Daily Archives: June 1, 2017

The world from which President Trump returns on his historic trip to Muslim Saudi Arabia, Jewish Israel, Christian Vatican, and agnostic Brussels, is different from the world prior to his trip. Hope exists where it did not, because of this trip. This is not rhetoric. It is a fact.

Trumps Middle East speech was ground-breaking. In Saudi Arabia, the heart of Islam, President Trump made a declaration as bold and defining as President Ronald Reagans unvarnished declaration that Soviet Communism would end up on the ash heap of history and was nothing less than an evil empire.

Said Trump: This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilizations. This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion, people that want to protect life and want to protect their religion. This is a battle between good and evil.

Bingo. Without prevarication or condescension, without self-blame or pretended empathy, pretense or parsed words, the president laid it all on the line. He gambled on truth. It worked. The Middle Eastern world, groping in a darkness of rolling terror, geopolitical tumult, deteriorating civil order and unsparing recrimination, suddenly stopped.

Leaders of the three major faiths paused, listened and responded positively. Said the United Arab Emirates Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bravo President Trump, adding an effective and historic speech defining approach towards extremism and terrorism with candid respect and friendship.

Said Egypts President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after the speech, President Trump is a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible.

Said president of the Palestinian State Mahmoud Abbas, standing beside Trump and talking of a peace accord, I want to thank you [for inviting me to work on an] historic deal to bring about peace, adding you have the desire to see it come to fruition and to become successful.

Said Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, for the first time in my lifetime, I see a real hope for change, adding hope to roll back aggression and terror.

The Vatican reported President Trump and the pope spoke of a joint commitment, including to promotion of peace in the world through political negotiation and interreligious dialogue, with particular reference to the Middle East and protection of Christian communities.

In essence, like Reagan confronting the Soviets in June, 1982 and Churchill confronting the Nazis in May, 1940, Trump distilled the issue. He elevated global discussion, taking everyone with him to a unifying, catalyzing plane, articulating clearly the stakes shared by all countries, religions and people: Good versus evil.

As if on cue, and punctuating President Trumps point, Islamic terrorists struck in Manchester, England blithely and without conscience killing innocent children and parents, showing complete disregard for human life or morality, corroborating their inveterate evil.

Historic antecedents of the Trump speech are not hard to find. The most obvious is Ronald Reagans 1982 declaration of resolve to beat the Soviet Union, which runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity.

Like Trump, he decried violence and domination of the human soul by evil, affirming a conviction that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings, including freedom from terror and totalitarianism.

Similarly, in 1983, Reagan labeled the Soviets an evil empire, and in 1985 borrowed express language from John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State to President Eisenhower, to articulate his own revitalized roll back strategy for ending permanently the spread of Soviet communism worldwide.

The outcome, we all know now, of Reagans clear thinking, personal courage, unbending resolve to end Soviet evils reach and roll it back, was just that the Soviet Union and its evil underpinnings ended up on the ash heap of history, where Karl Marx thought democracy belonged. Reagans strategy, which he once joked was we win, they lose, proved prescient.

While history never repeats itself exactly, the lessons it teaches are forgotten at our peril. President Trump obviously is onto something. While he has an A-team of advisers inside the White House and more in his cabinet, bigger game is afoot.

What President Trump did on his first foreign trip was nothing short of miraculous. Peace does not come in one trip, faith is not sustained in one act, life is not changed by one speech, but the future is defined has always been defined by those who can envision, articulate, and work relentlessly to turn authentic hope into incontrovertible reality.

By all appearances, President Trump is trying to do that. We have not seen this kind of leadership in a very long time, not in the Middle East not anywhere. Hope exists where it did not before this trip, because of his personal outreach, resolve and authenticity.

Now to the hard work.

Robert Charles is a former assistant secretary of state for President George W. Bush, former naval intelligence officer and litigator. He served in the Reagan and Bush 41 White Houses.

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Donald Trump miracle worker - Fox News

New York Times

Donald Trump Won't Move Embassy to Jerusalem, at Least for Now New York Times WASHINGTON President Trump signed an order keeping the American Embassy in Tel Aviv rather than moving it to Jerusalem as he promised during last year's campaign, aides said Thursday, disappointing many Israel supporters in hopes of preserving ... Donald Trump delays moving US embassy to JerusalemAljazeera.com Donald Trump will not move US embassy to Jerusalem 'for now'The Independent Trump signs waiver keeping US embassy in Tel Aviv -- for nowCNN all 328 news articles »

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Donald Trump Won't Move Embassy to Jerusalem, at Least for Now - New York Times

Donald Trump and Jared Kushner arrive for a meeting at the White House on Feb. 23.

