Foreign desk: It’s Rand Paul’s Foreign Policy Now

President Trump’s non-ideological foreign policy is “a combination of his long-held personal views and the influence of whoever currently has his ear,” according to The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin. And these days, he’s listening “more than ever” to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), “who is quietly steering US foreign policy in a new direction.” Don’t blame Turkey’s ­Recep Tayip Erdogan for the withdrawal of US troops from Syria: He’s demanded that for years. All that’s changed recently “is whom Trump is listening to back home.” Paul, several sources say, is “having an outsize influence on the president’s recent foreign policy decisions.” Unfortunately, he “has a history of pushing false claims and theories, especially with regard to the Middle East.” So “if a senator the president trusts is feeding him bad information, that’s a huge problem.”

From the right: How Does the Shutdown Finally End?

Washington “could be about to settle down for a long winter’s nap,” predicts Jim Antle at The National Interest. That’s because the federal government is still shut down and Nancy Pelosi is about to reclaim the House speaker’s gavel. But since newly elected Democrats “were not chosen for a Washington tour of duty in order to cooperate with President Trump or build the wall,” there is no “obvious path forward that would resolve the shutdown.” Like Pelosi, Trump needs to keep his own base happy. Once upon a time, a trade of Dreamer amnesty for wall funding was possible. But with all of Washington “already in 2020 campaign mode over both immigration and the shutdown, that ship has likely sailed.” Only one thing is clear: The shutdown “can’t go on forever.”

Urban critic: DA Vance Becoming ‘Cut-’em-Loose Cy’

Law enforcement may not be perfect, but City Journal’s Bob McManus suggests it “does a pretty good job of delivering justice while promoting ­social stability.” Not as carried out by Manhattan DA Cy Vance, though: His “upside-down priorities” merely “foment chaos and undermine public confidence in equity under law.” And his “most fraught ­offense against public order” has been his unilateral decision that “some crimes are beneath his attention or shouldn’t even be on the books in the first place.” As with fare-beating and pot possession, which he now declines to prosecute, “that’s not properly his decision to make; it’s Albany’s.” But Vance “is leading the way in a new movement of prosecutors who seem to be saying that if they don’t approve of a statute, they won’t enforce it.”

Political scribe: Why Trump Would Survive a Recession

Those wondering about the political impact of a possible recession ­assume that because President Trump has taken credit for a robust stock market and low unemployment, any reversal of these trends would be ­disastrous for him. But “this is sloppy thinking,” contends The Week’s Matthew Walther: Trump would respond to an economic downturn “by blaming everyone and everything else.” Moreover, “he would get away with it,” because our pundit class still fails to understand “the transcendent nature of Trump’s appeal.” His “pitch to voters has always been about one thing — a nebulously defined but perpetually screwed-over us versus an equally intangible but unfailingly perfidious them.” That’s why a 2008-style recession actually “would be a political godsend for this president,” who could turn it around to his advantage.

Activist: The New Face NY GOP Needs at the Top

For 10 years, Ed Cox “has proven himself to be an exemplary state ­Republican chairman,” says John William Schiffbauer at Crain’s New York Business. But in the wake of last month’s “midterm shellacking,” many “are clamoring for new leadership.” Any successor “needs to be a seasoned campaigner and a technocratic problem solver, with downstate donors on speed dial and a healthy dose of modern-media savvy.” Who best to do it? Schiffbauer says “the clear choice” is Harry Wilson, the “private-sector turnaround whiz” who waged a surprisingly close race for state comptroller in 2010. Wilson “ticks most, if not all, the boxes,” and Republicans “would be fools not to nominate him.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann