Donald Trump’s thundering vows to wage a trade war with China or make Mexico pay to build a thousand-mile wall along the U.S. border seem all the less likely to become reality when you consider how mightily he has struggled with a much more easily achievable campaign promise: to announce an unprecedented A-team of foreign policy advisers.
Under normal circumstances, Republican experts on world affairs would be lining up behind the frontrunner for their party’s presidential nomination, eagerly claiming the mantle of “official adviser” and jockeying with rivals for top jobs should the candidate triumph in November.
The 2016 race for the White House is many things, but “normal circumstances” it is not.