Natalie Kitroeff

I'll never start wars or anything like that.

But in fact, his core principle was, I believe in myself and I believe in leverage and I believe in the assertion of power.

And in fact, I'm even a militaristic person.

But you have to know when to use the military.

You have to know how to use strength.

You have to know, in essence, how to win.

And if there's any ideology to Trump beyond self-belief, it's winning.

Now, what this sounds like is a kind of conflict, two points that are in diametric opposition to each other.

Right.

That Trump is, on the one hand, someone saying no endless wars, but on the other hand, saying I'm a militaristic person.

But whatever conflict those two notions may have presented did not yet reveal themselves in his first term and only came to the surface recently.

Well, we saw a glimmer of Trump the interventionist at the end of his first term in January 2020 when he ordered drone strikes to kill the head of Iran's Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani.

And for that matter, we also saw him acquiesce to the generals and keep troops in Afghanistan.

But Trump the interventionist really came on full display this term beginning with June of last year when he ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

And then there were people like Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, each of whom went into the Oval Office to implore Trump not to do this, afraid that this could lead to a protracted military conflict in the Middle East.

But then once the bombing occurred, there was an about-face by –

the doubters on the right, Charlie Kirk and the others, saying, in effect, what were we thinking?

This happened quickly.

This happened successfully.

Nothing bad happened along the way.