Davenport also believes labeling Trump’s switch on some policies a “flip-flop” as some have done is unfair. “It’s a little strong and inaccurate. Any president has to deal with some subtleties of timing and playing one priority off against another, and I think that’s what we see Trump doing.”

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“It’s fine to have foreign policy objectives but sometimes national security events just come up unexpectedly and are sort of beyond our control and end up overriding your long-term foreign policy strategies,” said Davenport.