Donald Trump Jr. strikes back against former neoconservative Vice President Dick Cheney.
Dick Cheney recently made private statements attacking President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, likening it to Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
Trump Jr. quickly came to his father’s defense.
On Tuesday, Trump Jr. tweeted, “Isn’t it fitting that Cheney is the one mad that Trump is ending his reckless and endless wars? I never knew peace would be so unpopular!”
Cheney took advantage of an American Enterprise Institute Summit in Georgia to attack Trump’s foreign policy.
A seasoned neocon interventionist, Cheney believes that Trump’s restrained approach to foreign policy is misguided and puts the U.S.’s global supremacy in question.
Cheney specifically signaled his concerned about Trump’s desire to have NATO members pitch in more for their defense:
We’re getting into a situation when our friends and allies around the world that we depend upon are going to lack confidence in us.
Cheney added:
I worry that the bottom line of that kind of an approach is we have an administration that looks a lot more like Barack Obama than Ronald Reagan.
Vice President Pence responded to Cheney’s criticism:
I think there is a tendency by critics of the president and our administration to conflate the demand that our allies live up to their word and their commitments and an erosion in our commitment to the post-World War II order.
Pence then added:
“But we think it’s possible to demand that your allies do more to provide for the common defense of all of our nations and, at the same time, reaffirm our strong commitment.”
Ideally, the U.S. should gradually take its military bases out of most foreign countries, if not all of them. However, due to the institutional inertia that the military-industrial complex has created, these kind of plans will have to be carried out in a step-by-step manner.
Nevertheless, Trump’s recent statements on NATO are a step in the right direction. The U.S. can no longer afford to be the world’s foreign policy bailout plan.
You know Trump is doing something right when a swamp creature like Dick Cheney gets mad. And let’s hope Trump continues ruffling Cheney’s feathers.
