The military relationship between the U.S. and Mexico has never been better, Buzzfeed reports in a deep-dive article, despite the obvious reason for strain between the two countries. But how that’s possible is really disturbing, if also predictable:
“If [Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is replaced], it will no longer be the president saying these things and the secretary behind closed doors saying ‘don’t worry about it,’” said Craig Deare, who served early in Trump’s administration as senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council. “If a new US defense secretary starts saying these things publicly too it would really cause problems. There’s a lot of uncertainty on all sides.”
The thing is, Donald Trump is terrible, but having the president be constantly undermined by his Cabinet, particularly a career military officer, is not a good precedent. Then again, the alternative is this:
“If Trump does the same thing he did at the State Department, putting in more of an enabler, there is likely to be a structural impact,” said Todd Rosenblum, a former senior official at the Pentagon who oversaw defense policy on homeland security matters and who also served as deputy undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. “You see what happened with [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo, who adopted [Trump’s] language. If what we get is a new defense secretary who aligns rhetorically along Trump’s impulses — especially if he is reelected — there will be long-term damage that may set us back a generation when it comes to building trust with Mexico.”
We are so screwed.