The Atlantic

Donald Trump, Inevitable Hawk

The 45th president’s worldview was eventually going to lead him into military conflict.
Source: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Trump’s decision this week to launch airstrikes against the Syrian regime has come as a bitter disappointment to those who cast their votes last November for “America First”-style isolationism. But the betrayal shouldn’t come as a surprise. While this episode may have been the one to finally debunk the pundit-pleasing myth of “Donald the Dove,” the truth is that Trump’s mutation into a missile-lobbing interventionist was, most likely, always inevitable.

That’s because, as with

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