When it became clear that Donald Trump would be the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States, I changed my voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated.  (In Oregon we have an Independent Party, so unaffiliated is the equivalent of independent in most states.) I was offended by his manner, and — more important — worried about his views on trade and foreign affairs.

Most of my Republican friends did not follow suit. Almost to a person they argued that Trump’s many downsides would be offset by preventing Hillary Clinton from appointing new federal judges. The courts were their highest priority, and not without good reason. Federal judges serve for life, while presidential misdeeds and policy blunders can have a much shorter shelf life.

Now that Trump has named his second Supreme Court nominee (one confirmed), 34 Courts of Appeals nominees (22 confirmed) and 96 District Court nominees (20 confirmed), my friends who remained loyal to the Republican candidate must be feeling vindicated. Especially so since Trump has been uncharacteristically deferential to well-informed conservative and libertarian advisers. For my part I am generally pleased with Trump’s judicial appointments, but I worry at their price, particularly in Trump’s ill-informed and often intemperate approach to trade and foreign affairs.

When our president states that Angela Merkel’s Germany is “totally controlled by Russia,” that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan would “probably kill” any future trade deal between the United States and Britain, that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be as reliable as our own intelligence agencies on the subject of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, do any of my Republican friends have second thoughts about their loyal support for the Republican nominee?

When our president imposes tariffs that will cost American jobs and impose higher prices on American consumers, do my Republican friends ask themselves what price is too high to have secured courts more to our liking? When our president strides off in front of the Queen of England as is she were just another nameless woman passing through his life, are my friends just a little embarrassed?

I am delighted with Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and look forward to two more years of good nominations to the federal bench from bottom to top. I am also pleased with much of what Trump’s Cabinet members have accomplished in deregulating an over-regulated economy and with Congress’ reform of the federal tax code. And I don’t mind that Trump has brought a dose of straight talk to international diplomacy, which has been too long a mysterious dance of obscure signals and hidden agendas.

But informed straight talk is one thing. Blunderbuss projectiles fired from the unconstrained mouth of a man who knows little of the world and apparently listens to no one (except on the appointment of judges) is another. I am optimistic that our long-term allies and friends know that Trump, like all American presidents, is temporary. This seemingly irrational disruption will pass and our mutual commitment to democracy and freedom will, perhaps, emerge stronger for the experience.

But our enemies are not biding their time until a new American president arrives.  Nothing makes the authoritarian stronger than the passage of time without serious opposition or consequence. Any suggestion that Russia will be given a pass on its annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine, that Bashar al-Assad’s continued tyranny in Syria will be accepted as too far from home, or that North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear programs will be allowed to continue under feel-good agreements like that between Trump and Kim Jong-un, will do irreparable harm to the prospects for global peace and lead to the continued suffering of millions of people.

Decades of failure attest that these are not easy challenges, but we have a president who thinks they are. His confidence that he alone has the answer to every international challenge makes him a very dangerous player in a very dangerous world. Not to mention an embarrassment to national pride.

So are the judges worth the price? I hope my Republican friends are open to reconsidering when the 2020 primary rolls around. At that point, with a different nominee, it will not be too late to have their cake and eat it too.