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
Russian translator named as 'source of dirty dossier'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4154210/Russian-translator-unma…
Second media source pointing to him today.....WSJ was the first one...
Millian about Trump, April 2016: "He is one of the few mega businessmen who has not a single conflict with business-people in Russia."
"he registered his trademark in RU in 1993...he may not have any current investment there, but he keeps Moscow high in his marks for future"
"He will settle relations w RU over Ukraine and Syria. It's crucial to keep good relations as he sees Russians as clients for his business"
So Milliian has "exclusivity to sell Trump properties to Russians, by his own words. But then, HE sold Trump's 62 m Palm beach mansion to...
Rybolovlev. Who apparently coincidentally flew to the least likely of locations in the US.. where Trump happened to be campaigning.
Extremely plausible. He was one of the Russians Millian sold Trump properties to. And was famous for his orgies on his yacht
remember that Rybolovlev ex-wife sued him for $3.6 b (at divorce) for "serially organizing orgies for billionaires".
What an embarrassment.
ANOTHER Trump lie......
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Congratulations to @FoxNews for being number one in inauguration ratings. They were many times higher than FAKE NEWS @CNN - public is smart!
CNN responded that both CNN and Fox had 34M viewers BUT CNN had 16.9M digital online viewers streaming the event....
SO Team Trump got their figures wrong again....
President Trump says intelligence officials have told him torture "absolutely" works
http://usa.liveuamap.com/en/2017/25-january-president-trump-says-intell…
WHO the hell are these intel officers???...as one that conducted actual interrogations both in Abu Ghraib and Baqubah Iraq.....torture never works....
THIS demand for torture is coming from a FOUR time VN draft dodger....WHO has never sat across from an honest to god jihadi discussing Islam in order to get the individual to even talk to you.....in 110 degree weather in the middle of a three day sand storm....getting the jihadi to reveal a VBIED factory which was raided and five prepared VBIEDs were found...
Kellyanne Conway & staff caught using private RNC email systems http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/kellyanne-conway-and-other-top-white-ho…
.@StanMcChrystal: "People who want to believe a war in #Europe is not possible might be in for a surprise" #Russia
http://cco.ndu.edu/PRISM-6-3/Article/1020271/an-interview-with-stanley-…
NOW the former Commander of JSOC is trying to warn Team Trump who is openly Russian tilted.....
.@StanMcChrystal: "#Russia is trying to move back into areas in #Ukraine & perhaps even into the #Baltic States, to try to reassert itself"
BUT WAIT...wonder if former intel General Flynn as the new natsec knows about this.....????
"Vladimir Putin views Western intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo as an affront *** and he plans on revenge."
http://observer.com/2017/01/nato-deploying-troops-poland-baltics-vladim…
The Trump narcissist FP is again what...appears to be the utter destruction of US FP since about say 1912.....
Trump is fulfilling all the desires of the alt right...Brietbart.com....Infowars...and yes even statements of his advisor Bannon..... can be found supporting these moves...
Trump executive order, cutting billions in UN funding, singles out peacekeeping, International Criminal Court, UNFPA
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/united-nations-trump-adm…
Trump begins the core disengagement of the US from the entire world and then expects the world to then support the US when needed and not do a single thing in response to his moves/decisions...
BUT WAIT when the US needs allies...where will they be...nowhere in sight....
QUOTE
Trump Prepares Orders Aiming at Global Funding and Treaties
The Interpreter
By MAX FISHER JAN. 25, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing executive orders that would clear the way to drastically reduce the United States’ role in the United Nations and other international organizations, as well as begin a process to review and potentially abrogate certain forms of multilateral treaties, officials said.
The first of the two draft orders, titled “Auditing and Reducing U.S. Funding of International Organizations” and obtained by The New York Times, calls for terminating funding for any United Nations agency or other international body that meets any one of several criteria.
Those criteria include organizations that give full membership to the Palestinian Authority or Palestine Liberation Organization, or support programs that fund abortion or any activity that circumvents sanctions against Iran or North Korea. The draft order also calls for terminating funding for any organization that “is controlled or substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism” or is blamed for the persecution of marginalized groups or any other systematic violation of human rights.
Trump White House Senior Staff Have Private RNC Email Accounts
The private server was implicated when the George W. Bush White House "lost" 22 million emails.
