Council on Foreign Relations: "People who Believed that Trump Would Be Less Interventionist than Obama are Wrong"

Micah Zenko, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes:

By at least one measure at this point in his presidency, Trump has been more interventionist than Obama: in authorizing drone strikes and special operations raids in non-battlefield settings (namely, in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia). During President Obama’s two terms in office, he approved 542 such targeted strikes in 2,920 days—one every 5.4 days. From his inauguration through today, President Trump had approved 30 drone strikes or raids in 41 days—one every 1.4 days. These include three drone strikes in Yemen on January 20, 21, and 22; the January 28 Navy SEAL raid in Yemen; one reported strike in Pakistan on March 1; and twenty-five reported strikes in Yemen on March 2.

Thus, people who believed that Trump would be less interventionist than Obama are wrong, at least so far and at least when it comes to drone strikes. These dramatically increased lethal strikes demonstrate that U.S. leaders’ counterterrorism mindset and policies are bipartisan and transcend presidential administrations.

The idea held by some libertarians that Trump was going to be less of a military meddler overseas are flat out wrong.

And Trump hasn't even escalated with ground troops yet. That will be next.

   -RW