In political campaigns, we are always fighting the last war.
Donald Trump’s election in 2016 was, in no insignificant part, a reaction to the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent years of quagmire.
As an upstart GOP primary candidate, Trump said George W. Bush’s war of choice was the “worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country.” Trump took advantage of GOP voter disillusionment, then weaponized his distance from the Republican establishment to make the case for America to retreat from its global leadership role, and only consider “America First.” It was this message that helped Trump handily dispatch the “mainstream” GOP’s original consensus choice: Bush’s own brother Jeb.
