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Strong men around the world are befuddled. The full power of American foreign policy came crashing down today on a dictator in Venezuela, two months after the full power of American foreign policy rallied to the defense of a dictator who chopped up a political opponent.
U.S. foreign policy has always been a muddle of values-based and interests-based decisions. But Trump takes it to the extreme. No recent President has so enthusiastically embraced autocrats, making these occasional pro-democracy interventions so hard for the world to parse.
If Trump cared about consistency, he would make the realist case for intervention in Venezuela (getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States) rather than trying to pretend his Administration all of the sudden cares about toppling anti-democratic regimes.
Finally, don't get me wrong - I support a U.S. foreign policy that cares deeply about democracy. I think we are better off pressing for political reform everywhere we do business or have interests, not just the place where the guy who controls the oil doesn't like us.