Team Trump complained about the Clinton private server for 18 months
YET NOW has one of their own...
AND the current Team Trump FP is what again????
Ever notice the distinct possibility of the Team Trump FP being exactly that was seen historically and recorded in the "fall of the Roman Empire"...
War on the IC
War on the media
War on the Sioux Nature
Torture now as a FP
War on the truth vs postfactural truth called normally "lies"
War on reporting journalists in DC demonstrations to include a Russia Today journalist
War on free speech with EIGTH Republican States wanting to ban all demonstrations...
War on the UN
War on EU/NATO
And the list goes on and we are only on DAY THREE
AND.....
Trump administration seeks to muzzle U.S. agency employees.
http://reut.rs/2kssHV0
Trump inaugural: "we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., & giving it back to you, the People."
Trump tonight: "send in the Feds."
NOW we see the Trump FP heading towards torture again.....which he said during the campaign he would use against terrorists....
Well we are on the way again......
NYT reports Trump has draft exec orders to review whether CIA should reintroduce black sites + use "enhanced interrogation techniques"
Team Trump has also asked DoD for a review of the US Army Manual on Interrogation to see if "enhanced measures could be reinstated"....
I spent a large amount of time in the US Army Corp prison Abu Ghraib being retrained on what was and or was not legal with interrogation and yet Trump who supported Iraq...who was never in Iraq and or AFG now believes suddenly that torture works and is demanding the CIA and Army go back to it....Trump has never seen the inside of a military prison for so called jihadists where 95% of them were innocent of anything other than being in the wrong place and wrong time....
Torture never works and if one tells you something under torture never believe it...it is that simple..
I have seen torture at the hands of both Shia and Sunni's on each other used as a sectarian weapon....and most American need to see that in order to get this spuke out of their heads that it works...
THIS is coming now from a CinC who dodged the draft for VN FOUR TIMES for a born spur which he admitted during the campaign he could not recall which foot and who stated his biggest war was fighting off the women...while others were being killed and wounded and still suffer today...
NOW GE is in trouble for violating Team Trump's motto..."American made..hire Americans".....GE creating jobs outside the US is not a good thing....
GE proposes investing in Nigeria's ailing oil refineries
http://reut.rs/2jdDQI7
Trump Supporters Online Pretending To Be French To Manipulate France’s Election - great @BuzzFeed investigation
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/inside-the-private-chat-rooms-tr…
We have now seen similar activity here in German online forums....started two weeks ago and has grown in intensity.
Have identified a number of proTrump trolls who have been operating out of Macedonia and are Russian paid....
Remember 33% of all proTrump social media tweets..FB and Instragram came from outside the US....as well as a high percentage of fake news against Clinton...
The Russian hacking and the Russian ties to Team Tramp are getting a tad harder and firmer in the last week....
THIS is a serious warning to all users of Kaspersky Internet Security software...for the last several years Kaspersky was privy to a number of types of free in the wild malware that they had known about but had not informed the rest of the global internet security companies about allowing them to upgrade their own security tools...many accused Kaspersky of unfair competition....
SOME of us have questioned who Kaspersky in the end answers to as they reside in Russia and their CEO is close personal friends to the FSB General...Kasperskly CEO fluffed off those worries stating his customer database is secure and protected and has no connections to the FSB.
BUT with events in Russia over the last two years and the tightening of Russian FSB control since Ukraine...that fluff off excuse can no longer hold water..
REMEMBER the ultra secret NSA internet company "The Equation Company" that worked for 15 or so years undetected on the internet was "discovered" by Kaspersky Labs...when even US companies had not discovered them.
NOW through this arrest for treason being charged against a FSB Major...actually being publicly made is first of all amazing and secondly the assumption is it is tied to the Russian hacking and Russian influence operations during the Trump campaign....hence the massive overreaction of the FSB....
QUOTE:
Kaspersky confirmed arrest of its cyber-crime chief on charges for treason, He access to state secret due to co's collaboration with FSB.
Maj. Ruslan Stoyanov, Chief of Cyber Crime at Kaspersky, arrested along with FSB Cyber Security Deputy Chief Ser. MIhailov since December.
There is possible tie in back to the top former FSB General who was found also in DEC dead (killed was the first report but a week later changed to heart attack) in the backseat of his car in Moscow.
