Trump’s Foreign Policy Philosophy Hard to Pin Down
Masood Farivar, Voice of America
Is President-elect Donald Trump a foreign policy realist or idealist? Is he bringing Richard Nixon’s hard-edged realpolitik to his foreign policy or following in the footsteps of the more idealistic Ronald Reagan?
The question has become a parlor game among Washington's policy pundits.
Trump’s frequent invocation of Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra and campaign pledge to rebuild America’s “depleted” military has invited comparisons to the Republican icon credited with winning the Cold War.
His advocacy of a foreign policy based on America’s national interests has led some to liken it to Nixonian realism, while his aversion to foreign interventions has won him the label of a non-interventionist and even isolationist.
Don’t Fence Trump In
Trump has professed no great power doctrine and his advisers discourage applying labels to his vision of the world.
“I’m not going to be put into the little academic, graduate school box because I think it doesn’t suit, and it doesn’t apply in a rapidly changing world,” said K.T. McFarland, Trump’s incoming deputy national security adviser, when asked to describe the Trump doctrine.
While Trump’s call for “peace through strength” reflects Reagan’s view of deterrence, “there are parts of Nixon and (Henry) Kissinger that Donald Trump has also advocated,” McFarland said at the U.S. Institute of Peace, alluding to Trump’s interest-based approach to world affairs.
Trump’s Speeches
A foreign policy neophyte, Trump has shied away from declaring any grand foreign strategy during the campaign, though he did give two major speeches devoted to foreign policy and national security.
In the first speech, delivered at the realist-leaning Center for the National Interest in Washington in April, Trump outlined what he called a “coherent foreign policy based on American interests” and called for “getting out of nation building,” creating stability and quashing “radical Islam.”
“Containing the spread of radical Islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the United States and indeed the world,” Trump said. “Events may require the use of military force, but it’s also a philosophical struggle, like our long struggle in the Cold War.”
In the second speech, at Youngstown University in Ohio in August, Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric about terror, warning countries around the world that they’d be judged based on their commitment to the U.S. goal of fighting terrorism.
“All actions should be oriented around this goal, and any country which shares this goal will be our ally,” Trump told a rally of supporters.
‘Strategic Surprise’
It was a theme that Trump would repeat, in one iteration or another, throughout the campaign, but his advisers say Trump’s pre- and post-election pronouncements on foreign policy, often delivered off the cuff, should not be read as policy prescriptions.
“Actually, he didn’t say a lot about foreign policy and national security on the campaign trail, and what he did say really doesn’t add up to a policy,” said James Carafano, director of foreign policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation who advises the Trump transition team on foreign affairs. “That’s very frustrating because the people want to know what’s this guy going to do.”
With the new administration yet to take office, McFarland, too, cautioned that Trump’s foreign policy is in an early stage of development.
“That’s what a new administration does: It takes time to rethink things and to come up with policies,” she said.
If history is any guide, Trump could quickly find himself facing a set of foreign policy crises different from the issues he campaigned on. Political scientists have a term for an unexpected world event that drives a new president into uncharted territory: “strategic surprise.”
For former President George W. Bush, who campaigned on pursuing a “humble foreign policy,” the strategic surprise came September 11, 2001.
For President Barack Obama, who vowed to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the “Arab Spring” protests in North Africa and the Middle East marked a strategic surprise, leaving his administration more deeply mired in the region than he’d hoped.
What international crisis might alter the trajectory of the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda has become a guessing game, with the number of scenarios exceeded only by the variety of foreign policy labels attributed to Trump.
A game-changing terrorist attack on American interests is one possible candidate. Another contender: an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launch by North Korea.
“I think the world is not necessarily going to allow President Trump to do everything he’s planned on,” said Blaise Misztal, director of the national security program at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “I think you’re going to see a triangulation between what he’s said, what he’s advised to do, and what is actually feasible on the world stage.”
Flip Flopping on Issues
While Trump has flip flopped on some issues, NATO and torturing terrorists, for example, he’s held steady on others. Among them: terrorism, trade, China and Russia.
In the weeks since his election, he’s reiterated his pledge to make terrorism a focus of his foreign policy, talked tough on trade, challenged the “One China” policy, and iterated again a desire to reset relations with Russia even as he embraced intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in last year’s presidential election.
Brian Katulis of Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, said the “most radical shift” Trump will likely undertake will be “engagement and involvement” with Russia, something Obama unsuccessfully attempted during his first term in office.
But former CIA director Michael Hayden said Trump is likely to reconsider his approach to Russia once he learns from intelligence agencies and allies that Russia and Syria are not committed to fighting IS.
