OPINION

Donald Trump's 'national security' pretexts for trade wars and immigration crackdowns make a mockery of real threats. They're tools to rev his base.

Tom Nichols | Opinion columnist

Buzz60

Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette via AP

I am a “national security conservative.” I grew up with the Cold War, when the United States faced an existential threat both to its way of life and its physical safety. I live, as we all do, in a world where terrorists seek those same ends, even if by less apocalyptic means. The words “national security” still command my attention and they focus my concern. Like many who share my views, I tend to place national security as a priority over many other important American values — sometimes more than I should.

But “national security” is also one of the most abused phrases in our political history. The same dire language has been weaponized to excuse the persecution of American dissidents and minorities; the pillaging of enormous amounts of our national wealth; and the sacrifice of the lives of our young people on the battlefield.

That abuse is taking place again. The president of the United States is invoking “national security” as a pretext for a range of policies that have nothing to do with national security and everything to do with the political fortunes of Donald Trump and the coterie of enablers around him. Immigrant children are thrown into detention centers in the name of national security. We are barely on speaking terms with our sister nations to the north and south in the name of national security. The president’s political appointees, calling forth the shadow of Joseph McCarthy, compile loyalty lists among our diplomats — no doubt in the name of national security.

National security as magic words

On July 4, we celebrate the anniversary of our revolution. We won our independence, and we turned our mother country from an oppressor into a firm friend. We kept ourselves safe from enemies — foreign and domestic — while building a democratic superpower out of the blood and ashes of a revolt, a civil war, and two massive global conflicts. We faced down our worst enemy for over 50 years and destroyed its inhuman ideology. We’ve earned the right to intone the words “national security” with meaning and gravity.

That’s why the president’s glib habit of slapping the label of “national security” on anything he happens to like at any given moment is so appalling. This is not a serious appeal to national security, but an attempt to use a magical incantation to shut off debate and dissent. In reality, the administration’s policies, as usual, boil down to little more than efforts to rile up the GOP political base.

Every president has relied on the totem of national security to bolster his standing and shore up his support. But no president has matched Trump in his utter indifference and lack of understanding about security. Other chief executives have had different ideas of what constitutes “security,” but this administration is unique in using the language without attaching any content to it beyond what plays well at any given moment with the president’s base.

There is no way to justify the internment of children, for example, as a national security threat. A state without borders is not a state; but a state that separates children from parents as a deterrent to illegal immigration is not a state worthy of the sacrifices of the American Revolution we celebrate again this summer. We can secure the border without losing our virtue.

Trade with allies is not a security threat

Likewise, trade among our closest allies, even when we disagree over fairness, is not a national security threat. To the contrary, Trump’s policy of destroying the bonds of democratic and historical attachment between the United States and its North American and European friends, is potentially a significant danger to our security, one no doubt celebrated by dictators in Moscow and Beijing.

Indeed, the only place President Trump seems unconcerned about American national security is when he faces its greatest threats. He has legitimized the sadistic scion of a brutal dynasty in North Korea by shaking hands with him and talking about what a wonderful young man he is. He sullenly trudges through a summit with our allies in the Group of Seven while rushing to embrace Vladimir Putin at an upcoming meeting in Helsinki whose agenda can only be our further humiliation in Europe. He pledges trade war with Canada and Europe while seeking exceptions for Chinese companies, including one that represents a threat to our information systems.

There is no shame in using national security to justify policies — even unpleasant ones — that require us to make sacrifices to keep our country and our way of life intact. But President Trump’s invocations of national security are not worthy of us as a nation. We should object not only because of the cynicism this injects into our national discourse, but in the name of the sacrifices made to keep us safe for over 240 years.