Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and the entire modern civilization!
- Can we expect something new from Trump?
- This has all happened before. Let’s look back at 2017
▶ Can the 47th president do something that would surprise anyone?
In any case, it is impossible to expect this from him. Adults rarely change. Sometimes a person might change their views, but it doesn’t happen often. At the very least one must learn something they didn’t know before, something fundamentally new. Consider the new information. Undertake serious intellectual work.
None of this is about the 47th president.
And therefore, it is difficult to expect anything new from him. He has walked, walks, and will walk in circles. In the system of coordinates where there is a world of “strong men” who respect each other. Because they are strong, and behind them are big countries that by definition possess the same strength as the “strong men” who lead them. In this system of coordinates, there are also separate “strong men” who are unfortunate in terms of countries, since the countries are smaller. Like Kim Jong Un. But still a “strong” man. And Trump even declared love for him while still the 45th president.
And those democracies, Europe, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, spin under his feet and hinder him instead of submitting to him, the “strong man.”
In his system of coordinates, there are no values. Except for “strong men,” filling his wallet, and endless self-admiration every minute.
If someone else were in his place, someone who didn’t spend several hours every day on self-admiration, they would surely have established an authoritarian regime in America, dismantled NATO, pushed American isolationism to the peak, allowed China to attack Taiwan, and North Korea to attack the South.
But the 47th, at his age, who spends a considerable amount of energy daily on shows lasting for an hour, whether in the Oval Office, onboard the plane, or near the aircraft stairs, leaves himself no chance to decisively achieve anything more than to supplement his family budget with a few more corrupt billions. He doesn’t have the time for more. And the further, the less strength he will have for anything else. Daily shows, although they bring him pleasure, drain his energy. Frequent TV and phone interviews in addition to daily shows also drain energy. And further energy is mainly left only to watch his shows on his favorite Fox channel and listen to his interviews.
But in doing so, he leaves us a chance that America will recover, and the world will not plunge completely into an abyss from which it would be impossible to escape.
His statement about the harmfulness of joint exercises with South Korea, that he is reducing American participation in them, that North Korea “behaves respectfully and poses no threat,” that South Korea is bad because it does not applaud his war with Iran and does not participate in it — all this is not new. This has all happened before. Because the 47th does not change. And will not change.
Discussing what signals he sends to the world with such statements is just pointless. Because everything is clear here.
▶ In 2018, Bob Woodward published his first book about the then 45th president.
I want to quote here an excerpt from my summary of American news from November 3, 2018. And those who did not read this summary then, forgot what it was about, did not read Woodward’s book, will understand that all this has already happened. So.
From Bob Woodward’s book “Fear: Trump in the White House.” Chapter 27.
It tells, in particular, about how Defense Secretary Mattis and the president’s chief economic adviser Cohn were very concerned that Trump did not understand how important it is to have reliable allies, and how having reliable allies is related to the issue of free trade, which the president always opposed. Mattis suggested inviting the president to the Department of Defense, to a special closed room for the most secret meetings, called the “Tank,” and giving him briefings on the state of the world, the importance of having allies, and how important it is to have free trade with allies. At 10 a.m. on July 20, 2017, such a meeting took place at the Department of Defense. Trump arrived with Bannon (then still officially the White House chief strategist). The meeting involved Defense Secretary Mattis, Secretary of State Tillerson, the president’s chief economic adviser Cohn, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dunford, White House Chief of Staff Priebus. National Security Adviser McMaster was absent due to family circumstances.
The meeting was opened by Mattis, who said that “our greatest achievement is a rules-based international democratic order.” The global architecture brings security, stability, and prosperity.
Then Secretary of State Tillerson spoke, whose leitmotif was: “the established world order has maintained global peace for 70 years.”
Then Gary Cohn spoke about the importance of free trade in general and free trade with allies in particular. Free trade is mutually beneficial. Thanks to it, our farmers sell $130 billion worth of products to allied countries annually. Thanks to it, our military ships refuel and resupply in Singapore, and our military aircraft are based in this country, and its intelligence productively cooperates with ours.
Trump interrupted Cohn, “I don’t want to hear about this. It’s crap.”
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said important to support free trade with allies.
Bannon interrupted him: “One of the things the President wants to do is decertify the Iran nuclear deal. Will any of your f**king great allies in the European Union support the President? Name me one who will impose sanctions with us?” Mnuchin again spoke about the importance of allies. Tillerson immediately stated that “Iran is not violating the terms of the deal, and all intelligence agencies agree on this. How can they impose new sanctions if there are no violations of the agreement?” He began explaining the technical details of Iran’s compliance with the deal.
To this, Trump said: “They all make money.” He cursed at major European companies. He got quite worked up and literally lashed out at General Dunford and other military personnel, accusing them of not winning any military victories anywhere, questioning their activities in Afghanistan, and reprimanding General Dunford as if he were a misbehaving schoolboy, disregarding his objections that the military only follows the directives of political leadership.
After that, Bannon asked again: “So, will they support new sanctions?” Mnuchin replied: “No.” To which Bannon said: “I’m done. That’s all you need to know about your allies.”
After that, Trump said to Tillerson: “Rex, you’re weak. I want to decertify the deal.”
And then the President asked Mnuchin why the Treasury Department was not declaring China a currency manipulator. Mnuchin started explaining that China is not currently a currency manipulator, that the U.S. has a law with clear criteria for declaring a country a currency manipulator, and China does not meet these criteria.” “What are you talking about,” said Trump. “Just announce it, do it.”
Following this, Trump demanded to withdraw American troops from South Korea, since South Korea does not pay for the U.S. to protect it, and the U.S. has a trade deficit with South Korea. To Cohn’s objections that this deficit is good because it allows Americans to buy cheap world-class South Korean TVs and invest money in various projects at home, Trump said he didn’t want to hear it.
The meeting ended. Trump, Bannon, and Priebus left. Tillerson sat, utterly shocked by all he had heard.
“Are you okay?” Cohn asked him.
“He’s a f**king moron,” Tillerson said in the presence of everyone remaining in the room.
The next day, Tillerson told Priebus that he wanted to resign. Priebus energetically tried to dissuade him and urged him to be more flexible and polite in his dealings with the President.
Priebus himself did not know then that he had only 9 days left as White House Chief of Staff.
Tillerson was dismissed as Secretary of State in March 2018. At the end of the same year, Defense Secretary Mattis resigned due to fundamental disagreements with the President.
From the book, it is clear that this entire story was recounted to Bob Woodward by participant Gary Cohn. He resigned due to his opposition to Trump’s policies at the end of 2017.
886 days remain until the end of the story called “Fear: Trump in the White House” © (the title of the book by Bob Woodward, published in 2018).
Thank you to everyone who has read. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Health to all.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight evil, do good, remain just observers, passively wait and believe that someone somewhere will decide something for us, or fight evil and do everything possible for good to prevail.
We must not let evil win. The victory of evil would mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot let this happen. Especially now.
Ukrainian friends, I embrace and love you all. Take care of each other, I ask you sincerely.
Ukraine is and will always be.
And evil will be defeated and punished. This is inevitable.
