <\/a>Voice of America<\/a> during the heat of the GOP primary campaign that Trump\u2019s foreign policy is incoherent and confusing. \u201c[Trump] has no appreciation whatsoever of the importance of allies and alliances,\u201d Abrams commented to VOA. \u201cAll he does is insult them all the time and say they\u2019re not doing enough, and it worries many of the allies in Asia and the Middle East and Europe.\u201d In fact, Abrams was so concerned about Trump winning the Republican nomination that he wrote a piece in the May 16 edition of the <\/a>Weekly Standard<\/em><\/a> offering up some advice about what anti-Trump candidates could do to make his ascent more difficult. The article was called \u201cWhen You Can\u2019t Stand Your Candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abrams began by reminiscing about how he disliked both George McGovern and Richard M. Nixon in 1972. The clear implication is that he voted for neither. According to Abrams, the lesson of the Democratic Convention for contemporary Republicans meeting in Cleveland was obvious: \u201cDo not allow the Republican convention to be a coronation wherein Trump and Trumpism are unchallenged. There\u2019s no reason others who won many delegates, from Rubio to Cruz to Kasich, should not have their names put in nomination. The party needs to be reminded that there are deep divisions, and Trump needs to be reminded of how many in the party oppose and even fear his nomination.\u201d Another lesson that he drew was that Republicans should waste no time moving to purge themselves of any remnants of Trump after the election: \u201cseize the party machinery back immediately after the Trump defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 12 on JBS News, Abrams amplified his disdain for Trump. Questioned about his stance on Trump, he told interviewer Mark S. Golub that it was \u201ca question of character and fitness to be commander-in-chief.\u201d He added, \u201cyou don\u2019t change your spots at the age of 70.\u201d Later in the interview he referred to Trump\u2019s \u201cabsolute unwillingness to learn anything about foreign policy.\u201d Golub asked him if underneath he really wanted Hillary Clinton to win: \u201cI am not gonna vote for either of these two people,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

Like all presidents in American history, President Trump has the right and privilege to vet anyone he wants. But he should know what he\u2019s getting himself into.<\/p>\n

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\nhttp:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/feature\/why-trump-should-not-appoint-elliott-abrams-19190<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}