CNN’s John Avlon: Trump is the ‘Prime Driver of Chaos and Instability’ in the U.S. Today
CNN’s John Avlon argued Friday that President Donald Trump is the “prime driver of chaos and instability” in the United States today.
Avlon’s chilling assessment comes at a tumultuous week for the Trump White House: there’s a looming government shutdown, Trump abruptly announced the withdrawal of troops from Syria, and Defense Secretary James Mattis, widely considered the adult in the room, quit the administration in protest.
“The Republicans in the Senate have really fallen in line behind this president because the economy is doing well and he’s been popular with the base,” Avlon said on CNN’s New Day. “So they have really ignored the obvious.”
He continued: “What Mattis resigned over was not just the Syria policy. What McConnell criticized was not just that. It’s about a basic vision of American leadership that has undergirded the American system for a half century, that this president shows disdain for, too often siding with Vladimir Putin over the Pentagon.”
“And what we are being forced to confront today on the winter solstice is this: The President is the prime driver of instability in the United States today. Not the guarantor of our security as we’ve come to expect, but the prime driver of chaos and instability in the United States and arguably around the world.”
In Mattis’s resignation letter, the retired four-star Marine general offered a fairly explicit rebuke of Trump’s worldview.
“My views on treating allies with respect and also being cleareyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held,” Mattis wrote. “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”
Watch above, via CNN.