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

President Trump is deeply unpopular. His foreign triphis first such visit to Americas allies abroadwas marked by turbulence, ending in a spat with Germany. His legislative agenda has largely stalled, with little movement on either tax reform or his health care bill. His budget, released last week, was widely condemned and criticized, and hes facing a potential battle over the debt ceiling.

Jamelle Bouie isSlates chief political correspondent.

Adding to the omnishambles is scandal. The investigation into the ties between Russia and his campaign has ensnared his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who allegedly proposed a secret communications channel with Moscow, located within the Russian embassy in Washington. In terms of Trump figures who are under the most serious scrutiny, Kushner seems to have surpassed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned his position over his ties to the Turkish and Russian governments and who is a subject of the FBIs inquiry into the Trump campaign. None of this even touches the crises of Trumps own making, like his firing of now former FBI Director James Comey after having allegedly instructed him to drop the investigation into Flynnan overt effort to stop the Russia inquiry that appears very clearly to have been an attempt to obstruct justice.

Until and unless the special counsel investigation of Robert Mueller yields legally actionable fruit beyond press leaks, these problems are politically surmountable. That would, however, require focus, humility, and a willingness to change course. In this White House, those qualities are in short supply. Indeed, there's no evidencefrom either his life or political careerthat Trump has the self-knowledge or discipline needed to turn his presidency around. Which is why, in the face of this storm, Trumps solution is typically superficialthe president wants better PR. Rather than displace or remove the largely amateur advisers and confidants that have enabled his worst impulses, Trump will try, instead, to sell himself harder.

Trump is ignorant, erratic, and largely disinterested in the details of governance.

To that end, the president plans a media staff shake-up, which began on Tuesday with the resignation of his communications director, Michael Dubke, after just three months in the position. The Washington Post reports that Dubke, along with press secretary Sean Spicer, have been under sharp criticism from Trump and many senior officials in the West Wing, who believe the president has been poorly served by his staff, in particular in the aftermath of the Comey firing.

The thinking, then, is that a stronger communications staffled, perhaps, by former campaign aides Corey Lewandowski and David Bossiecould better defend the president and advance his priorities in the face of criticism and scandal. If these crises were superficialquestions of appearance and rhetoricthat approach might work. But Trumps problems are deep-seated and substantive. The president ultimately wont be able to rebut Russia allegations with sharp tweets and an aggressive war room, not when he faces an independent FBI and general counsel investigation. A better sales job also wont improve his legislative prospects, not when Americans have turned decisively against bills like the American Health Care Act. Just 8 percent of Americans want the Senate to pass the House version of the bill, 29 percent want the Senate to reject it outright, and 26 percent want major changes, according to the latest poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Top Comment

OK. You've really pushed my misusage buttons now: "Trump is ignorant, erratic, and largely disinterested in the details of governance." This is the exactly wrong usage of "disinterested". Trump is uninterestedin the details of governance. More...

Above all, a communications shake-up does little for Trumps actual problem, his temperament. Trump is ignorant, erratic, and largely disinterested in the details of governance. His contempt for the truth, domineering instincts, and preoccupation with loyalty are authoritarian-minded and ill-suited to a fundamentally democratic office, whose power depends on cooperating with other parts of government as much as it rests on its formal authority as articulated in the Constitution. Even if Trump really were the businessman he claims to beeven if he had actual success in building things, rather than the image of success promoted through savvy branding and reality televisionhe would be in over his head at the White House.

As it stands, Trump is a man of few skills and worse instincts, whose political problems are largely of his own making and who lacks the self-knowledge to correct the course of his flagging administration. Nothing except a clean and competent administration might be able to change his popularity, which has flagged since the start of this administration. All the spice in the world cant mask the taste of spoiled meat.

Continue reading here:

Donald Trump Thinks He Can Fix His Presidency With a New Communications Team, Is Deluded - Slate Magazine

Trump announces his decision for the U.S. to pull out of the Paris climate agreement in the Rose Garden at the White House on Thursday in Washington.

Getty Images

It is, of course, terribly beta these days to exercise rhetorical caution before jumping to conclusions and labeling crimes, no matter how heinous, acts of terrorism. It is the politically correct folks who wont man up and call it like they see itas fast as they possibly can. Shots are fired and smoke billows above a casino in the Philippines; we all know whats happening here, the nonsnowflakes mutter under their breath and shout at the top of their lungs on Twitter. Its well-known on the internet that only the pointy-head experts among us wait for the police report, read the police report, and then believe what theyve read. Hannitys America just knows better. And Donald Trump knows best. Theyre real Americans, after all. They know everything.

