Cracks emerge in Trump's wall of GOP support

By Richard Galant / January 12, 2020

Some cracks emerged last week in the formerly solid wall of Republican support for President Donald Trump. They were small in number -- and dwarfed by the vast pro-Trump majority on the right. Whether they will matter in the long run is another question. But they were surprising nonetheless: Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom GQ has called the "Trumpiest congressman," was among three Republicans voting for a resolution Thursday to require Trump to gain congressional approval for any more military action against Iran. He joined the Democrats who, as historian Jeremi Suri put it, "are shining a bright light on abuses of presidential military power." GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah called a Wednesday briefing from Trump administration officials after the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani the "worst briefing I've had on a military issue" during his nine years in the Senate and called it "un-American" and "unacceptable." Sen. Rand Paul agreed: "An insult to the Constitution," he told reporters. And Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who Trump has called one of his "great, great friends in the media," lambasted the President's decision to approve the drone strike that killed Soleimani in Iraq. Dean Obeidallah wrote, "This is the worst possible time for Trump to have cracks in his base." Trump's alternately warlike and conciliatory approach to Iran is confusing everyone, noted Peter Bergen. "The President's gyrations on the Middle East have been head-spinning." Trump "has gone back and forth on Iran," approving the Soleimani killing, "while also at the last minute calling off a military operation in June against targets in Iran, and then offering to sit down with the Iranians without preconditions...As a result of these myriad reversals, it's hard for both America's allies and enemies to discern any stable strategy in the greater Middle East."

"This time, the United States stands utterly alone," observed David Andelman. "Perhaps most troubling is the fact that Trump does not seem to be at all concerned about his lack of friends and allies...above all, he does not seem to have an exit strategy or end game in mind." Frida Ghitis wrote, "The immediate aftermath of the Soleimani killing was an embarrassment of chaotic mixed messages and disorganization. Trump is right that Americans should be grateful this didn't quickly escalate, because by all appearances the administration was ill-prepared." Iran launched a retaliatory missile attack against bases where Americans are stationed but there were no reported casualties. It's not over, Ghitis warned: "Iran will further retaliate for Soleimani's killing. The retaliation may come from the Quds Force he ran or, more likely, from one of the terrorist groups or militias he helped build across the Middle East."

Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, wrote that Trump "has forfeited the benefit of the doubt by barraging us with lies on matters involving Russia, by throwing our own intelligence community and public servants under the bus when they contradict him and by ignoring our military experts' advice whenever it fails to fit into his personal political goals." Trump had to invoke the work of intelligence agencies to justify the strike, but these are the same ones that he has attacked as being unreliable arms of the "deep state," noted Samantha Vinograd.