DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE:

I took part in an Intelligence Squared debate last night, speaking for the motion, "Give Trump a Chance." My partner, Gayle Trotter, and I were soundly beaten by David Frum and Michael Waldman. Here's the link: I think you'll enjoy it. [...]

Frum and Waldman convincingly set out the evidence that Trump is a menace and asked, what else does anybody need to know? Fair question. They were ideal partners, as well -- a conservative and a liberal equally disgusted by Trump.

Best of all, they advanced an appealingly moderate notion of what "Don't Give Trump a Chance" actually means. Frum said some of Trump's cabinet nominees should be confirmed for instance, and didn't say every Trump initiative should be blocked. That's in contrast with many Democrats in Congress, to say nothing of anti-Trump activists on the streets, who want Trump halted on every front, merits be damned -- the position I had in my sights, and an easier one to attack. [...]

One thing I take from the debate -- and from thinking about the events of the past couple of weeks, as the hyperactive new president did one dumb thing after another -- is a better sense of how U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull might be feeling at the moment. Keeping an open mind about Trump is a thankless task. Leaders of close and long-standing U.S. allies, hoping for productive relations with the new president, have been rewarded for that posture by being made to look stupid.

Perhaps we had it coming. In any event, should U.S. allies continue to give Trump a chance? I wouldn't advise it. For them, this debate is hardly academic.      

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