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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / An Unplanned War

An Unplanned War

March 3, 2026 at 7:24 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Bernstein: “The main thing I’d want to get across to people about Donald Trump and his administration right now is that however unprepared you might think they are for war, the chances are very good that it’s much worse. Much, much worse.”

“To be sure: We won’t get full confirmation of this until much later. But what I see, and what reporters and experts have told us is happening, is what I’ve been saying since early in Trump’s second presidency: The entire administration has been set up to prevent the president from having to encounter information that makes him uncomfortable or challenges his impulses.”

“And the national security process as it has existed since Harry Truman was president has been at best hollowed out (with subject-matter experts removed from the loop) and at worst isn’t operating at all. What’s replaced it is the president’s impulses, based on whoever he happens to talk to, whatever he happens to see on his favorite cable news shows, or whoever is best at manipulating him.”

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About Political Wire

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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