“I’m personally very, very skeptical of any convergence between American and Russian interests in this part of the world,” Hayden said. “In fact, I’d offer the view that American and Russian interests are actually heading in different directions.”
Another major change: downplaying a postwar American foreign policy tradition of promoting democracy and freedom around the world.
“Trump has signaled as a candidate and in the transition a proclivity to appreciate authoritarian and repressive leaders around the world,” Katulis said. “And this may be the biggest departure that is historic, that there really won’t be as much of a values-based approach that focuses on human rights democracy and freedom in other countries. And that I think puts the United States itself on shaky territory.”
But McFarland played down those concerns, saying “the three bedrocks of (postwar) American foreign policy” — American leadership, American values and international alliances — will remain under the Trump administration.
Unpredictability
There is usually some continuity between administrations on foreign policy, but “that rule actually may not apply under Trump,” Katulis said.
“We’re dealing with something here that is just fundamentally different and off the charts,” Katulis explained.
That 'something' is Trump’s well-known unpredictability. Trump has criticized President Obama for telegraphing his policy moves and has vowed to remain unpredictable. But experts say unpredictability can be dangerous in the international arena where both allies and adversaries expect a certain degree of predictability from the United States.
"Predictability is the cornerstone of deterrence," said Clarke. "You need to be predictable if you’re the United states, both in what your allies know you’ll do and in what your adversaries know you’ll do and how you’ll respond."
Comments
AND in that other important Trump FP area....."defeating IS and eradicating it from the face of the earth".....
Trump's first 30 days ends at noon. He has an hour to deliver on this campaign promise he made about defeating ISIS.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/07/politics/mark-hertling-trump-30-day-isis-…
REMEMBER Trump constantly bashed Clinton for "pay for play"....and then he started his "drain the swamp" mantra....
According to Eric Trump, Mar-a-lago will make about $8 million+ selling access to his father this year
https://goo.gl/UAZhfJ
This President and his immediate family have no "conflicts of interest"...really....
So just how does a Trump WH ever develop a FP that is not tied to his business interests????
The Senate has asked agencies to keep everything they find investigating the Russian hacking
http://read.bi/2l9CAtI
Judicial Watch Planning to Sue FBI, NSA, CIA for Flynn Records
http://jwatch.us/Wr5b2S
The Russians are turning on Trump — via @ForeignPolicy
http://read.bi/2l9EqLa
As one who has been tracking Russian propaganda and actions since Crimea...then onto eastern Ukraine invasion and then onto Syria....
The "{Russians" truly felt they were going to see the sanctions against Russia lifted almost immediately by Trump.....
WHY did they anticipate that Trump move if they had not known about it far earlier...actually before Trump was elected?????
BLUF....
Fmr Putin adviser went on to say West world order/ US hegemony is collapsing and Russia is winning. He's more optimistic now than in years.
WHY does they now express this when they did not express the same thing when Obama was in the WH????
McCain....."when you suppress free media you have the beginnings of a dictatorship"...
BUT WAIT..it cannot be that Trump WH is beginning to suppress free media...
The argument of fake news stories no longer carries any weight because actually the information in those "fake news reports has largely be accurately true....
Priebus: Trump should be taken seriously when he calls press ‘the enemy’
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/priebus-trump-should-be-taken-se…
The Hill
President Trump should be taken seriously in his claim that the media is "the enemy of the American people," White House chief of staff Reince Priebus says.
"I think you should take it seriously," Priebus said during an interview for CBS's "Face the Nation," when asked whether Trump's tweet about "fake news" media should be taken seriously.
"I think that the problem we've got is that we're talking about bogus stories like the one in The New York Times, that we've had constant contact with Russian officials," he continued.
"The next day, The Wall Street Journal had a story that the intel community was not giving the president a full intelligence briefing. Both stories grossly inaccurate, overstated, overblown and it's total garbage."
"So we spend, you know, 48 hours on bogus stories. And the American people suffer. So I do think it's a problem," Priebus added, saying the press in some cases "really needs to get its act together."
"The enemy?" CBS anchor John Dickerson pressed.
"If the theory is that the press is supposed to be a free forum of information to speak to the American people, I think it ought to be accurate," Priebus responded.
The White House official also called on reporters to stop using anonymous sources, something regularly relied upon for stories involving sensitive matters, including national security.
"I think that the media should stop with this unnamed source stuff, put names on a piece of paper and print it. If people aren't willing to put their name next to a quote, then the quote shouldn't be listed," Priebus said.