On Thursday, Donald Trump sent shockwaves of news around the world with his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. Trump also made news in another sense, at the top of his speech he informed the world that there had been a terror attack in the Philippines.

Its unclear where Trump got his information. According to CNN, [s]hortly after Trump's comment, Philippines national police chief Gen. Dela Rosa said the shooting incident at a Manila resort was an attempt by a lone thief to rob gamblers rather than a terrorist attack.

This is probably a good opportunity to remind ourselvesyou, me, and everyone we knowthat we dont always know better; we dont know whats happening halfway around the world better than the people who are there dealing with it, and to give them five minutes before we start launching tweetsor missilesin response. Because the president can do both.

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In Other News, Donald Trump Made Up That the Philippines Shooting Was Terrorism. It Was a Robbery. - Slate Magazine (blog)

Just when you thought the 'covfefe' party had mercifully ended, Hillary Clinton showed up late, ready to get in on the action.

The former Democratic presidential candidate referenced covfefean apparent typo Donald Trump tweeted (and then deleted) early Wednesday morningafter the president criticized Clinton's assessment of her election loss.

Trump tweeted on Wednesday afternoon that "crooked" Hillary Clinton "blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. Hits Facebook & even Dems & DNC."

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His message was an apparent response to the candid remarks Clinton made at Recode's 2017 Code Conference . The former secretary of state, whom Trump upset in the 2016 presidential election, told Recode ' s Kara Swisher that she took full responsibility for every decision made on the campaign trail. That admission came with a big caveat:

"[B]ut that's not why I lost," she said. "I think it's important we learn the real lessons of this last campaign."

She then unloaded on other factors that she said were to blame: unfair press coverage of her speeches to Goldman Sachs and her email server, a data machine from the Democratic National Committee that she described as "bankrupt" and "on the verge of insolvency," a sense among supporters that her win was assured, and an unprecedented campaign of fake news and social engineering on Facebook that was orchestrated by Russian agents and an army of bots.

Trump took issue with her assessment, reviving the "crooked" nickname he'd used against his rival during the presidential contest.

Clinton responded, using the nonsensical word"covfefe"Trump had referenced earlier in the day in a since-deleted tweet that read: "Despite the constant negative press covfefe"

Clinton's tweet piled on the wave of memes that flooded the Internet following Trump's errant posting as online commenters tried to make sense of the cryptic message .

Now that Clinton has belatedly weighed in, let's hope the covfefe chapter of the nation's history can finally end.

Originally posted here:

Hillary Clinton Mocks Donald Trump With a 'Covfefe' Barb in New Twitter Feud - Fortune

Harry Truman understood the importance of allies in Europe. President Trump does not.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks with US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they arrive for the unveiling ceremony of the Berlin Wall monument during the NATO summit in Brussels on May 25, 2017. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

The damned place is haunted, sure as shootin.

President Harry Truman wrote that to his wife Bess in 1946. He was talking about the White House. You and Margie [their daughter Margaret] had better come back and protect me before some of these ghosts carry me off.

Truman had fun with the idea that the executive mansion he called it the great white jail was populated by the spirits of president past. The floors pop and the drapes move back and forth, he wrote Bess. I can just hear old Andy and Teddy having an argument over Franklin. Or James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce deciding which one was the most useless to the country. And when Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur join in for place and show the din is almost unbearable.

BY Michael Winship | May 25, 2017

In reality, those popping floors were the sound of an old house slowly falling apart, a potential catastrophe that was averted by a complete gut rehab that took some three years and forced the Trumans to move into Blair House across the street on Pennsylvania Avenue. Still, its amusing to think about those presidential specters continuing to roam the halls. Doubtless Buchanan and Pierce have settled their argument and determined that Donald Trump wins the title of most useless president hands down. Now theyre just betting the over/under on impeachment.

All of this comes by way of a Memorial Day weekend trip to the Truman presidential library and museum in Independence, Missouri. We were there for the presentation of this years 2017 Truman Scholarships, awarded to a talented handful of college students from across the United States who have plans for graduate school and a career in public service (Congratulations, Lexi!).

The visit was revelatory as we got reacquainted with Trumans life and career and thought about how little he had in common with the current White House resident about the only thing was a shared distrust of the press. Truman referred to newspapers as lie outlets, but mostly that was directed at their publishers; he enjoyed palling around with the White House press corps.

