Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rebuked the President’s desire to immediately withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Syria on Tuesday, underscoring the larger landscape of the gaping chasm between Trump and Republicans on foreign policy.
According to a Tuesday New York Times report, Republicans have been nervous about Trump’s foreign policy instincts from the start, especially when they helped pass Russian sanctions over his objection in 2017.
In recent weeks, already disgruntled by the shutdown, Republicans legislatively repudiated Trump’s worldview multiple times: in the House, many of them voted to overturn the administration’s decision to lift Russian sanctions and to prevent Trump from yanking the U.S. out of NATO.
Per the Times, even the way Trump makes foreign policy decisions shakes establishment hawks. His messy and abrupt decision to pull out from Syria, prompting the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, rattled Republicans and predisposed them to push back.
