During his press briefing Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, responding to questions about the turmoil in the West Wing, said, “Our battles and our policy differences need to be behind closed doors. We need to focus and ultimately all come out committed to his agenda.”
Therein lies the problem—what is President Trump’s agenda? And for the last several weeks pundits have been debating whether there’s a Trump doctrine, foreign policy or anything resembling a consistent course of action.
At the center of the recent ruckus around Trump is the removal of Stephen Bannon from the National Security Council and the rumor that the move was orchestrated by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. Spicer quickly denied there was any serious disagreement between the two.
Even so, Bannon has been banished, though it’s hard to believe that the architect of the alt-right and ringleader on the “deconstruction of the administrative state” is that far from his boss’ next tweet.
If what appears to be a simmering feud between two top advisers is “overblown,” the president has told the press, then what are we to make of the contradictory views expressed on the missiles on Syria by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson?
Should the nation fasten its seat belts and get ready for regime change in Syria, or is the main target of the administration the destruction of ISIS?
Haley said on CNN’s “State of Union,” “There’s not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with [President Bashar al-] Assad at the head of the regime. If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it’s going to be hard to see a government that’s peaceful and stable with Assad.”
She continued, “Regime change is something that we think is going to happen because all of the parties are going to see that Assad is not the leader that needs to be taking place for Syria.”
Meanwhile, Tillerson, appearing on “Face the Nation,” said, “Our priority in Syria…hasn’t really changed. I think the president has…been quite clear. First and foremost, we must defeat ISIS.”
We shouldn’t be surprised to be getting conflicting messages from the Trump camp. It’s symptomatic of a regime led by a man who is rudderless, an impulsive, unprincipled, undisciplined man prone to knee-jerk reactions to critical issues.
The missile attack on Syria may have been a lethal message, and already we’ve seen an answer with the war continuing to rage. If Trump has an agenda, it’s a complicated one that has baffled even the retinue of advisers around him.