UNQUOTE
THIS story will keep getting deeper over the coming weeks as some are now tying this to the Russian hacking in the US...the Russian top hackers arrested in Prague and Spain and links now to certain Russian mafia types in the US who had ties to Trump Tower.....several owning Trump Tower apartments...one located directly below the Trump residence and Trump never knew it was being used to direct a massive illegal internet gambling operation laundering millions of USDs....
NOTICE that a lot of the Trump tweets are designed to deflect/dismiss and distort the original story about Russian hacking and Trump's ties to Russians/money....by causing a news cycle on something completely different than Russian hacking....media war...IC war...inaugural audience war....WH press conference war....etc...and then the Mexicans paying for the Wall.
He tweeted heavily on how fake the Steele reports were which triggered his war on the US IC....
BUT WAIT,,,,,,,
Sergey Millian head of RU-US Trade Chamber, was one source for #GoldenLeaks dossier, says @WSJ. This is important.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2017/01/24/alleged-source-of-claims-in-tr…
AND the story is getting stronger and stronger concerning Team Trump and Russian hacking....
So the story is taking shape. Kaspersky's Stoyanov convinced (bribed) FSB top internet sec officer to share data on RU hacking. With whom?
is charged with treason for "passing information to foreign information for money brokered by top cyber security company officer (=Stoyanov)
Sergey Mihailov was arguably the top internet authority at FSB, holding huge sway over the internet business in RU. It seems Mihailov
NOTE:
Maj. Ruslan Stoyanov, Chief of Cyber Crime at Kaspersky, arrested along with FSB Cyber Security Deputy Chief Ser. MIhailov since December
The indicted gambling shark mentioned in this story - in hiding from US in Russia - was in the VIP section with @POTUS at Miss Universe 2013
I wish someone would write a book. Now this: ANOTHER Ru mobster, this one https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/two-defendants-sentenced-participa… …
ALSO bought mold-infested prop from Trump.
WHY has it taken the FBI so long to get to Prague to talk to this Russian hacker alleged by some to be at the center of the Russian hacking in the US...along with a second Russian hacker arrested last week in Spain who is alleged to be connected to money transfers to the Trump campaign.
FINALLY: #FBI agents headed to Prague to look into the case of the Russian hacker arrested shortly b4 our election.
East-West SpyWar Heats Up With Arrest of Russian Hacker in Prague
With FBI help, Czech authorities nabbed a Russian wanted for hacking against Americans—is he tied to cyber-attacks on Democrats?
http://observer.com/2016/10/east-west-spywar-heats-up-with-arrest-of-ru…
Despite no evidence, White House says Trump stands by voter fraud belief
http://reut.rs/2jcFtpC
THIS claim has been tracked back to a number of social media sites that are white supremacist and alt right supported by Inforwars...and Brietbart.com...
BUT WAIT...even Team Trump has not thought through all issues to the bitter end...especial with Mexico.....
New York Times World
Verified account
How can Mexico inflict the most damage on the US? “Let’s see if his wall keeps the terrorists out, because we won’t”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/business/economy/nafta-mexico-free-t…
This Anonymous Pro-Trump “Fact Checking” Website Is Actually Run By An American In Russia
https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/the-report-was-actually-called-…
So Trump is not a self aggrandizing authoritarian narcissist?
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 3h
3 hours ago
If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
First of all the FBI does not the same number of officers available as a local police force so it would drain resources from other areas of the US...
Secondly,
So there's this thing called the Constitution that prohibits Feds sending military for law enforcement in a state absent insurrection
MAYBE taking weapons off the streets and tighter weapon controls and moves against gangs might be more effective....
Wow..now a Trump cabinet member is registered in two states to vote in both....
Both Steve Bannon and Trump's Treasury nom, Steven Mnuchin, are registered to vote in 2 states, @kfile reports
http://cnn.it/2k0YEqB
BUT WAIT..even a Trump daughter is registered in two states to vote...
NBC News confirms Tiffany Trump is registered to vote in two states, New York & Pennsylvania.
BUT WAIT....did not a surrogate state Pennsylvania was the center of the voter fraud....????
BUT WAIT...Trump says CA and NY...WHILE his surrogates say somewhere else.....
But Sean Hannity & Newt Gingrich told me that Philadelphia PA was the epicenter of vote fraud in America!
https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/02/hannity-claims-election-w…
…
Trump is not a sociopathic narcissist?