After the interview, Dickerson highlighted a tweet from Trump that included an unnamed source:
Trump often dismisses news organizations as "dishonest media" and on Friday called "fake news" media the "enemy of the American People." Trump frequently refers to news stories he deems unfavorable as "fake news."
Trump's animosity toward the press came to a head on Thursday during a freewheeling news conference, where he railed against journalists for covering his administration critically and dismissed questions about his ties to Russia and the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S.
He also defended former national security adviser Michael Flynn, calling him "a wonderful man" who was treated "very, very unfairly by the media." Flynn was asked to resign on Monday amid revelations he discussed sanctions with Russia's ambassador and lied to Vice President Pence about the nature of those conversations.
Trump also said at the news conference that if Flynn hadn't discussed sanctions, he would have instructed him to do so, though he claimed he had no part in directing the conversations.
Priebus echoed Trump's position in the CBS interview, arguing that there is "nothing" inappropriate about a national security adviser discussing sanctions with a foreign diplomat, though Flynn's call with the Russian envoy came before Trump took office.
"There's nothing wrong with having a conversation about sanctions," Priebus said. "And there's nothing wrong about having a conversation about the fact that the Obama administration put further sanctions in place and expelled some folks out of the United States."
"There's nothing wrong with that topic coming up in a conversation," he said.
NOTICE
Notice just how the Trump WH is trying to spin the conversations about a quid pro quo deal with lifting of Russian sanctions if Russia remained quiet when Obama tossed out 35 Russian spies...as "a normal day to day conversation"...
BUT it was conducted before Trump was every sworn in....and during the Obama Administration.....
AND the lying...dishonest....failing...fake news media creating constantly fake news.......VS an "honest" Trump...really.......
President @realDonaldTrump invents terrorist attack on Sweden.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-tru…
Nothing like truly lying in front of a very large rally....who did not care if he lied...that is the strange part....
BUT WAIT....Trump does in fact have a "world view"....though not shared by many except.....
Andrew Sullivan: The White House Mole: Putin and Trump share a Bannonite foreign policy.
https://lnkd.in/gK-pdzt
Sunday Times Foreign
✔
@STForeign
US allies on alert for Iran war: UK fears America’s tough talk will provoke Iran crisis
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fa264be0-f61a-11e6-bd4b-b51e9bede95d
Trump has definitely rejunvenated the Iranian Mullahs...and the IRGC....
In Merkel's Munich Security Conference speech yesterday which VP Pence sat in on...she emphasized the importance of a free press and free speech as cornerstones and or pillars of democracy.....
BUT does in fact Trump and his merry band believe that?
As McCain also emphasized yesterday at the same conference "suppressing free media" is exactly how dictators get started.........
Trump savages media at Florida rally - Supporters in frenzy. Ever wonder how repression starts?
Keep watching
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39018096
THERE is a serious problem when Trump excites his supporters to start expressing threats towards the journalists who at his rally are simply doing their job and the media that is simply reporting what it learns....
I know it is hard for Trump to accept it...BUT without the "lying dishonest...failing fake news media"....WE would not have learned about his and his advisors deep connections to Russia...
The core question is ...does in fact his own supporters actually believe any longer themselves in free speech...free press ....AND more importantly the rule of law and democracy????
If Trump and his merry band are still wanting to do "grand bargains" with Putin maybe they should really revisit history for a reality check but since Bannon is an avowed Leninist he probably already agrees with anything Putin says and or does ..........
Who was behind the Moscow apartment bombings that accelerated Vladimir Putin's rise to power?
http://reprints.longform.org/putin-conspiracy-banned-story-anderson
I am not the only one stating there is absolutely no Trump FP coming out of the WH and we are in week four already...
Although strangely most of the Republicans in congress just keep saying "oh Trump is just a routine normal Republican in what he had already done"...BUT then refuse to comment on anything he has really done and or stated and or tweeted....
Hypocrisy hard at work it appears....
POLITICO Magazine
✔
@POLITICOMag
“This is not just embarrassing, but dangerous,” says the former State Dept. Director of Policy Planning:
http://politi.co/2lYSaXC
EXAMPLE...Trump talked yesterday of building Safe Zones inside Syria...THAT is exactly what it is is...ALL TALK in order to then push through a new Muslim Ban with the argument "see they have safe zones" so there is no need to come to the US.....
BUT WAIT...just how is he going to push safe zones with Iran and Russia in a country that is controlled by Assad...Hezbollah...IRGC and IS?????
Safe Zones would have been a solution five years ago...now it will simply not work as it cannot be done...
