In private chat with senator, Trump hints at policy shift in Afghanistan - and a return to isolation
Source: The Washington Post
By Michael Scherer, Greg Jaffe and Josh Dawsey April 30 at 9:57 AM
In the days leading up to a key vote over the fate of his nominee for secretary of state, President Trump found a way to win over one of the biggest skeptics in the Senate.
Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), a rare isolationist Republican, was signaling that he would oppose Trump’s pick, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a hawkish former congressman who had backed the Iraq War. But the more Trump and Paul spoke, including three calls on Monday, the more assured Paul became that the president was moving back toward the non-interventionist world view that Trump had championed on the campaign trail. The conversations left Paul with a particularly enticing notion: that Trump was prepared to end the war in Afghanistan.
“The president told me over and over again in general we’re getting the hell out of there,” Paul said in an interview Thursday in his Senate office. “I think the president’s instincts and inclination are to resolve the Afghan conflict.”
The two men discussed no exit dates and did not strike a written agreement, as Trump urged Paul to meet one-on-one with Pompeo and ultimately secured the senator’s support ahead of a key Foreign Relations Committee vote that paved the way for confirmation.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-private-chat-with-senator-trump-hints-at-policy-shift-in-afghanistan--and-a-return-to-isolationism/2018/04/30/e0e9b1ec-4995-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html
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Good luck with that...
... for 2-1/2 more years. Then he'll be out of our hair for good.
