ON POLITICS

For the Record: How Trump and Clinton see the world

Joanna Allhands
USA TODAY
Donald Trump speaks with 'Today' show co-anchor Matt Lauer at the NBC Commander-In-Chief Forum held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid, New York, Sept. 7, 2016.

Last week’s Commander-in-Chief town hall wasn’t just another opportunity for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to bash each other (though there was plenty of that). The forum was perfect fodder for another policy-themed For the Record newsletter. (Did you miss where the candidates stand on taxes, the economy, immigration and Obamacare? Well, follow the links, fair reader.)

WHY IT MATTERS

We heard that groan, and we feel your pain. For many of us, the phrase "foreign policy" conjures nightmares of that one boring social-studies class you were forced to take in high school, and good lord, it sucked. But it's a good idea to know how candidates see the rest of the world 1) because we live in nasty times with people who'd love to attack us and 2) because the president is ultimately in charge of our armed forces (not to mention that big red “nuke ‘em all” button).

WHERE DON AND HIL STAND

Trump once said he would “bomb the s--t“ out of ISIS, and people assume that Trump’s foreign policy amounts to “either you’re for us or against us, and if you’re against us, you’re going to feel our wrath.” There is ample reason to support that theory: Trump said we should have taken Iraq’s oil when we invaded, that we should keep sending suspected terrorists, including American citizens, to Guantanamo Bay and that we should spend a lot more to build up the military with more ships, planes and troops (and maybe replace a bunch of generals while he’s at it).

But Trump also has argued that we should scale back our roles in Asia, the Middle East and NATO. And he has heaped praise on Vladimir Putin, which Trump’s camp claims is proof that he’s willing to work with anyone. Diplomacy, not destruction!

Clinton, meanwhile, is positioning herself as the polar opposite of Trump, saying that ISIS hopes “Allah delivers America to Trump” because his rhetoric is a great recruiting tool. She favors closing Gitmo and continuing our roles in Asia and the Middle East. She also says NATO is “one of the best investments that America has ever made” and has called Putin a “bully.”

Then again, foes have criticized her penchant for changing foreign-policy positions (she was for invading Iraq before she was against it, for example) and questioned her record as secretary of State, which they say has made the world an even scarier place.

THIRD PARTY VIEWS

We’ve got few details to work with here. But it appears that Libertarian Gary Johnson is more aligned with the part of Trump that says we should butt out of everyone else’s business. Johnson says on his website that he’s against putting boots on the ground to fight ISIS (though he totally spaced a question last week on how to help Aleppo, the capital of the country besieged by ISIS. Ouch).

Green Party candidate Jill Stein is even more hands-off than Johnson. She says on her website that we should break ties with all countries that have committed war crimes or that have massive human-rights violations (so, like, everyone?), withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, reduce our nuclear arsenal and make the National Guard the centerpiece of national defense.

WHAT IT MEANS

Let’s oversimplify this and at the same time throw some scary social-studies terms at you (don't freak! They're oversimplified, remember?). The choice is basically between Trump’s brand of isolationism, which tells us to butt out of most of the world and build an arsenal, and Clinton’s brand of exceptionalism, which is about building allies and getting up in the bad players’ business. Both candidates are trotting out cadres of generals that agree with them. So pick your world view and go with it. What’s the worst that could happen? Oh, right. The red button ...

MORE FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

  • Donald Trump’s ideal debate with Clinton: No moderators (USA TODAY) 
  • Column: Hillary Clinton pulls a Mitt Romney, and it may have just cost her the election (Arizona Republic) 
  • How candidate physicals could become the new tax returns (USA TODAY) 
  • She’s been transforming into Hillary Clinton for 23 years. Here's how (The Desert Sun) 

A TIMELINE OF COUGHS

Before we knew that Hillary Clinton had a case of walking pneumonia, The American Mirror tabulated a complete timeline of Clinton’s on-stage coughing, starting on Jan. 25. Because this is the TMI health stuff people need to know.