BUT WAIT...it could with say a "grand bargain" with Putin....
Interesting to see how Trump and his merry band squares a circle to reach their "grand bargain idea"....
The Economist
✔
@TheEconomist
Donald Trump is making Iran's revolution great again
http://econ.st/2l1Pqu9
Trump and his merry band simply do not get it...words do matter and especially how they are said....
AFTER four weeks there still is really no defined US FP other than tweets..rally speeches and his last press conference bashing the press....
First Merkel this week warned Trump to not attempt to damage the cohesion of EU...NOW France warns as well....
France warns the United States against the weakening of Europe
http://reut.rs/2kLitPm
I keep going back to the Putin New Yalta 2.0 and the Trump and his WH talked about Russian "grand bargain"...WHY because Trump and his merry band just keep going back to it themselves as if it is a fixation.....
From the Munich Security Conference....
As Pence/Mattis reassure allies in Munich, is WH still contemplating grand bargain w/Putin? Some thoughts here:
http://time.com/4672985/moscow-russia-us-politics/ …
Reports suggest White House still considering "grand bargain" with Moscow. But not running typical NSC process...This cuts out skeptics of accommodating Russia at DoD & State Dept. Instead Bannon's Strat Init Grp (SIG) conducting close-hold review of Russia policy; accountable to no one but Trump. Meanwhile NSC neutered.
Idea of bargain would be to give Kremlin major concessions on NATO, Ukraine, etc. for cooperation on ISIS & maybe Iran & China too.
But selling out NATO/Ukraine not needed to gain Russian cooperation vs. ISIS; Putin wants that to legitimize support for Assad.
And Russia unlikely to split from Iran, and can do little to constrain China.
So if grand bargain makes little sense, what's going on?
Could reflect a deeper alignment of interests: Putin seeks weakening of NATO, EU, more Brexits--goals Bannon shares & Trump champions
Or could be quid pro quo. Kremlin sought to influence US election to help Trump;
US Intel Community concluded that with "high confidence"
BLUF:.......
World leaders attending #MSC2017 are super confused. @VP just gave a good speech contradicting everything @POTUS has said in last 4 weeks.
AND there is no Russian involved in anything remotely vaguely close to Russian hacking during the US election...at least that was the initial Trump argument....
Interesting. Discovered one the RU owners of the Dutch company implicated in hacking the Arizona elect. system spent 6 months in US in 2016
He overstayed his visa by 2 months. Entered via NYC, Left via L.A.
BUT this "fake news" did not come from the Republican Party and the Trump WH....but from that lying dishonest MSM......
Eric Trump: Mar-a-Lago doesn't give rich members improper influence because all rich people have improper influence
Wholly Trump Mess: Fixated on the campaign, applies loyalty test to prospective officials, can't fill even top posts
https://nyti.ms/2m8M9a9
That is truly a fine-tuned machine Trump keeps talking about and about and about.....
White House dismisses NSC aide after harsh criticism of Trump
Official complained about the president at a closed-door think tank gathering.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/white-house-nsc-aide-craig-deare-…
By Eliana Johnson 02/18/17 02:21 PM EST
The White House abruptly dismissed a senior National Security Council aide on Friday after receiving reports that he had publicly laced into the president and his senior aides, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump at an event hosted by a Washington think tank.
The aide, Craig Deare, was serving as the NSC's senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Earlier in the week, at a private, off-the-record roundtable hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center for a group of about two dozen scholars, Deare harshly criticized the president and his chief strategist Steve Bannon and railed against the dysfunction paralyzing the Trump White House, according to a source familiar with the situation.
He complained in particular that senior national security aides do not have access to the president -- and gave a detailed and embarrassing readout of Trump's call with Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto.
Deare did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the National Security Council said the White House does not discuss personnel issues.
His departure comes amidst broader turmoil at the National Security Council. Trump dismissed his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in the wake of revelations that he misled the vice president about the nature of his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Yelling at your own, just-picked D/CIA. White House as reality TV. Way to destroy relations with the IC a bit more.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-yells-at-cia-director-over-reports-in…
Flynn was paid some $40,000 to attend that @RT_com gala in Moscow in 2015, alongside Putin:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/michael-flynn-general-chaos …
BUT WAIT....Flynn did not get DoD approval nor informed them of his trip and how much he received....
BREAKING: U.S. inquiries into Russian election hacking include three FBI probes that we know about, there maybe more
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber-idUSKBN15X0OE?
Ever notice a small anti semitic trend inside the Trump WH ......
