\nDuring the 2016 campaign, Candidate Donald Trump liked to talk\ntough. He often criticized President Obama,\nspecifically mentioning the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, the \u201cRed\nLine\u201d in Syria, the Iran deal, etc. There\nwere some disappointing components of the Obama foreign policy; however, Obama\ncampaigned on what he believed and governed accordingly. Trump took office and instantly imposed an\nincoherent, inconsistent, and chaotic foreign and national security policies. After almost three years as President, things\nhave gotten worse in all regards with no clear policy emanating from the White\nHouse. Official U.S. policy consists of\nwhatever Trump Tweets in the middle of the night while experiencing whatever\nrage, insecurity, or whim is then affecting his cognitive ability. This is incredibly dangerous and results in\naction against the interests of the nation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTrump has repeatedly proven himself to be under the spell of Russia\u2019s Vladimir\nPutin. Put aside the reasons, some of\nwhich we know and some we will hopefully soon learn. Trump often praises Putin and appears to most\nto be doing Putin\u2019s bidding. Trump,\nalong with his confederate, Senate Majority Leader Moscow Mitch McConnell, has\nfor three years openly excused uncontroverted Russian interference in the 2016\nelection, condoned Russian interference in U.S. and allied elections, and\noutright prevents the U.S. from improving and safeguarding our elections\nsystems. There is only one possible\nbasis for this unforgivable transgression and that is to encourage, if not\nfacilitate, continued Russian efforts to destabilize our country and freedom. Trump has repeatedly and unconscionably\naccepted Putin\u2019s \u201cdenial\u201d over the combined, absolute concurrence of 17\nnational security agencies. We know that\nRussia continues to interfere, and we know that Trump and McConnell openly welcome\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIt is important to remember the somewhat now iconic picture of Trump\nconducting a private meeting in the Oval Office with the Russian Foreign\nMinister and Russian Ambassador. There was\nno administration staff or American media allowed, just Russians, thus begging\nthe question as to what was discussed. \nThe public learned that Trump revealed classified intelligence to his Russian\nguests that threatened our intelligence abilities as well as that of our\nallies. This act so horrified U.S.\nintelligence agencies that they soon thereafter implemented a dangerous mission\nto secretly extract a U.S. intelligence asset out of Moscow because they feared\nTrump would reveal his existence and identity to Russia! President Trump\u2019s Helsinki Summit with Putin\nmade our country less safe. Again, Trump\ndid not allow any U.S. personnel in the room for the hours long meeting in\norder to facilitate secret discussions. \nTrump required his interpreter to immediately destroy her notes as soon\nas the meeting ended, preventing any disclosure. Trump likely used the repeated, unprecedented\nsecrecy in these sessions to sell out our national interests and again shared\nsensitive information and acquiesced to Russian aggression. He attacks and weakens NATO while defending\nand propping up Putin. The implications\nof a U.S. President so cozy with our adversary that he jeopardizes our own\nsecurity are unfathomable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe candidate who spoke tough on Ukraine sold them out. Then it got worse. Trump told Ukraine that he was withholding a\ncritical military aid package upon which Ukraine is depending to counter Russian\naggression. Trump is holding the package\nhostage, attempting to force Ukraine to formally and publicly investigate a\nmatter involving dealings with Joe Biden\u2019s son Hunter. Truth does not matter; Trump wants to use\nthis wild conspiracy, which was widely debunked in large part because the timeline\nmakes the matter virtually impossible, just to smear Biden. In a new low, Trump wants to force a foreign\ncountry to insert itself into our election, to intercede on his behalf, to\nviolate election law as well as ethics, and tying it all to a key military aid\npackage they desperately need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nDuring Trump\u2019s Presidency, China has continued its long-term program of\nincreasing its influence around the world. \nTrump has allowed China to gain influence while he allows U.S. influence\nto wane, directly threatening our role in the modern geopolitical world. China exploits crucial minerals and\nresources. Most importantly, China is\nfabricating islands in the South China Sea in order to justify what are bogus territorial\nclaims under international maritime law. \nIf successful, China will completely control key shipping lanes and\nsupply lines in direct contrast with U.S. economic and security imperatives. Trump chose a needless, painful trade war\nwith China, but eschewed the advantages of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)\nthat could have addressed the trade, currency, intellectual property theft, and\nother issues with China. The threat from\nChina has grown during the Trump