August 18, 2015 4:23PM # Trump and the GOP: Quién Es el Más Militarista? By [Gene Healy](https://www.cato.org/people/gene-healy) --- SHARE I’d have figured that the category of “Trump supporters who are aware of the *Atlantic Monthly*” would be an empty set, but it turns out there are at least 30 of them. Last week, in [an open letter to Trump fans](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/a-letter-to-donald-trump-supporters-with-one-big-question/401198/), the *Atlantic*’s Conor Friedersdorf asked “*why him*?”, and yesterday, he published the results: [“What Do Donald Trump Voters Actually Want?”](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/donald-trump-voters/401408/) The funniest responses tend toward the nihilistic: “I really am at the point of letting the whole thing burn down and explode…. Like the joker from The Dark Knight, [I just want to see the world burn](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/donald-trump-voters/401408/#An%2520Anarchist%2520Who%2520Wants%2520to%2520'Let%2520the%2520Whole%2520Thing%2520Burn')”; or, “[I just want to watch the chaos](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/donald-trump-voters/401408/#I%2520Just%2520Want%2520to%2520Watch%2520the%2520Chaos) unfold …. I’m a young guy who is immature, a bit antisocial, and with no plans for kids or a wife ever. At some level, I don’t really care how things go with America as long as it’s fun to watch.” (Say what you want about the tenets of Trumpism: at [least it’s not an ethos](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/lebowski-studies-101-at-least-its-an-ethos/)!) ![Media Name: trumpisis.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/trumpisis.jpg?itok=QaAs_nbD) But if watching things burn down and blow up is what you want out of politics, the other candidates may have a lot more to offer you—or so I argue in a column for the *Federalist* this week, “[Trump’s Biggest Lie: ‘I’m The Most Militaristic Person’ In This Race](http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/17/trumps-biggest-lie-im-the-most-militaristic-person-in-this-race/).” That’s what Trump said upon his return to *Fox News* last week, and, even for the Donald, it’s a boast too far. The fact is, “in the 2016 election cycle, the ‘serious and responsible’ candidates for the presidency are so bellicose they make Trump look like [Cindy Sheehan](http://https/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sheehan).” To take just a couple of examples from the piece, there’s: > Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who in June, refused a reporter’s invitation to rule out [“a full-blown re-invasion of Iraq,”](http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/07/scott-walker-wont-rule-out-another-full-blown-invasion-of-iraq-video/) and in July, announced that he’d “very possibly” need to start bombing Iran [on his first day in office](http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/bush-vs-walker-catches-fire-over-iran-nuclear-deal_994073.html). And there’s Florida senator Marco Rubio, who > stands out among his competitors as the sole Republican to argue that Obama’s real mistake in Libya was that he didn’t start bombing [even sooner](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2690447/posts). Rubio wants to double down on the profligate interventionism of the George W. Bush era so badly that he’s built his campaign on B‑movie slogans and neocon buzzwords. A [Liam-Neeson-style](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/05/09/republican-presidential-hopefuls-intensify-anti-terrorism-message-we-will-kill-you/) “we will find you; and we will kill you” \[is his\] message to ISIS… and his website promises [“A New American Century,”](http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rubio-video-calls-new-american-century_915383.html) – a pledge that ought to give pause to anybody old enough to remember [how that worked out](http://https/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century) in the last decade. Even candidates with residual sympathy toward an earlier tradition of Republican realism have begun to toe the party line. Rand Paul has begun to sound [distinctly hawkish](http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/rand-paul-says-hed-support-using-military-force-if-iran-was#.ciO3gpP9mw) lately, and Jeb Bush has decided it just “wouldn’t be prudent” to hire a [foreign policy director who’s skeptical about bombing Iran](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/04/08/gop-foreign-policy-factions-tussle-for-sway-in-jeb-bush-campaign-team/). Trump, on the other hand, seems determined to demonstrate his unseriousness by [denouncing the Iraq War](http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/08/trump_iraq_war_elevated_iran.html), saying he [wouldn’t “rip up” the Iran deal](http://news.yahoo.com/departure-republicans-trump-wouldnt-rip-iran-deal-172640551.html), and complaining that America has become [“the policeman of the world.”](http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/politics/doanld-trump-crimea-europe-problem/) Meanwhile, no one in this crowd can out-hawk Hillary Clinton, whose long, ghoulish career can be summed up in her own words, [“I urged him to bomb.”](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/who-would-hillary-clinton-bomb/article/2549513) “We came, we saw, he died,” is how HRC greeted the news that Colonel Qaddafi had been killed by a rebel mob. The best the Donald could do was brag about how this one time, he really [“screwed” Qaddafi in a real estate deal](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-experience-screwing-moammar-khadafy-real-estate-deal-article-1.122281). Wimp! Look, don’t get me wrong: Trump is a boorish self-promoter—and worse, a literal “robber baron,”—the sort of guy who’d invoke eminent domain to try [steal a retired widow’s house](http://www.ij.org/atlantic-city-nj-condemnation-latest-release) so he can use it for a limousine waiting area. The GOP should be embarrassed to have him leading the pack. But, “most militaristic”? Not by a long shot. As I argued in the *Federalist*, “on this issue, in this field, he’s not quite the embarrassment he should be.” Read the whole thing [there](http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/17/trumps-biggest-lie-im-the-most-militaristic-person-in-this-race/). ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).