Susan Glasser

You're absolutely right.

People do not vote on foreign policy and ask any member of Congress whether they want 2026 to be a foreign policy election.

And, you know, you know the answer to that.

A couple of thoughts.

First of all, it does underscore that Donald Trump is not on the ballot in 2026, and he tends not to care all that much about things that don't

you know, directly concern him.

And he's perfectly happy to cut loose Republican members of Congress if it doesn't fit with what he wants to do at the moment.

But it kind of underscores his impending lame duck status in that sense.

And there's a reason that second term presidents

like to focus on foreign policy.

They like to focus on legacy building.

Donald Trump, he's been out there musing about how he's not going to get into heaven and who can get me into the pearly gates.

So this is a guy, he's not raising the east wing of the White House and building himself a grand white marble palace in the sky if he didn't have a focus right now on his legacy in America.

all gold capital letters.

I think that's part of it, that he wants to focus on that.

Foreign policy is also an area where our very unconstrained presidents really are unconstrained, and especially over the recent decades.

You have seen Congress cede what role it did have largely in foreign policy to the executive branch.

And so it's where you see the most undistilled, kind of unconstrained power of a president, any president, and in particular this president.

He also relishes the statecraft of, you know, it's just, you know, the optics of it's just sort of me and some other great strongman making the world and shaping it according to the power of our will and our leadership.

And so it very much plays into his vision of what an American president should be and should do.