KKK leader Duke openly tweeted he had lived in Russia for five years....
He tweeted...
"while there my book Jewish Supremacism was the top book seller in the Duma bookstore.."
Yesterday Trump used the word "enemy." Today his online Nazi troll Richard Spencer labels @SenJohnMcCain "traitor" for standing up for US values in Munich Security Conference Meeting
Trump's Soviet-born adviser + TGP Securities partner applied #AllLivesMatter to the Holocaust statement. More below.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-holocaust-memorial-234394
BUT WAIT...this is a strange comment from Duke....
David Duke
@DrDavidDuke
Russia did nothing wrong - Russia should never forget who their true friends are today. It's not the Marxists/Leftists they might think...
WHAT the hell is going on inside both the Trump fine tuned WH and the GOP....
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is asking for money to fight the media..
ASKING FOR MONEY TO FIGHT THE MEDIA!
In 2001 Trump did an interview where he theorized he could actually make money if he became President and he is trying to make it anyway he can it seems....
What the hell is going on inside Trump's head.....
The Hill
Verified account
@thehill
Leaked tape reveals Trump invited club guests to "come along" during cabinet interviews
http://hill.cm/SD11FnP
Security clearances, anyone?
Putin signs Russian regulations allowing for the recognition of mercenary documents issued in Donbas....
QUASI annexation.......
MAJOR violation of Minsk 2.....directed squarely at Ukraine and
Trump.....and the Trump FP is what again...NSC huddle in the middle of his own restaurant...
Putin decision re separatist passports symbolic, changes little on ground.
But 4 Ukr Sec Coun chief Turchinov means “Russia abandons Minsk”
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 3h
3 hours ago
Don't believe the main stream (fake news) media.The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it.
Trump continues to lie thinking that somehow we do not notice it.....job employment at the highest level since 2008.ALMOST full employee...wages/salaries are up.......economy moving along nicely...Obamacare has in fact reduced health costs...Russia largely in check....
No obvious chaos inside the Obama NSC....able to pull off JSOC raids with success....only golfing after four months in office.......vacation once a year not every single weekend....held major political decisions in the WH SCIF not in the middle of a Trump restaurant.....
AND a massive number of economic regulations...laws and massive assistance for the economy in order to recover from a Bush economic crash....
Trump's definition of an Obama MESS.....
"Trump is a faggot...We believed in you! And your despicable self betrayed us!”
Russian Trump bromance honeymoon, um, over.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/17/russians-are-turning-on-donald-trum…
To understand the Putin New Yalta 2.0 concept that he expects tp get from Trump....
20.1.2017
https://youtu.be/6y1W58tX45E
From the Pravda media outlet the old main Soviet news media outlet...
http://www.pravdareport.com/video/20-01-2017/136668-yalta-0/
Crimea may become a platform for development of a new world order with involvement of three leading countries: Russia, the US and China. Representatives of the Crimea-China cooperation organization believe that principles of the world order which were established by heads of the allying states in 1945 at the conference in Yalta are no more relevant. 'Following out-of-date stereotypes leads to growing
misunderstanding, international tense, new conflicts. System of local blocks is no more efficient. A meeting of leaders of the countries, peace depends on, is inevitable. The Yalta-2.0 is possible, necessary, and justified,' the statement says. Experts believe it is expedient to hold this meeting namely in the city of Yalta to 'be inspired with achievements of great predecessors and establish basics of a new world order, which would guarantee peace, security, development and prosperity'. New format of the conference presupposes participation of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the US President Donald Trump and the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping. -
From http://politicaldig.com/soviet-union-2-0-trump-on-the-verge-of-giving-p…
It’s clear what Putin wants. His vision of Yalta 2.0 is an agreement in which Russia regains control of former Soviet Republics without US or NATO interference, and perhaps extending a version of that power over former Eastern European countries. He wants NATO to become weaker. He wants the sanctions lifted.
He wants the US to recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. In short, he wants the U.S. to turn a blind eye on many of its values, and approve Russia’s violation of international law.
Sadly, Trump may give Putin all that and more.
As CNN writes, “of the many looming unknowns in Trump presidency, few have the potential to alter the course of history more than a possible Yalta 2.0.
THIS is exactly what Trump talks about when he talks about a "grand bargain"......
In understanding Russian FP......maybe the Trump/Bannon WH NSC could use a little assistance from the Estonian Intelligence Services...since they do not trust the US IC and the FBI lately....
