“THE VERDICT – John McCain was a deeply flawed, unstable man of limited intelligence and low character. In the field of world affairs and domestic politics alike, he had never had a reasonable or useful idea.”—Srdja Trifkovic.
“The problem is not that some unnamed White House official is disloyal to the president. The problem with the anon and gutless op-ed in the New York Times is that so many in our political class are disloyalty to … voters.”
UPDATE (9/11):
“Crazy” to Never Trumpers means keeping campaign promises:
Trump’s preference to pull out of Afghanistan is depicted in the Woodward book as yet another crazy impulse that the “adults in the room” successfully rein in. Somehow waging war for 17 years with no demonstrable gains is automatically the sane, sober, serious position.
Trump ran on NOT taking in snakes that’ll bite the American people.
A ballad called “The Snake” became a theme along the Trump campaign. Donald Trump seemed to find “The Snake” a powerful metaphor for his campaign’s impetus.
Yet as soon as Trump took office, he gathered into his Administration many of the Never Trumper reptiles who had never supported the ideas he ran on.
Those idea are precisely the ones denounced in a New York Times’ yellow journalism op-ed:
Plainly put, the principles anon wishes to thwart are:
* Diplomacy with Russia and North Korea.
* Tough renegotiation of the multilateral trade agreements that had worked against the American worker.
* Very little sympathy for European and British leaders (“our allies” in the above op-ed), who’d exposed their own Deplorables—their innocent countrymen—to millions of hibernating snakes from the Middle East and North Africa.
Sixty million Americans liked these ideas enough to choose their progenitor, Trump, as their next president.
Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.
Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
Smoke him out, Mr. President. Clean house, for once.
The president looked sharp during a presser with Italy’s Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte. Even sharper and better were President Trump’s comments about reclaiming immigration sovereignty. Shut the government down if you don’t win from Congress the ability to control our demographic destiny and reclaim American sovereignty.
Appreciated is the way this president always hearkens back to civilizational issues. Once you lose the West, you’re not getting it back. The tipping point may have been reached.
Cooperation on stabilizing Libya is likely code for stopping the influx from North Africa into Italy.
.@POTUS: "Today Prime Minister Conte and I are pleased to announce a new strategic dialogue between Italy and the United States that will enhance cooperation on a range of issues." pic.twitter.com/q2LOO52hU4
.@POTUS: "Today Prime Minister Conte and I are pleased to announce a new strategic dialogue between Italy and the United States that will enhance cooperation on a range of issues." pic.twitter.com/D0G1Pl7Cr6
“Our countries have learned through hard experience that border security is national security.” Terrorism and uncontrolled migration are separated, not conflated.
.@POTUS press conference with Italian Prime Minister: "Our countries have learned through hard experience that border security is national security." pic.twitter.com/0Ws9ROGZ12
“The [Italian] Prime Minister and I are united in our conviction that strong nations must have strong borders.” A merit-based immigration system is a must:
.@POTUS: "The [Italian] Prime Minister and I are united in our conviction that strong nations must have strong borders." pic.twitter.com/ADONhkTrZK