Editorial: Trump’s new team designed to take the low road

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President-elect Donald Trump, who knows little about world affairs, is putting together a national security team that is sure to play on his worst instincts.

They will encourage him to pit Americans against each other, to declare as the enemy an entire worldwide religion, and to curtail civil liberties and human rights out of false sense of what it takes to keep America safe.

Based on what they have said and done in the past, it’s safe to assume Trump’s top advisers will encourage him to reduce sophisticated foreign policy questions to cartoonishly simple choices, as he did during his presidential campaign, putting the bogyman of Islamic radicalism always front and center.

Islam is waging a global holy war, key members of Trump’s chosen team believe, and there is a danger they will encourage the new president to partner with any ally in that fight. If that means buddying up with strongmen such as Russian President Vladimir Putin or Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, so be it.

Trump won the election, even if he failed to win the popular vote, and it is only fair to take a more wait-and-see approach now to how he actually governs. Already, Trump has signaled he won’t follow through on every campaign promise. That “wall” might be just a fence. He’s not really interesting in locking up Hillary Clinton. He’s “fine” with gay marriage.

But on national security matters, Trump has signaled with his Cabinet choices that he is committed to the same irresponsible approach he laid out in the campaign, largely undiluted. And given his foreign affairs ignorance, as well as his reluctance to do the hard work of schooling himself, the views of his national security advisers could carry tremendous weight.

An important part of the job for Trump’s best advisers — such as Mitt Romney, should he be nominated and confirmed as secretary of state — will be to counter the dangerous counsel of his worst advisers. A big job for all Americans will be to remain vigilant. The greatest danger we face could well be a creeping normalization of intolerance and extremism.

Consider Trump’s pick to be director of the CIA, Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas. Pompeo favors reopening the CIA’s notorious black-site prisons, where interrogation techniques rose to the level of torture. He also favors a return to the bulk collection of phone call information for all Americans. He believes the United States should “walk away” from the multinational deal to limit Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons. That would be a dangerous development for the world, as well as a threat to our nation’s most steadfast alliances.

Then there is Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Putting aside for the moment Sessions’ history of racist remarks, here is a fellow who would throw away the Bill of Rights and impose a religious test — no Muslims — on who could enter the country. He is among the most strident anti-immigration voices in the Senate, opposed to any bill that would allow undocumented immigrants, including those brought here as babies decades ago, even the most limited legal status.

Trump’s choice for national security adviser, retired Army Lt. General Michael Flynn, led the crowd in chanting “Lock her up,” referring to Hillary Clinton, at the Republican National Convention. Classy guy. Flynn has expressed interest in a horrible proposal to force American Muslims, even those who are native-born citizens, to register with the government. He has called Islam — the entire religion — a “cancer” or “political ideology” that “hides behind being a religion.”

A more moderate Trump pick could be retired Marine General James Mattis, said to be under consideration for secretary of defense. Mattis agrees with Trump and Flynn that the Iran nuclear deal should be renegotiated. But he is also a strong champion of NATO and deeply wary of closer ties with Russia.

And then there is Reince Priebus, Trump’s newly appointed chief of staff, a mainstream Republican who could serve as a voice of moderation in a Trump White House. Priebus’ weakness is that he is allergic to taking tough but principled stands. As chairman of the Republican National Committee during the election, Priebus at times was an apologist for Trump at his worst.

Finally, there is the Trump Whisperer, Stephen Bannon. A year ago Bannon was running one of the most offensive far-right websites in the country, Breitbart News Network. Today, he is Trump’s chief strategist. Bannon brought a lot of that Breitbart style — the gleeful trashing of women, Jews, minorities, Muslims and anybody who gets in your way — to the Trump campaign. It was Bannon who did the dirty work so that Trump could drag up Bill Clinton’s alleged history of sexual misconduct.

During the election, we were struck by how often Trump sounded like he was regurgitating Bannon’s weirdness. That’ll happen when you don’t know your own mind, which Trump often does not. You take the word of flatterers as God’s truth.

Be prepared for more of the same from President Trump.

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