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 6h
6 hours ago
I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and....
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 6h
6 hours ago
even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!
BUT WAIT....can it be that Team Trump has itself violated the US voting registration laws..???
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/steve-bannon-registered-to-vote-…
Steve Bannon registered to vote in two states despite Trump's cries of 'voter fraud'
QUOTE:
A senior White House adviser to Donald Trump is registered to vote in two different states, a practice that the US president wrongly claimed amounted to electoral fraud on Wednesday as he called for an inquiry.
Related: Trump plans 'major investigation into voter fraud' amid groundless claims
Stephen Bannon registered to vote in New York shortly before the presidential election last year, after the Guardian disclosed that he was registered to vote at a vacant house in Florida where his ex-wife had once lived.
Bannon, whose registration lists a rented apartment in Manhattan as his address, cast his ballot for Trump in New York, according to a source familiar with his arrangements, who was not authorized to speak to the media.
Bannon, however, also remains registered to vote in Florida, according to state records. His registration lists as his address the home of Andy Badolato, a friend of Bannon’s who has worked on some of his political documentary films and written for Breitbart News, the far-right website that Bannon controlled before entering the White House as chief strategist and senior counselor to the president.
His registration in Florida was moved to Badolato’s home shortly after the publication of the Guardian report in August. Bannon has not cast a ballot in Florida, according to state records. Badolato, who was also registered to vote at the home with his adult sons, declined at the time to answer questions on whether Bannon actually lived at the property, which is required under the registration rules of the Florida division of elections.
In a pair of tweets early on Wednesday morning, Trump said that arrangements such as Bannon’s were unacceptable as he appeared to threaten a crackdown on access to the ballot box.
“I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and … even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!” the president wrote.
UNQUOTE:
“He threatened his Democratic opponent with jail, he is making promises no one can fulfill, he is mixing family an…”
https://gu.com/p/5mdat/stw
NOTICE just how Germans seem to fully understand the concept of democracy and we now have a President who does not in the home of so called democracy...
QUOTE
Donald Trump is now president. This challenges many of us, not least members of the press. Countless reporters are still shaken and stunned by how he singled out a CNN reporter, one of the most respected news outlets in the world, to attack and humiliate him during his first press conference since winning the elections. Worryingly, none of his fellow journalists in the room stood up for him at the time.
This wasn’t Trump’s first attack on the press, and it certainly won’t be his last. The first White House press briefing, held on Saturday, featured bullying, threats and unproven claims. That is why a new level of solidarity and cooperation is needed among the fourth estate.
American journalists should stop him from dividing their ranks – however hard their professional competition may be. They should do the opposite: unite, share and collaborate. Even if doing so would mean embracing something quite unfamiliar and new to American journalism.
The Panama Papers has showed that a formerly unthinkable project of collaboration can work. When we shared the data of the papers with a team of 400 reporters worldwide, we brought together a vast number of investigative reporters who typically compete which each other. The main reason why our newspaper, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, shared the story with competitors was simply that it was too big and too important to do alone.
So Trump is not a narcissist????????
So then the question of this article should be...how will the US FP look like when driven by an authoritarian narcissist that uses abuse and racist dog whistles bordering on fascism???
Four dimensions of narcissism as a personality variable have been delineated: leadership/authority, superiority/arrogance, self-absorption/self-admiration, and exploitativeness/entitlement.[6]
A 2012 book on power-hungry narcissists suggests that narcissists typically display most, and sometimes all, of the following traits:[7]
An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges
Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships
A lack of psychological awareness (see insight in psychology and psychiatry, egosyntonic)
Difficulty with empathy
Problems distinguishing the self from others (see narcissism and boundaries)
Hypersensitivity to any insults or imagined insults (see criticism and narcissists, narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury)
Vulnerability to shame rather than guilt
Haughty body language
Flattery towards people who admire and affirm them (narcissistic supply)
Detesting those who do not admire them (narcissistic abuse)
Using other people without considering the cost of doing so
Pretending to be more important than they actually are
Bragging (subtly but persistently) and exaggerating their achievements
Claiming to be an "expert" at many things
Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people
Denial of remorse and gratitude
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 3h
3 hours ago
Congratulations to @FoxNews for being number one in inauguration ratings. They were many times higher than FAKE NEWS @CNN - public is smart!
