The first day of public impeachment hearings into U.S. President Donald Trump didn't produce a definitive smoking gun. But it was illuminating in other ways.
As Nick Wadhams explains, the testimony from key diplomats lays out starkly how foreign policy in the Trump administration has become the purview of a small group of loyalists in the White House, cutting out officials who've spent years in the field building expertise on countries and how to deal with them.
In particular, it shows how Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani moved to insert himself into policy on countries like Ukraine, even as seasoned diplomats sought to warn him off.
At best, Trump's advisers sideline people who've spent decades, through multiple administrations, navigating America's interests everywhere from the Middle East to Russia and Asia. At worst they could undermine U.S. national security.
Since coming to office, Trump has repeatedly tied geopolitical goals to economic and trade outcomes. While not unusual, he's made those links more overt than prior presidents.
That makes foreign policy less predictable. Guided by his inner circle, and his own thinking, Trump has a tendency to make sudden announcements that catch his diplomats, and military, by surprise.
In some cases he's turned longstanding policy on its head (like stepping away from the Kurds in Syria). For those out in the field, yesterday's testimony shows that managing America's strategic goals is becoming ever harder.
- Rosalind Mathieson
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