Ben Rhodes: Trump’s Middle East Policy Is ‘Schizophrenic’

Appearing Thursday on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, former Obama Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes claimed President Donald Trump’s foreign policy in the Middle East is “schizophrenic” after warning Iran it will face consequences for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.

A partial transcript is as follows:

NICOLLE WALLACE: I want to stay with Iraq, Ben. And, it’s my observation that [President Trump’s] policy toward Iran is the most schizophrenic of all of Trump’s ill-thought-out, at least in the case of Russia, they are all consistently pro-Putin. In the case of North Korea, he has a delusion that they are beloved pen pals and there’s a peace deal, when there isn’t. In Iran, he seems truly schizophrenic. There are enough people around him, including his son-in-law, who are arguing for a more confrontation approach. But on New Year’s Eve, standing next to Melania, he called for peace with Iran. How does that land in the region?

BEN RHODES: You’re exactly right, Nicolle. Because, basically, the logic of what Trump has actually done is confrontation with Iran. He’s imposed these new santions, he pulled out of the nuclear deal… And schizophrenic is the right description of the policy, Nicolle, because Donald Trump likes to stand up and say that he’s getting us out of these places, that he’s pulling the troops out, that he’s winding down these wars. But the reality is there’s thousands more U.S. troops in the Middle East because Donald Trump has deployed them to Saudi Arabia to provide, essentially, security for his partner there, Mohammad bin Salman. Now additional troops necessary to secure our embassy in Iraq. So we’ve seen him do things like pull back. A few hundred U.S. troops are having an enormous impact in Syria in ways that allowed for ISIS fighters to escape and potentially to regenerate, that has certainly led to the killing of some of our Kurdish allies who fought with us.