Two senior administration officials have described President Trump’s foreign policy doctrine to a writer for Atlantic magazine in (nearly) the same vulgar declaration.
“We’re America, B——.”
Technically, the second of the two officials described the “Trump Doctrine” as “We’re America, B——es,” according to Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine’s editor-in-chief.
Mr. Goldberg made the revelation in an article that attempted to suss out whether it was possible to ascribe a coherent foreign policy idea to Mr. Trump, whom the writer described as “perhaps the most glandular president in American history” and a stark contrast to President Barack Obama, whom Mr. Goldberg called “cerebral to a fault.”
Mr. Goldberg described a conversation with “a senior White House official with direct access to the president and his thinking.”
“There’s definitely a Trump Doctrine,” the source said, prompting Mr. Goldberg to ask “What is it?” and getting this reply: “The Trump Doctrine is ’We’re America, B——.’ That’s the Trump Doctrine.”
Practicing journalistic due diligence in getting a second source, Mr. Goldberg described another senior official as rendering the doctrine in the plural: “We’re America, B——es,”
The officials could both add some meat to those bones, in describing what the vulgar phrase means.
“Obama apologized to everyone for everything. He felt bad about everything …. [Trump] doesn’t feel like he has to apologize for anything America does,” the first official said.
According to Mr. Goldberg, he asked the second official whether Mr. Trump was familiar with the 2004 puppet-satire film “Team America: World Police,” whose theme song was titled “America, F—- Yeah!”
The second official laughed and said the president “of course” was, and that the film describes his temperament well.
“The president believes that we’re America, and people can take it or leave it,” he said.
Mr. Goldberg had a third source, whom he described as “one friend of Trump,” as using a rather different vulgarism to describe Mr. Trump’s foreign policy.
“People criticize [Mr. Trump] for being opposed to everything Obama did, but we’re justified in canceling out his policies,” the source said. “There’s the Obama Doctrine, and the ’F—- Obama’ Doctrine,” he said. “We’re the ’F—- Obama’ Doctrine.”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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