President Donald Trump is “shooting himself in the foot” in his foreign policy by using Twitter, a former staffer to ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis told Hill. TV on Monday.
“You’ve been working with your allies and partners to fulfill some of this policy directives and then suddenly a tweet comes out that undermines months and months and months of planning," said retired Navy Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, who served as Mattis's speechwriter and communications director. “That is not helpful to the American public. It’s also not helpful to our nation or to his own policies he’s trying to enact.”
Although Snodgrass did not point to a specific example, he summed up the problem by saying that “President Trump is basically pulling his revolver out of his holster and shooting himself in the foot.”
Trump has repeatedly used Twitter to comment on numerous crucial foreign policy issues over the course of his presidency, apparently without previous consultations with his staff.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Snodgrass is currently on a book tour promoting his new memoir, "Holding The Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis.”
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