Category Archives: Donald Trump

UPDATED (6/1): ‘Sovereign Multilateralism: It’s DC Speak for Servitude Through International Treaties

Conservatism, Constitution, Donald Trump, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, EU, Europe, UN

“Sovereign multilateralism” is how a GOPer described the “benefits” to ordinary Americans from international agreements and treaties.

This MSNBC Republican (flogging a book) was incredulous that President Trump would dare to be so offish to NATO members. Did he miss last year’s election? We wanted out of NATO.

Candidate Trump got considerable support for his promises to violate this or the other agreement between the U.S. government and various supranational systems. Successive U.S. governments have ceded the rights of Americans to these supra-state systems. Deplorables wanted much less of it.

As I pointed out in “The Trump Revolution: The Donald’s Creative Destruction Deconstructed” (June 29, 2016), international treaties are not holy writ.

Granted, radical libertarians will contend that the Constitution itself is the thin edge of the wedge that has allowed successive U.S. governments to cede the rights of Americans to these supra-state systems. Specifically, the “Supremacy Clause” in Article VI states that all treaties made by the national government shall be “the supreme Law of the Land,” and shall usurp the laws of the states.

Either way, all libertarian-minded conservatives who yearn to breathe free should want the chains with which others have bound Americans dissolved. Johnson and Weld object to Trump renegotiating agreements or optimizing them for Americans, on the statist grounds that to so do would violate agreements that by their nature sideline the American people. Smashing or refashioning these agreements and reclaiming national, state and individual sovereignty, as Trump proposes, is certainly more libertarian than the Johnson-Weld worldview allows.

The Scarlet Letter E Establishmentarians keep overruling Trump voters.

As for Trump “Leaning Toward Withdrawing U.S. From Landmark Paris Climate Deal:” We have very strong environmental protections, including emission controls, in-house.

The Paris scheme is a wealth grab. Barack Obama and others before him were always selling out Americans for their own legacy.

UPDATE (6/1):
We’re out of the Paris Accord!


Pittsburgh before Paris:

President Trump Channeling Hillary On Syria

Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Neoconservatism

The conflict in Syria is regional, ancient and, when all is said and done, impervious to outside, top-down reordering and interventions.
Doug Bandow in Chronicles:

Donald Trump campaigned on an “America First” foreign policy. But he hasn’t been immune to the vapors of the Swamp. Not even three months after his inauguration, administration officials were praising NATO; affirming commitments to Japan and South Korea; discussing troop surges for Afghanistan; talking about permanently stationing forces in Iraq, increasing aid for Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen, and effecting regime change in Syria. It was as if Hillary Clinton occupied the President’s body.
Trump’s flip-flop on Syria was particularly shocking. Before the dawn of the Neoconservative Age no sane American would have suggested intervening in the horror that this ancient land has become.

… The Syrian conflict quickly turned into a proxy war: The U.S., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf states pushed for Assad’s ouster, while Iran (including Afghan and Iraqi militias under Tehran’s command), Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Russia supported the Damascus government. Turks and Saudis were pleased to work with the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (the Support Front), which was the local Al Qaeda affiliate; meanwhile, Washington actively battled ISIS while tolerating al-Nusra. True to form, Ankara viewed Kurdish militias (allied with Washington) as the most dangerous faction and focused its malign military attention on them….

Remind me:


Islam in early America:

POTUS Should’ve Left Ivanka & Jared At Home

Aesthetics, Donald Trump, Family, Foreign Policy

Melania killed it on President Trump’s protracted romp around the Muslim world, his visit with the Muslim pontiff, and his stop in Israel with Bibi and his klafte of a wife (as in a nag).

Melania deserved to have her moment in the limelight WITHOUT Ivanka (member of the diabolical Javanka duo), who has inserted herself into every issue of state.

As an American Thinker columnist put it, “If you love your father, Ivaka, take your kids and you husband and go back to New York.”

RELATED: “What Ivanka Wants, Ivanka Gets.”

Trump Sides With Sunni Devils, Demonizes Iran, As Iranians Reelect Reformer

Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Iran

“Landslide Win for Iran’s Reformists Doesn’t Fit Trump’s Script, So He Ignores It,” by Robert Mackey:

The hypocrisy of America’s support for unelected despots in the oil-rich Gulf states is not new, but Donald Trump’s lavish praise for them on Sunday, as allies against “Islamist extremism” and “the oppression of women,” was particularly striking, coming one day after Iranian voters danced in the streets to celebrate their reformist president’s landslide re-election. …
… As Iran’s moderates celebrated on Saturday night, Trump and members of his cabinet were dancing with swords in Saudi Arabia. … Instead, the American president promised the monarchs and autocrats in the room that he would work with them “to isolate Iran.” He also promised, bizarrely, “to help our Saudi friends to get a good deal” from American arms makers.

… MORE Mackey.