Trump is handling the military as a businessman would, said Peter Haynes, a senior fellow focusing on defense strategy and warfare at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “It’s really more of a businessman’s approach in that you hire the right people and let them do their work. It’s all about them getting results."
“For Trump, there tends to be a transactional basis to his strategy. There’s problems with that because it allows really big decision making at the lower levels, but they may not all be aggregate and heading in the same strategic direction in terms of results. That’s the problem when you delegate more authority,” said Haynes, who added that Mattis is much more involved in foreign policy and operations than his predecessors. In addition to the potential for confusion in foreign relations, there is also the risk of a widening gap between the Defense Department and State Department.
“Unless U.S. embassies overseas understand what the combatant commanders are doing and work with them, there’s a possibility you may delink U.S. defense policy overseas with U.S. foreign policy,” said Haynes. “There needs to be that bridge between operational goals and the achievement of foreign policy goals to accomplish grander political goals.”
“What you need longer term is strategic planning to make the lines of effort go in the same direction,” said Haynes.