Former CIA man says Trump’s bottom line take on presidency could be refreshing

PHOENIX — Donald Trump’s bottom line attitude toward his presidency could be a breath of fresh air on some issues, a former CIA employee who lives in Arizona said.

“I think we’ve spent a long time hauling a lot of global water,” Paul Kinsinger with the Thunderbird School of Global Management said.

“On the other hand, there’s an attitude that things on the international scene are simple and they’ve been made too complex and that’s not true. I think it’s the opposite and many things on the international scene are highly complex.”

Kinsinger — who spent nearly 20 years with the CIA, primarily in the Middle East — believes Trump will be looking for clear-cut victories on the international stage. He said the president will likely use a “what’s in it for America?” approach that some may misconstrue as an isolationist policy.

Kinsinger said Trump’s stance will actually echo his campaign promise of “America first.”

“Isolationists would be staying out of everything and I think we hear that from the way the president talks about things,” he said, “On the other hand, I don’t see him shying away from carrying a big stick on certain things when he feels the need to do so.”

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