Weekly Writers Round-Up: The Next National Security Advisor, Alarming Support for Population Control, and Ending the Trade War

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? See here for info on how we can help make that a reality. 

4 things Trump should remember as he’s picking his next national security adviser by Gil Barndollar (Summer 2018) in Business Insider
John Bolton has left the building. The famously mustachioed Washington insider stepped down as national security adviser yesterday, leaving behind a two-sentence letter and a silly argument over whether he resigned or was fired.

President Trump had been at loggerheads with Bolton for months: repeatedly contradicting him, joking to friends about Bolton’s bellicosity, and literally exiling his national security adviser to Mongolia. Bolton’s vehement opposition to canceled negotiations with the Taliban at Camp David was the final straw…

Politicians’ support for population control is dangerous by Chelsea Follett (Summer 2017) in The Orange County Register
Recently, when asked if he would act to “curb population growth” because “the planet cannot sustain this growth,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders answered in the affirmative, noting he would focus on “poor countries around the world.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, one of Sanders’ rivals and current leading contender for the Democratic nomination, previously voiced acceptance of China’s one-child (now two-child) policy, telling a Chinese audience, “Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family.”…

Stop the Trade War in the Name of Prosperity by John Dale Grover (Spring 2019) in The American Conservative
Part of the Trump administration’s latest round of 15 percent tariffs on Chinese imports went into effect Sunday, with the rest to follow on December 15. These increases will impact the prices of many consumer goods that Americans rely on, including clothing, appliances, televisions, smartwatches, textbooks, diapers, coffee, and even whiskey. And given their timing, they’ll likely have an effect on holiday shopping. This makes all the more welcome President Trump’s recent statement during the G7 summit that China is looking to end the trade war and that he too is open to making a deal.

Trump is right to negotiate with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as finding an off-ramp from the trade war should be Washington’s priority. America’s interest is in out-competing Beijing, not hurting our own economy in an attempt to damage theirs. The United States has a better hand here, but we must play it to our advantage…