{"id":214838,"date":"2019-05-18T05:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T09:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=214838"},"modified":"2019-05-18T05:00:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T09:00:55","slug":"iran-tests-president-trumps-america-first-pledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/18\/iran-tests-president-trumps-america-first-pledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran tests President Trump’s ‘America First’ pledge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Asked this week if the U.S. was going to war with Iran, Trump said simply: \u201cI hope not.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: Donald J. Trump\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump won the White House pledging to wind down the nation’s many foreign entanglements and put \u201cAmerica First.\u201d But as his administration in recent days has sent mixed signals on the prospects\u00a0of\u00a0a military conflict with Iran, Trump’s campaign trail promise is being put to the test.<\/p>\n

With the 2020 election approaching, the political pitfalls ahead for the first-term Republican president could be serious.<\/p>\n

While Trump enjoys overwhelming support from his party, there is little appetite among his loyalists for a new military conflict in the Middle East. Many are willing to give him the benefit\u00a0of\u00a0the doubt for now, but a string\u00a0of\u00a0recent moves has sparked concerns that the administration was beating the drums toward war. Among the possible precursors to military conflict: new sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the deployment\u00a0of\u00a0a U.S. aircraft carrier to the region and public warnings\u00a0of\u00a0unspecified intelligence that Iran might strike at American interests.<\/p>\n

Asked this week if the U.S. was going to war with Iran, Trump said simply: \u201cI hope not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aware\u00a0of\u00a0the potential backlash from within his party, the president is trying to play down the possibility\u00a0of\u00a0hostilities. He held the door open for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and malign activities in the region amid reports that he was pushing back against his more hawkish advisers’ preference for a military solution.<\/p>\n

Prominent Trump supporters offered a pointed warning on Friday about the prospect\u00a0of\u00a0a new war, which they view as a direct violation\u00a0of\u00a0his \u201cAmerica First\u201d pledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a disaster for him and for the country getting into another military engagement in the Middle East,\u201d said Corey Stewart, who led Trump’s 2016 campaign in Virginia. \u201cIt does concern me that the president has (national security adviser John) Bolton and a lot\u00a0of\u00a0these neocons advising him. That’s clearly not what he ran on and what most Americans want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign policy threatens to be a significant political liability for Trump heading into his 2020 reelection campaign.<\/p>\n

Overall, 63 per cent\u00a0of\u00a0Americans said they disapproved\u00a0of\u00a0his job handling foreign policy, according to a January poll conducted by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Like other issues, the partisan divide was overwhelming: 76 per cent\u00a0of\u00a0Republicans approved, while just 8 per cent\u00a0of\u00a0Democrats said the same.<\/p>\n

Yet the Republican Party under Trump’s leadership has shifted away from wanting the United States to play an aggressive role in world affairs. Foreign policy hawks in the GOP who have long embraced a muscular foreign policy have been marginalized in recent years, dismissed as \u201cglobalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, Democrats are now far more likely than Republicans to say the U.S. should play a more active role in solving the world’s problems.<\/p>\n

In the AP poll, 43 per cent\u00a0of\u00a0Democrats said they thought the U.S. should be more active abroad, compared to just 13 per cent\u00a0of\u00a0Republicans.<\/p>\n

Trump on Friday sought to blame the media for the sense\u00a0of\u00a0mounting unease over Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey put out so many false messages that Iran is totally confused,\u201d he told a crowd\u00a0of\u00a0real estate agents in Washington, complaining about media coverage\u00a0of\u00a0his administration’s recent moves. \u201cI don’t know, that might be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

People close to the president acknowledge that an armed conflict in the region is a real possibility.<\/p>\n

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., a Trump confidant, signalled support for a military solution if needed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon \u2014 so long as the United States wouldn’t take the lead role in a prospective war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever needs to be done to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power needs to happen,\u201d Falwell said in an interview. \u201cI’m not saying the United States needs to do it. Somebody is going to need to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe way that it balances out, it might be Saudi Arabia and Israel that go to war with Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

J.D. Gordon, director\u00a0of\u00a0national security for Trump’s first campaign, described Iran as \u201ca delicate balance\u201d for the president, who is surrounded by advisers who \u201cgenerally agree with his worldview.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPreventing an aggressive state sponsor\u00a0of\u00a0terrorism from acquiring nuclear weapons through primarily economic and diplomatic pressure isn’t as simple as many people would like us to believe,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n

While military conflict would likely be unpopular among Republican voters, the politics on Iran are nuanced.<\/p>\n

For years, Republicans railed against the multination pact struck under former President Barack Obama to remove economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country’s pledge to abandon its nuclear program. Trump last year withdrew from the deal, thrilling Israel and anti-Obama conservatives at home while troubling European allies who insisted it was working.<\/p>\n

Mark Dubowitz, CEO\u00a0of\u00a0the hawkish Foundation for Defence\u00a0of\u00a0Democracies, said Iran takes a paramount position in Trump’s worldview, with the president believing the country poses a particularly destructive threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one should never discount the political calculation, which is that he knows a significant part\u00a0of\u00a0his base, including tens\u00a0of\u00a0millions\u00a0of\u00a0evangelical Christians, agree with him,\u201d Dubowitz said.<\/p>\n

The passionate opposition to the Iran deal among Trump’s core supporters affords him some room to manoeuvr amid the military buildup, even if \u201cAmerica First\u201d conservatives oppose an outright war.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven’t met anybody who thinks we shouldn’t take an incredibly hard line against Iran,\u201d said Mark Meckler, an early leader in the tea party movement. At the same time, he said, \u201cNobody believes there’s going to be a war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Trump promised in regards to our foreign policy is ‘America First,\u201d’ Meckler continued. \u201cHe’s doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Peoples reported from New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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