EU Mythbusters
✔
@EUvsDisinfo
Weekend #longread: the annual report from Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Agency:
https://goo.gl/5YiqBU
THIS is exactly what the Europeans in the Munich Security Conference have as a takeaway from Mattis and Tillerson.....
If you heard Mattis, he said NATO is important.
If you understood Mattis, you know, he wants NATO to become a mere anti-terror alliance.
Europeans have a interesting ability to exactly read the US WH regardless of who is in it.....
THAT is exactly why the EU Commission President said what he did....we will not be pushed into making money decisions just based on these speeches...but in time and in our own interests.....
Interestingly this is what many on the social media side have stated for the last three years and largely MSM has basically ignored it as has many US politicians to include Obama....
Right now Putin expects Trump to deliver this to him...WHY I am not exactly sure unless he has compromising materials on Trump and his advisors....
Lavrov: Russia wants relations with US on basis of pragmatism, mutual respect, and shared global responsibility. #MSC2017
He basically wants the US to recognize Russia as an equal superpower with it's very own sphere of influence called New Yalta 2.0 from Portugal to the Russian Far East....expounded publicly by the Russians since 2006...
AGAIN why does Putin think Trump will deliver on this..BECAUSE the Trump "grand bargain" is the same as the Putin New Yalta 2.0...
Historical lesson for the Trump WH and especially their loose twitter cannon Trump himself.....
A century ago, it took Vladimir Lenin one month after taking power to coin the term "vrag naroda", "enemy of the people", on 28 Nov, 1917.
Words have meanings...serious meanings.....
LOOKS like Trump is well within the Lenin timeframe of one month for his use of the term..."enemy of the people"......
And we do have BTW an well known avowed Leninist in the NSC...Bannon....he even published his definition of a "Leninist" for us....
Russia FM Lavrov complained bout Western media not reporting Donbas. Here's what RU media did last time I was there
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Ukraine/article1525…
BTW Lavrov side steps the question of why Russia has not used the Vienna Document for Confidence Building Measures along with OSCE requirements for military snap exercises
Lavrov denounces intl liberal order as benefiting Western elite, calls for "post-West world order" and defines Russia as "Eurasian power"
Alaska...are you listening to the Lavrov speech as many Duma members have also demanded the return of Alaska and part of California....
Lavrov at MSC2017: Bering Strait is only 4 km wide.
Under the rubric of WOW....never have heard this Russian approach before today.....
Lavrov at #MSC2017: Russia-US relations have been more friendly than confrontational.
We helped US unity when America was becoming a nation.
BUT WAIT...then came along the way Lenin...Stalin and today we have a Stalin like former KGB LTC Putin.....
BUT WAIT...Lavrov grabs traction and heads in a new direction and lies along the way again....
Lavrov claims that they can not exchange info on Zapad 2017 mil exercises because NATO-Rus council frozen.
What a demagogue
BTW....Ask Lavrov just why the Russia military did not inform the OSCE as required by these snap exercises....OSCE would have then informed NATO as is standard....BUT by not registering the exercise with OSCE Russian effectively cut out OSCE exercise observers.....
BUT Lavrov who is noted for his lack of humor has some humor after all...
You have to appreciate Sergey Lavrov's sense of humour at #MSC2017. Russia will not lift sanctions on the EU until Minsk has been fulfilled.
AND there is not a global organized far right????
Target: Merkel
How the international far right mobbed the German Chancellor after the Berlin attack
https://medium.com/@DFRLab/target-merkel-9b49598765c1#.k1wn0mrxh
THEN compare the Trump comments on Merkel in this recent interview....and then tell me that there is no connection....????
Trump WH is now getting wrapped up in internal contradictions all by themselves with no help from the evil fake news and dishonest lying MSM....
Trump administration denies AP story, but acknowledges it's based on a real document
http://huff.to/2lTku0O
Under the Trump WH rubric of "what just what the heck"?
IF this keeps up we will be having a so called "fake WH"....with a "fake President".....
Fyodor Biryukov, who promotes closer ties between Russia and Western Alt-Right, explains why Trump is so cool.
https://altright.com/2017/02/17/russias-alt-right-ecstatic-about-trump/
REMEMBER NSC Bannon with a interim TS/SCI security clearance came out of the alt right Brietbart.com has declared himself as a "Leninist" only interested in destroying the "establishment" and establishing "white parties" in Europe.....normally such verified comments would cost an average American his or her security clearance....BUT not the Trump WH NSC member....
From Breitbart.com yesterday/today
Fake News: AP Claims Trump Planning to ‘Round Up’ Illegals with 100k National Guardsmen
BUT WAIT...it was not fakes news as DHS admitted the documents were real...were pre-decisional in nature and came from the WH....BUT WAIT...Trump spokesperson stated they did not come from the WH....
