The president’s personal intervention was “highly improper,” one arms export expert says, concluding that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act “appears to have been criminally violated here.”

“We need to have a secretary of defense; we’ve always had one, so I anticipate we will,” Inhofe told the Defense Writers Group, directly contradicting Trump’s predilection for acting officials. “I think he’s going to nominate someone.”

No one knows precisely what happened inside the White House that resulted in President Trump’s sudden about-face on Syria. One day he was planning to extricate American ground troops from Syria; then he wasn’t. Regardless, whoever is urging the president to leave a small contingent of 2,000 lightly armed soldiers and Marines in a remote corner of Syria is doing the president and the nation a grave disservice.