What a remarkable story Trumans was: a kid with bad eyesight and a love of books who couldnt afford college. As a young adult, he went through a time of bad investments and failed business ventures until World War I, when his service as an artillery officer revealed an heretofore unknown capacity for leadership. Back home he got involved in politics, rising up through the ranks of the Boss Pendergast machine while keeping himself unsoiled (for the most part) from the corruption and graft that eventually sent Tom Pendergast to prison for tax evasion.

Truman was elected to the Senate in 1934, made a name for himself exposing cost overruns and shoddy manufacturing in the defense industry and in 1944 was named FDRs vice presidential running mate, becoming president in 1945 with Roosevelts sudden death. He told reporters, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.

It was a momentous time but the modest Truman proved up to the task, serving as World War II ended, the Cold War began and the government and country dealt with a new time of both prosperity and peril. There were big decisions: dropping two deadly atomic bombs on Japan, the desegregation of the armed services, the firing of Douglas MacArthur as commander of allied forces in the Korean War.

Throughout, he demonstrated a thoughtful leadership that, even if he was wrong and the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki will forever be controversial he was forthright. Whats more, he knew his history and how to use government for the people, whether building roads as a county official back home in Missouri or unsuccessfully fighting for universal health care as president. At the risk of stating the darkly obvious, such qualities are today in short supply.

I would much rather be an honorable public servant and known as such than to be the richest man in the world, Truman wrote in his diary.And, as one of the librarys exhibits notes, He refused to cheapen the office of president with endorsements of commercial products.

Donald Trump has essentially told our NATO allies to go to hell. With an appalling lack of historical perspective, courtesy or just plain common sense, he went out of his way to insult our friends.

But almost nowhere is the woeful dissonance between the Truman and Trump presidencies more evident than in Trumps disgraceful behavior in Europe last week.

During Trumans tenure, his Truman Doctrine sent $400 million in aid to postwar Greece and Turkey when it seemed as though both countries might fall into the sphere of the Soviet Union. He called upon Secretary of State George Marshall to oversee what became known as the Marshall Plan more than $13 billion to rebuild Europe from the ruins of World War II. And he was present at the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), signing the document creating the military alliance that today guarantees the mutual defense of 28 nations in Europe and North America.

In his landmark biography, Truman, historian David McCullough writes:

For the United States, it marked a radical departure with tradition the first peacetime military alliance since the signing of the Constitution but had such an agreement existed in 1914 and 1939, Truman was convinced, the world would have been spared two terrible wars. He ranked NATO with the Marshall Plan, as one of the proudest achievements of his presidency, and was certain time would prove him right.

But Donald Trump has essentially told our NATO allies to go to hell. With an appalling lack of historical perspective, courtesy or just plain common sense, he went out of his way to insult our friends. At the NATO summit in Brussels, he suggested that the majority of its members were, in the words of the Associated Press, freeloaders not paying their share for military protection, a charge that is misleading and only slightly accurate (earning him Four Pinocchios from Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler, an honor reserved for whoppers of lies).

Further, in his official remarks, although he said he no longer believed NATO to be obsolete, President Trump failed to mention Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, the linchpin of the agreement, guaranteeing that all members will come to the aid of other members in the event of an attack. That he did so at the dedication of a 9/11 memorial at NATOs new headquarters, a monument built to commemorate how allies rushed to our side in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks the only time Article 5 has ever been officially invoked was an egregious slap in the face.

The press had been told by the White House that Trump would reaffirm Article 5, as every president, Republican or Democrat, has done since Truman, but he did not do so in his speech. Constanze Stelzenmller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote:

For Trump to refuse to do so is a devastating blow to the alliances credibility, at a time when it is surrounded by threats.It increases the risk of a Russian strategic miscalculation, putting American and European soldiers lives at risk

Its duly noted that the president seems far more comfortable with autocrats than with his Western, democratically elected peers. Equivocations about US support for Russia sanctions dont help.

As Stelzenmller suggests, Trumps belligerent America First, nativist, bullying stance was part of a pattern during his recent trip abroad, as he basked in praise from the Saudis and Israelis but berated his western partners in democracy. Little wonder that German chancellor Angela Merkel told a rally, The times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over I experienced that in the last few days. Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate accords on Thursday was just one more example of short-sighted nationalism.

There may still be ghosts of former presidents prowling the White House but across Europe there roam phantoms of war and genocide. If we continue to pursue a policy of isolation and disregard, those ghosts again could thunder back to life. There will be a price to pay. Trumps predecessors, Truman especially, understood that oceans and distance no longer protect us from terror and misfortune. Does he?

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Be Warned, Donald Trump: Ghosts Are Everywhere - BillMoyers.com