BUT WAIT....DHS does not work in a vaccum.....it responds to DoJ and the WH....
Well worth reading this article as this is the US proxy we are currently supporting in Syria and who Trumps wants to continue using to fight against IS.......REMEMBER the YPG is just a fig leaf cover for the PKK a US named terrorist organization
"We get ideology lessons a lot and they are not exactly pro-American"
— American fighter with the Syrian Kurdish YPG
BUT notice he will not be questioned about those anti American political training sessions by CBP and DHS WHEN he returns to the US will he????
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/life-under-the-kurdish-y…
WHAT you read here will not be seen in either US MSM nor the US right wing blogsites nor Breitbart.com nor hear coming out of the Trump WH......
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People SICK!
APPEARS Trump only wants you to read....The Klansman...der Stormer....Brietbart.com.....Infowars....and listen to Alex Jones....
BUT WAIT......now his advisors are telling Europeans what to read and or not read.....BTW...just how many "aides" does Trump actually have?
BBC News (World)
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@BBCWorld
Donald Trump aide accuses BBC of 'fake news'
http://bbc.in/2lXdc8W
WHEN one hears this surrogate talk you would think that the entire world's MSM is in fact totally and completely lying and that the statements...slogans...tweets by Trump as perfect and wonderful pieces of "truth"...
SAD...
On US Pence abt bringing Russia to justice> RU Fed Council has expressed disappointment by his statements- Interfax
https://republic.ru/posts/79836
Disinfo_Digest @Disinfo_Digest
Expect more fake news from Russia, top NATO general says
http://reut.rs/2lUYLFH
McCain attacks Trump administration and inability to 'separate truth from lies'
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/18/john-mccain-savages-don…
Read between the lines of this WSJ article that has attempted to be proTrump recently.......
Well worth the read to see just how the Trump WH applies pressure on the business decisions of TW....meaning become supporters of us and we will approve your merger....which we can stop if we do not like your coverage....
AND that is not so subtle BTW....
Jared Kushner Delivers Critique of CNN to Time Warner Executive
Trump’s son-in-law and adviser complains that coverage has been slanted against the president
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jared-kushner-delivers-critique-of-cnn-to-…
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, met with a senior Time Warner Inc. executive in recent weeks and expressed the administration’s deep concerns about CNN’s news coverage, according to a White House official and other people familiar with the matter.
In a meeting at the White House, Mr. Kushner complained to Gary Ginsberg, executive vice president of corporate marketing and communications at CNN’s parent Time Warner, about what Mr. Kushner feels is unfair coverage slanted against the president, the people said.
The Trump administration’s hostile posture toward the news media, especially CNN, has been evident in the president’s own statements and those of his press secretary and top aides. On Thursday, Mr. Trump lashed into CNN once again at a news conference, calling it “very fake news” with expert commentary that is “almost exclusively anti-Trump.”
But the anti-CNN push isn’t just a public display meant to rally Mr. Trump’s supporters. Behind the scenes, Mr. Kushner, the real-estate scion who until recently owned the New York Observer newspaper, has been pushing the issue with Time Warner executives including CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker.
“Our journalism has never been stronger as we continue to hold the administration’s feet to the fire. Those are the facts,” said a CNN spokeswoman.
While the administration is battling a large swath of the media, the fight with CNN has special intrigue because its parent company has a massive piece of business awaiting government approval: a proposed $85.4 billion sale to AT&T Inc. Messrs. Kushner and Ginsberg, who have been friends for a decade and whose discussion covered a variety of issues including Israel and the economy, didn’t discuss the merger in their recent meeting, said the people familiar with the matter.
In the final stretch of the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he would block the agreement and singled out the news network in his statement. “AT&T is buying Time Warner, and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration,” he said. The deal will be reviewed by government agencies including the Justice Department.
Such rhetoric from a presidential then-candidate and meetings such as the one between Messrs. Kushner and Ginsberg are unusual, according to Mark Feldstein, journalism historian at the University of Maryland.
“Lord knows that every president has been angered by their news coverage, going back to George Washington,” said Mr. Feldstein. “But to engage in that kind of bare-knuckled tactics is extraordinary.”
Mr. Kushner has taken issue with specific CNN contributors including Van Jones, a Democrat who served in the Obama administration, and Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist, who have each criticized Mr. Trump in harsh terms, the people familiar with the matter said.
