President Donald Trump has sought to distance the United States from the ongoing conflict between the Kurds and the Turkish government. On Wednesday, Trump doubled down on his commitment to pull American troops out of northern Syria and told reporters in the Oval Office that the latest round of fighting “has nothing to do with us.”
National security expert Juliette Kayyem said that Trump’s response is typical of him. According to Kayyem, Trump’s erratic management style has fed into his perspective on foreign relations, and has led him to make decisions based on short-term consequences.
“This is sort of a typical response of Donald Trump in terms of he never sees the consequences,” Kayyem said during an interview with Boston Public Radio Wednesday. “He’s not guided by history and he’s not impacted by consequences.”
Kayyem said that Trump’s actions and his overt disinterest in stopping Turkish attacks against the Kurds, a steadfast ally in fighting the Islamic State in Syria, are antithetical to American values.
“It’s so denigrating to who we are as a nation at this stage,” she said.
