Trump’s foreign policy seems designed to terrify everyone – including his own government

‘Plan, prepare, and train for the outbreak of chaos,’ says al Qaeda’s handbook, The Management of Savagery, a blueprint for building the Caliphate through what might be called creative destruction. ‘At the outbreak of chaos, the onset of jihad: ride the wave…exploit the situation.’ Did Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s new chief strategist, read The Management of Savagery? He has been accused of implementing a ‘chaos theory of government’. Create chaos. Destroy the old order. Build paradise. The Trump administration has seemed busily engaged in phase one during its first two, hair-raising weeks in office. For the critics, the military raid against al Qaeda in Yemen was the inevitable outcome — a disaster, they say, that need not have happened but for Trump’s character flaws and Bannon’s fanaticism. The truth, however, is more complicated.

President Trump approved the raid over dinner at the White House. Bannon was there, ignoring those (including a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs) who say political operatives like him should be kept far away from national security.