When it comes to "terror," Donald Trump is quick on the draw. Within roughly an hour of reports on the attack on Turkey’s Ataturk International Airport, Trump was pushing out useless tweets while his campaign was warning that "the terrorist threat has never been greater."
But if you're looking for responses on anything besides terrorism, forget it. The world economy, for instance, meh. Women's health, not so much. In both cases, Trump's reaction to the UK's Brexit vote and the Supreme Court's abortion ruling are indicative of how he would lead on any urgent issue not related to terror: in absentia.
Trump, who had the serendipitous good fortune to be in Scotland promoting his new golf course on the day of the Brexit vote results, totally blew the press opportunity to assert himself on a major international issue. In fact, he didn't even mention the cataclysmic vote until asked by reporters.
Trump could have used the moment to substantively address a momentous global event. Instead, he provided a widely broadcast infomercial for his newest luxury golf club, standing in front of a bagpiper and wearing a white “Make America Great Again” cap. [...] As reporters pressed Trump on the referendum, it was not clear if Trump fully understood what had just happened. He declared the outcome “fantastic” and “great” because it reflects the anger of voters, and said that the plummeting value of the pound could positively benefit the country.
Following that seismic international event was the domestic shockwave from the Supreme Court's abortion ruling that has implications for women's health nationwide. But team Trump couldn't be bothered to comment even once, because who cares about women's issues?
Trump's inability to respond to consequential, game-changing events unrelated to terrorism says a lot not only about his intellect, but also about his campaign’s complete lack of policy infrastructure. That's led former Kasich adviser Vin Weber, who's run policy teams for GOP presidential candidates since the '80s, to question whether Trump could even assemble a policy team as president.
Near as I can tell, Trump has no policy operation whatsoever—not just foreign policy but economic policy, anything else. And I think that it creates a real problem in terms of how does he put together a government.
Perhaps the reason Trump's so quick on the terror front is that he's his own best foreign policy adviser.
"I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain, and I've said a lot of things," Trump said during a telephone interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
That primary pronouncement clearly persists, resulting in the type of strategic advice that leads to tweets like this following the Istanbul attack.