Still, the reversal on Afghanistan carries particular risk with Trump’s white, working-class core followers, many of whom have emotional or personal ties to the military and the strain the extended conflicts in the Middle East has placed on service members, said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs. “It’s their sons and daughters who are gone for months and years at a time on these multiple deployments,” she said. “It’s a huge political gamble for him.”
Barbara Perry