Trump seems to want to badly WIN...in the simple fact that he claims to have had the greatest ever inaugural ever....BUT in reality it was a normal so so inaugural which he cannot accept.
PLUS he just continues his war on the US MSM...by hammering away on CNN...meaning if he can cower CNN he believes all others will fall in line and just repeat anything he says ..unchecked...
We first have the Trump media fight over attendance numbers...ALL Trump numbers disproved by media
THEN we have the constant dishonest charges by Trump...THEN the use of the Trump term FAKE
THEN we had yesterday the lie that the two pipelines what he is actually stockholder in claims 28,000 jobs will be created...BUT disproved...only 3500 to build it and then 38 jobs....a large difference and called out by the media...
AND so the war against the media is continuing AFTER his surrogate Conway tried to get the media to work with them for the benefit of the country...
Fake Think Tanks Fuel Fake News—And the President's Tweets | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/fake-think-tanks-fuel-fake-news-president…
Really well done article on the intertwining of fakes news...fake think tanks and how Trump tweets fit in.....
Team Trump has done nothing BUT cancel out previous Obama actions...BUT that somehow translates into MASSIVE activity and generated this comment which makes one wonder what politicians are smoking lately....AT this rate he will never get to a stated FP....
Inhofe on Trump's first few days: "He just can’t hold still. He’s done more in the first 3 or 4 days than any other president in my memory."
Team Trump.."I have two things...BUY American...Hire American...."
Trump just said no pipeline unless its USA steel. Keystone XL is foreign steel and foreign oil.
More Team Trump lies again..it never seems to stop.......
Trump said Keystone XL pipeline will create 28000 jobs. False. @PolitiFact found it's actually 3900, only 35 permanent jobs
Trump owns stock in Energy Transfer Partners, the DAPL builder
Trump nominee Rick Perry is on ETP's board.
Trump Exec Ordered DAPL restart
Trump owns stock in Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66, two companies behind the Dakota Access pipeline.
Trump has not yet separated himself legally from his companies....AND he has not sold his stock in this company....THUS he is no in a conflict of interest....it will just get worse going forward...
NOTE:
Pres. Trump has $650m debt. That's over DOUBLE the amount ($315m) he declared on the Personal Financial Disclosure forms he gave to the FEC.
APPEARS that Trump voters/supporters are now getting into the influence operations targeting France...and their next election.....question is ...is this organized and directed by breitbart.com and or Infowars via Trump's advisor Bannon?????
Inside The Private Chatrooms Trump Supporters Are Using To Manipulate French Voters
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/inside-the-private-chat-rooms-tr…
IMPORTANT...the use of private chat rooms is a typical Russia trolling way to avoid being monitored....
Interesting that US companies are voicing their reservations about Team Trump and China trade.....
FedEx CEO urges Trump to rethink trade, embrace China
http://reut.rs/2jYIuhB
Trump pushes CEOs of GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler to increase U.S. production.
http://reut.rs/2jViaVp
ANOTHER Team Trump pea shell game.....
The US auto manufacturers there were present...all have excess capacity and right now flat global sales and no sign of increasing those sales....
THAT does not translate into new plants...AND they have not backed off their Mexica plants and production....
Team Trump apparently does not quite yet understand global trade....
JUST IN: Trump administration has offered Baghdad increased 'assistance' - Iraq PM.
http://reut.rs/2kp6BCL
BUT WAIT....Team Trump wants to pull the US out of the UN and now Russian wants to become the UN Terrorist Czar....
https://www.foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/23/russia-makes-play-to-become-u-…
…
US solar power employs more people than oil, coal and gas combined
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-solar-power-employs…
Team Trump vows to stop Beijing in the South China Sea via @ReutersTV
http://reut.rs/2jVvCbD
NOW we are going to war with china after going to total war with AQ and IS...and this from a President who dodged the draft FOUR times and voiced his agreeing to invade Iraq....
Chinese response....notice the measured state....one should not attempt to push them to go to active defense of their interests...
QUOTE
China urged the United States on Tuesday to act and speak cautiously on the South China Sea, saying China has irrefutable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands.
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comments at a daily press briefing in Beijing after the new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that the United States would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea.