administration, yet Trump is enthralled with Chinese\npremier Xi, who has claimed power for life, and seeks to entertain Xi at Mar-a-Lago\nto ingratiate himself to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTrump recklessly crashed through decades of deliberate policy towards\nNorth Korea. Trump immediately, without\nconsideration, conceded a major victory to Kim Jong Un, a brutal dictator who routinely\nthreatens the U.S. and our allies, without a single concession. Trump met with Kim twice in person for\nso-called summits followed by Trump\u2019s impromptu walk across the DMZ along the North\/South\nKorea border. All three meetings were colossal\nfailures by any measure; even worse Trump forsook the memories of thousands of\nAmerican. Korean, and allied soldiers who gave their loves fighting for freedom\non the peninsula. Trump claims they \u201cfell\nin love\u201d and exchange very nice letters. \nWhile Trump sent letters, Kim sent missiles. Kim\u2019s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile\nprograms have demonstrably expanded throughout Trump\u2019s presidency, yet Trump\ncontinues to reward North Korea and continues to make the U.S. and our allies\nless safe. He just loves his dictators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTrump also did not match his campaign rhetoric on Syria. With no prior staffing or discussion to\ngenerate a new policy, Trump abruptly announced an immediate withdrawal of U.S.\npersonnel from Syria. He did this on the heels of a phone call with Turkish leader\nErdogan, another of the authoritarians around the world that Trump\nadmires. Trump ceded Syria to Putin,\nallowing Russia back in the Middle East after decades of the U.S. effectively\nkeeping them out. Erdogan and Putin had\nsurreptitiously agreed to cooperate so as Putin gained a foothold and Erdogan\nwould be able to exterminate the Kurds, loyal U.S. allies. This rash move was the last straw for Secretary\nof Defense Mattis, who resigned in protest. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe country recently learned, by late night Tweet, that Trump was\ncancelling what had been a clandestine meeting at Camp David with the Afghan\ngovernment and Taliban leaders. \nApparently, this was another rash Trump endeavor that had been hastily\nthrown together merely days before. Once revealed, there was an outcry of\nopposition, especially from military and veterans\u2019 groups who thought inviting\nthe Taliban to Camp David was an affront to the sacrifices made by our\nmilitary. As with Kim Jong Un, it was\nwrong to meet directly with the Taliban prior to an actual framework and\npreliminary agreement. It similarly\nprovided them with a big victory with nothing for the U.S. Trump had failed to coordinate this move with\nthe Afghan government or more importantly with our own negotiating team led by\nAmbassador Khalilzad. While we must employ\ndiplomacy as a tool of national power, it must be done properly. This meeting, if it had occurred, would have\nbeen a huge mistake and yet another Trump failure. While the country was commemorating the\natrocities of 9\/11, Trump would be posing, smiling at Camp David with the\nTaliban who were responsible. The visual\nwould have been devastating. Trump fired\nNational Security Advisor Bolton because Bolton dared tell the President this\nwas wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is easy to get frustrated with the slow pace of policy and the tedious nature of our bureaucracy. However, the practices and procedures involving national security and foreign policy exist for a reason. They have been vetted and verified for many years. Security and foreign policies involve highly complex issues that simply cannot be administered by rash Tweets or text messages. Policy, to include high level meetings between leaders, result from the dedicated, hard work of career experts in these areas. Their collective experience and wisdom include the historical memory of things have been tried before, successfully and not. They will likely spot unintended consequences that could threaten or stifle negotiations. They must be allowed to do their job to support all initiatives. Trump claims he knows better than the career public servants. Trump is willfully ignorant. He has never studied an iota of foreign or security policies. He refuses the daily briefings every other President received because he is unable to understand and learn the various policies. He wants one thing \u2013 photo opportunities to play out his reality TV persona. He cares not about policy or national security and cares nothing about the damage he is causing out country around the world. President Trump is the biggest security threat we face. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During the 2016 campaign, Candidate Donald Trump liked to talk tough. He often criticized President Obama, specifically mentioning the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, the \u201cRed Line\u201d in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[112,198,223,226,244],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-foreign-policy","tag-national-security","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-putin","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}