Alarming accounts from inside the White House

Recently, several accounts detailing the workings of the Trump White House and the president’s approach to his duties have appeared. These accounts provide just cause for alarm. They portray a chaotic administration where policy is made by an ill- informed, opportunistic chief- of- state who is unable, or too lazy, to master the details of important issues. Such an approach to leadership is particularly dangerous in the area of national security.

According to former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, Mr. Trump lacks a consistent foreign policy philosophy, relying instead on “re- election calculations.” Regarding Mr. Trump’s attempts to convince North Korea’s Kim Jong- un to abandon nuclear weapons, for example, Mr. Bolton informs us that the president wanted to appear tough, but was desperate for an agreement that he could tout as a foreign policy success. In the end — as most North Korea experts predicted — he came away with nothing, and only succeeded in looking helpless and abject.

Miles Taylor, former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff under Mr. Trump, also warns that the president has little interest in the real national security problems facing the country and that he tried to turn DHS into a tool for his political benefit. Like Mr. Bolton, Mr. Taylor concludes that Mr. Trump’s approach to foreign policy has weakened the United States abroad while strengthening its enemies.

In his well- known book on appeasement, the historian A. L. Rowse wrote that national leaders are not only obliged to immerse themselves in tedious detail, they must apply themselves totally to thinking things through. If unable, they should “get out.”

In Rowse’s judgment, the Tory leaders of the 1930s failed to think things through, and disaster resulted. Now, knowledgeable and credible eyewitnesses assure us that Donald Trump doesn’t even know the details. It is well past time for him to get out.

C. J. STORELLA

Forest Hills