The hidden message in Trump's terrorism speech

His policies point to only one impossible solution: An alliance with Russia.

Trump outlined his ISIS policy and Muslim ban.
(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's speech on Monday, in which he outlined his plan to take on the Islamic State, had a Russia-shaped hole in it.

Brought to heel yet again by the few "mainstream" Republicans within his campaign coterie, Trump managed to tick off the failures, large and small, of Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy — and to state that we're due for a change. While he did not make a coherent case for what we exactly ought to change, the key to the pivot Trump desires is an alliance with Russia. And though in his speech, Trump praised Russia as a putative partner in Syria, he didn't state the obvious: You cannot fight militant Islam, and abandon George W. Bush's and Obama's way of doing so, without making Russia our number-one ally.

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James Poulos

James Poulos is a contributing editor at National Affairs and the author of The Art of Being Free, out January 17 from St. Martin's Press. He has written on freedom and the politics of the future for publications ranging from The Federalist to Foreign Policy and from Good to Vice. He fronts the band Night Years in Los Angeles, where he lives with his son.