"The White House's chaotic policymaking process can best be viewed as a series of collisions between Donald Trump's I-alone-can-fix-it campaign boasts and reality," Gabriel Sherman writes at Vanity Fair. And between North Korea's resumed missile launches, the mess in Venezuela, Trump's escalating trade war with China, and a "possible real war with Iran," there's a lot that could go wrong, fast.
Trump is "way ahead of his advisers and fellow Republicans" on China trade policy, but the opposite is true on Iran, Sherman reports:
When Trump acted on his campaign pledge to pull out of the Obama nuclear deal, he did it without a clear endgame in mind. That policy void has led to an intense internal debate inside the White House over how to handle Iran. On one side is hawkish National Security Adviser John Bolton, who, prior to joining the White House, advocated for regime change in Tehran. He is joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, another famous Iran hawk. But they are reportedly ahead of the president's thinking. "He thinks Bolton is pushing him into a disaster," a former administration official said. [Vanity Fair]
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and policy Swiss army knife, is reportedly urging caution and talks with Iran. Read more at Vanity Fair.
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