CNN’s panels often include a few Mr. Trump supporters, such as Reagan administration veteran Jeffrey Lord and conservative commentator Kayleigh McEnany, a few critics, and journalists who cover the administration.
A White House official said: “It’s no secret that the President and his team have been critical of CNN’s dishonest coverage of the President both during the campaign and since his inauguration, and it’s obvious their ratings have suffered as a result. FOX on the other hand provides mostly fair, and more complete coverage of the Administration and their ratings have never been better.”
After publication of this article, the White House official told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Kushner’s discussion of CNN with Mr. Ginsberg was not in-depth. The official also said Mr. Kushner denies specifying panelists by name, and said those complaints date back months to the campaign.
The CNN spokeswoman said, “Once again, the White House has their facts wrong. CNN’s ratings are up 50%.”
CNN’s total day ratings are up 51% so far this year among adults 25 to 54 to 264,000 viewers, on average, while Fox News’s are up 55% to 381,000 in the same demographic, according to Nielsen.
Fox-parent 21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal-parent News Corp share common ownership.
AT&T and Time Warner executives have pledged to defend CNN’s independence.
CNN’s Mr. Zucker has a long history with Mr. Trump, having helped turn him into a national television star by putting “The Apprentice” on the air in 2004 while Mr. Zucker was president of NBC Entertainment.
At Thursday’s press conference, Mr. Trump referred to their shared history, saying, “Ask Jeff Zucker how he got his job, OK?”
People close to CNN believe Mr. Trump is referring to an incident in 2012 when he suggested to former Time Warner executive Phil Kent that Mr. Zucker would make a good leader for CNN. Mr. Kent hired Mr. Zucker shortly afterward, but already had been talking to him at the time Mr. Trump made the suggestion, the people said.
A White House official declined to elaborate on the president’s comment.
Merkel's direct response to Trump's accusations about the Euro..REMEMBER the Trump proposed US EU ambassador that the EU has signaled they do not want stated he envisions the destruction of the Euro in 18 months....
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that there was a "problem" with the value of the euro because the European Central Bank was tailoring its policies to weaker members of the euro zone and not strictly to Germany.
"We have at the moment in the euro zone of course a problem with the value of the euro," Merkel told the Munich Security Conference in an unusual foray into currency policy.
"The ECB has a monetary policy that is not geared to Germany, rather it is tailored (to countries) from Portugal to Slovenia or Slovakia.
If we still had the (German) D-Mark it would surely have a different value than the euro does at the moment. But this is an independent monetary policy over which I have no influence as German chancellor."
The remarks, made as U.S. Vice President Mike Pence watched on in the audience, came after a trade adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump accused Germany of profiting from a "grossly undervalued" euro.
EU Mythbusters
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@EUvsDisinfo
Conspiracies: the bread & butter of pro-Kremlin disinformation. Don't be deceived & read #DisinfoReview:
http://eepurl.com/cB_J9P
To understand Russian and to a degree Trump's use of disinformation/lies and propaganda style tweets...well worth reading....
IF this Fox report is actually valid and not a Fox fake news article THEN Trump has some serious issues with the US IC and FBI who are investigating Flynn.....
THIS Fox report seems to state that Trump knew the following:.......
Fox News is reporting Trump was fully briefed on the Flynn call with #Russia after it happened - and allowed @VP Pence to be lied to.
1. that Flynn was indeed talking to the Russians about their sanctions response which was and is a Logan Act violation ANd potentially at the guidance of Trump personally
2. Trump then knew that Flynn was basically lying to Pence AND the FBI
3. Flynn fell on his own sword to protect Trump from both US IC and FBI....
That actually might explain just why to took Trump three full weeks to do something that he basically did not want to do...fire Flynn....
Will be interesting to see what Flynn does if in fact the FBI files charges against him for his lying on his SF86 which is actually a federal offense....
While Pence attempts to say the right things to the European who seriously do not believe him as they seem to think only trump has the say not Pence....Pence paraphases his positive NATO messaging with a super large BUT.......
Vice President Pence
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@VP
Know this: The US will continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground, which @POTUS believes can be found.
That common ground is what Trump refers to as his "grand bargain" and what Putin refers to as his New Yalta 2.0.....
Both in fact entail a sellout of NATO and the EU is in fact followed through on....
Trump...Pence...Mattis and Tillerson will not like this comment from Merkel...
Merkel agrees that defence spending should be increased but claims absorbtion is slowing down,also deveopment assistance counts and points to NATO engagements within AFG...Iraq and Syria as areas the US does not count towards NATO spending figures....