REMEMBER Alex Jones and his media outlet Infowars is in fact a spokesperson for white supremacists and ultra nationalist......which drove a multitude of fake news during the election campaign.....along with countless dog whistle stories on racism.....
Alex Jones: Donald Trump Told Me My Show “Is The Main Operating System Of The Rebirth Of The American Republic”
http://mm4a.org/2kkGaOt
If this is one of the main media outlets Trump watches...then we have a problem....
No wonder there is a war with the MSM....Infowars always attacks MSM as being dishonest and lies....
AND we see the same tactics I the WH press briefings now....
NEW: CIA starts to 'recruit' Trump like he was a foreign asset.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/24/cia-starts-recruiting-…
SAD...really sad....
ASK the Trump administration if they knew that a free ware cell app being pushed by the Trump daughter Ivanka and Russian software types was in fact a spy app for the Russian SVR and GRU collecting movement data on each phone it was installed on????
12h after getting exposed as RUS IC asset @skyguru_app backpedals, gets caught red-handedly.
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/823722527826542592 …
https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/823714449307668480 …
Russian Intelligence Community can't live without undermining Russian app business. Yet they are consent /w it.
https://twitter.com/ystriya/status/823565261894811649 …
THIS is the second Russian freeware app caught providing cell data back to RIS....first app called PRISUM....an number of Russian free games are also infected and controlled by RIS....
I find it mildly entertaining @skyguru_app claims their double citizenship is sufficient for plausible denial...claiming Russian and Israeli....
In the current Russian political war directed straight at the US...Putin is using non linear warfare to achieve his three core geopolitical goals...
1. damage and or discredit EU
2. damage and or discredit NATO
3. disconnect completely the US from EU and ME and where possible globally....
SO is Trump advancing these three Russian clearly stated geo political goals????
VALID question with the current Trump political statements..tweets...executive orders....
Michael McFaul
Verified account
A so-called "Yalta 2" is what Putin wants from Trump. Was just on Russian television today discussing the idea.
For the uninitiated: Yalta is code in Eastern Europe for "America is selling you out to Russia."
Yalta 2.0 has been a Putin project since 2006...in a number of statements he has envisioned Russian controlling and influencing politically and economically the area from Portugal to the Russian Far East....
Countries gifted to Stalin at Yalta in 1945 won't go passively this time. Now they have independence -- and armies.
APPARENTLY Trump does not stand up for the Republic and our Allies, who for many decades have supported us and our shared values. We have bled together.
DAY TWO
Comment from someone who grew up under the Communist system....
The propaganda coming out of trump, Spicer, Conway et al is textbook communist BS we got growing up. The similarity is actually quite chilling...
AND this is a Trump voter response to her.....
Outstanding. A Trump fan tells Martina Navratilova, who fled Communist Czechoslovakia aged 18, to "educate yourself on Communism"
BTW at 18 you knew what "Communism was"...not an American who has never "enjoyed those benefits".....
DAY TWO....
CIA folks are worried if they find dirt on Putin and tell Trump, Trump will pass on the source to the Russians.....
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/23/511165541/president-trump-pays-a-fence-me… …
DAY ONE...when Trump's proxy surrogate was asked about the South China Sea his answer sounded like a declaration of war with China..."we will block all further island expansions where not Chinese territory".
A blockade in the South China Sea would be an act of war, but is that really what Trump is after?
http://wpo.st/s8sT2
DAY ONE...Trump via his surrogate proxy spokesperson continued the lying that is now a trademark of Trump....
When asked again about the numbers of their inaugural audience WHICH Trump is somehow hung up on for narcissistic reasons his spokesperson stated 31M online and in person.....BUT as is often with Trump and his surrogates THERE was no back up information to sustain their claims....
Well it was not 31M...more like 4.6M......far below any other recent inaugural audience number.
BREAKING: @PressSec Spicer's claim today that "tens of millions" watched online is wrong. It was 4.6 million.
http://wapo.st/2iRajJa
WHEN have we the US had a narcissist President who is so engrossed in his own ego and self values that he totally forgets the US along the way? Actually if this keeps up the 25th Amendment applies..."smiling fascism" comes to mind and the US has a bent towards it historically speaking....
Never....
BUT history is full of them and not good examples for the US....Hitler....the current leader of NK...come to mind...
Trump is literally consumed by narcissism, unable to focus on priorities of his job.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-first-days-inside-trumps-wh…