Donald Trump has offered an ignorant, incoherent foreign policy from the Middle East to the Americas, according to Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine, who added Tuesday that when the Republican presidential hopeful does provide a specific policy proposal, it’s one that would weaken U.S. standing abroad.
The Democratic presidential nominee and her No. 2 delivered back-to-back speeches Tuesday that amounted to a coordinated, point-by-point assault on virtually every piece of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy agenda. They assailed the businessman for routinely offering non-answers or unclear positions on Iraq, Libya, NATO, U.S.-Mexico relations and other key issues, and making the broader point that their opponent is unfit to be commander in chief of the U.S. military and would make America less safe.
And the Republican billionaire did little to fight back against those accusations in a speech Tuesday. In his own address, Mr. Trump offered virtually no specifics when asked about his policies toward North Korea, Libya and Syria, instead turning his answers into a lengthy critique of Mrs. Clinton.
As presidential polls tighten and Mr. Trump gains ground on Mrs. Clinton, the Democrats clearly believe attacking Mr. Trump on national security is their best bet to win over undecided independents and sway more Republicans wary of their nominee.
“On the one hand, we have the clear and consistent vision of Hillary Clinton … On the other hand, we have divisive and dangerous rhetoric of an untested candidate, Donald Trump,” Mr. Kaine said during a speech in North Carolina, going on to reference a recent letter from 50 national security scholars who said Mr. Trump is not qualified to be president.
“Now, I don’t need to twist or spin Donald Trump’s words at all. Because once Americans hear his words just as he said them, they’ll reach the same conclusion national security leaders … have reached. Donald Trump is unqualified and temperamentally unfit to serve as president of the United States and America’s commander in chief,” the senator continued.
Mr. Kaine then ran through a list of examples of what Democrats characterize as Mr. Trump’s poor understanding of world affairs.
He cited Mr. Trump’s past statements in seeming support of the Iraq war, even though he now says he’s always opposed it; his initial backing for U.S. intervention in Libya; his compliments toward Russian President Vladimir Putin; and, most recently, his meeting last week with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and the businessman’s admission that he didn’t raise the notion of forcing Mexico to pay for a wall along America’s southern border.
On Iraq specifically, Mr. Kaine said the idea that Mr. Trump always has opposed U.S. military action is false, citing numerous comments in which the Republican seemed to back the war.
“Donald Trump has misled the American people over and over about his position on Iraq,” Mr. Kaine said. “He says whatever he feels like at any given time because you can do that when you’re a TV star, but you can’t do that when you’re the president of the United States.”
As a senator, Mrs. Clinton voted for the resolution authorizing then-President George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq.
Mr. Trump had the opportunity Tuesday to perhaps shed the notion he’s ill-prepared to deal with foreign policy challenges by offering specific remedies, but he failed to take advantage and fed back into the narrative he can discuss national security only in very broad strokes.
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Asked whether he supports regime change in Syria, Mr. Trump instead attacked Iran and the nuclear deal the Obama administration reached with Tehran last year. And asked about how to move forward in Libya, Mr. Trump said the U.S. should protect the country’s oil, but then quickly turned to a critique of Mrs. Clinton, saying she botched the handling of the civil war there. And on North Korea, Mr. Trump merely said he would tell China to solve the issue.
The businessman was clear on one thing: that he would not have allowed China to treat him the way it treated President Obama over the weekend. The Chinese failed to provide the usual stairway to Air Force One, and other leaders who attended the Group of 20 nations summit were given a much grander welcome.
“I would say, ’Thank you very much, fellas, that’s OK, close it up, let’s go back to Washington,’” Mr. Trump said.
Such a show of bravado surely is Mr. Trump’s signature style, but his opponents argue that’s simply not enough to make up for both a lack of foreign policy knowledge and a record of speaking ill toward America’s military.
Speaking just before Mr. Kaine took the stage in North Carolina, Mrs. Clinton addressed a crowd in Florida and said Mr. Trump has a long history of insulting American service men and women.
“His whole campaign has been one long insult to all those who have worn the uniform to protect our most cherished American values,” she said.
In its own statement, the Trump campaign said Mrs. Clinton is merely trying to distract from recent polls showing that the race has tightened.
“Hillary Clinton’s remarks today in Tampa are exactly what you would expect to hear from a candidate who took off the month of August and woke up in September losing the election,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.
⦁ Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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