Trump Foreign Policy

[TGHusker]

Just read this. It'll make you sick.

 

And if you don't read it, and/or it doesn't make you sick...

 

 

https://lawfareblog.com/bombshell-initial-thoughts-washington-posts-game-changing-story

 

Based on the bold in this quote, it is clearly apparent that the child is in command in this WH and the adults can only react.

The information allegedly disclosed here appears to be of an extremely sensitive nature. According to the Post, President Trump’s own aides “appeared to recognize immediately that Trump had overstepped and moved to contain the potential fallout” by contacting the directors of CIA and NSA. The Post does not report whether the White House also notified the foreign ally who provided the information of the compromise.

 

the child reveals himself in his impulsivity and boasting:

Fourth, it really matters why Trump disclosed this information to Russian visitors. The story is vague on this point. But the question of why Trump acted as he did will matter a great deal to how the political system absorbs this news. The implication of the Post story is that Trump acted impulsively and in a boasting kind of way. If that’s right, the matter is egregiously bad.

(TG: He acts like this is a game ): quote: In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” Trump said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.

 

 

Deep, Deep questions that need to be evaluated:

But there are important questions on which Congress and the public will need clarity before deciding how to act. Did the disclosure serve a national security purpose, even in Trump’s mind? That is, if the President made a strategic judgment to release certain information in exchange for some anticipated gain, even if that judgment is wildly wrong, that is potentially less bad that if this is merely an example of loose lips sinking other countries’ ships–and our own country’s intelligence relationships. In other words, what Trump thought he was doing might well inflect whether we should see this as an act of carelessness, an act of carelessness bordering on treachery, or an act of judgment (even if misjudgment) of the sort we elect presidents to make.

 

 

With this, Trump just dropped any justification to investigate, to cast judgment on Hillary and her email issue. It pales in comparison in its ramifications:

Fifth, this may well be a violation of the President’s oath of office. Questions of criminality aside, we turn to the far more significant issues: If the President gave this information away through carelessness or neglect, he has arguably breached his oath of office. As Quinta and Ben have elaborated on in some detail, in taking the oath President Trump swore to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States” and to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” to the best of his ability. It’s very hard to argue that carelessly giving away highly sensitive material to an adversary foreign power constitutes a faithful execution of the office of President.

Violating the oath of office does not require violating a criminal statute. If the President decided to write the nuclear codes on a sticky note on his desk and then took a photo of it and tweeted it, he would not technically have violated any criminal law–just as he hasn’t here. He has the constitutional authority to dictate that the safeguarding of nuclear materials shall be done through sticky notes in plain sight and tweeted, even the authority to declassify the codes outright. Yet, we would all understand this degree of negligence to be a gross violation of his oath of office.

 

If the repubs don't start looking more deeply into Trump's unfitness to be president, then I'd have to conclude they are co-conspirators - using the office for their own gain and purposes (even if it means passing needed or desired legislation):

 

Congress has alleged oath violations—albeit violations tied to criminal allegations or breaches of statutory obligations—all three times it has passed or considered seriously articles of impeachment against presidents: against Andrew Johnson (“unmindful of the high duties of his oath of office”), Richard Nixon (“contrary to his oath”), and Bill Clinton (“in violation of his constitutional oath”). Further, two of the three articles of impeachment against Nixon alleged no direct violation of the law. Instead, they concerned Nixon’s abuse of his power as President, which, like the President putting the nuclear codes on Twitter, is an offense that can only be committed by the President and has thus never been explicitly prohibited in criminal law.

There’s thus no reason why Congress couldn’t consider a grotesque violation of the President’s oath as a standalone basis for impeachment—a high crime and misdemeanor in and of itself. This is particularly plausible in a case like this, where the oath violation involves giving sensitive information to an adversary foreign power. That’s getting relatively close to the “treason” language in the impeachment clauses; it’s pretty easy to imagine a hybrid impeachment article alleging a violation of the oath in service of a hostile foreign power. So legally speaking, the matter could be very grave for Trump even though there is no criminal exposure.

 

 

The White House and NSC Director and SOS deny:

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/classified-information-ISIS-Oval-Office/2017/05/15/id/790275/

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Monday said The Washington Post report claiming President Donald Trump revealed highly classified information to two top Russian officials last week is "false."

McMaster gave a brief statement to reporters outside the White House shortly after 7 p.m. ET, saying, "There is nothing that the president takes more seriously than the security of the American people. The story that came out tonight as reported is false."

Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation," McMaster, who was present at the meeting, said. "At no time, at no time, were intelligence sources or methods discussed."

Trump also did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known, he said, noting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, who also were present, have said the same thing.

 

"Their on-the-record accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources," he said, referencing the Post report that did not name its sources.

"I was in the room; it didn't happen," McMaster said, before turning to walk back into the White House, ignoring shouted questions from the press.

End quote

 

It will be more than interesting to see where this takes us. The WH is in full justification mode now. The ball is in the hands of the Congress.

[BigRedBuster]

Well, from my view from 3,000 miles away, it appears to me that Trump is not going to get any/zero/zip leeway from the intelligence community. When they believe he screws up, it's going to go public.

The source is "current and former US officials".

[TGHusker]

Well, from my view from 3,000 miles away, it appears to me that Trump is not going to get any/zero/zip leeway from the intelligence community. When they believe he screws up, it's going to go public.

The source is "current and former US officials".

Maybe they bugged the oval office He picked the wrong departments (FBI and CIA) to pick on by publically questioning their processes, results and discrediting their leaders. How do you spell STUPID?

[Enhance]

aka "President Trump - please, stop acting like a f***ing imbecile."

 

[knapplc]

Mitch really going out on a limb there.

 

Compare that to his reactions to literally anything Obama or Clinton did. Party before country.

[Enhance]

It goes without saying, but McConnell probably would've lost his mind if this story had come out about Obama or Clinton.

[BigRedBuster]

Mitch really going out on a limb there.

 

Compare that to his reactions to literally anything Obama or Clinton did. Party before country.

 

It goes without saying, but McConnell probably would've lost his mind if this story had come out about Obama or Clinton.

I completely agree.

 

However, the fact he is even saying anything remotely like this, speaks volumes in my mind.

[knapplc]

A few words out of Mitch McConnell mean nothing. There's still no independent inquiry into Trump's Russian connections. There's still no call for Trump's financial disclosures. There's still no demand for accountability with his dumb wall money, which is built into his budget. There's still no call for an investigation into the Florida AG situation. There's still no investigation into the Trump Foundation.

 

Which ones did I forget? There are so many, and there are such crickets from McConnell and Ryan that a few words don't speak anything to me.

 

Pretend I'm from Missouri. Show Me, Mitch.

[BigRedBuster]

I'm not going to sit here and defend McConnell.

[BigRedBuster]

It would be nice if Trump would tape his meetings...wouldn't it?

[Red Five]

It goes without saying, but McConnell probably would've lost his mind if this story had come out about Obama or Clinton.

 

Could you imagine the sh#tstorm (from Congressional Republicans, FoxNews, Rush, etc) if Obama/Clinton had fired an the head of the FBI who was investigating them? Or had a meeting with the Russians in the oval office and didn't allow a US photog in there, only a Russian one? Or bragged about and gave classified info to the Russians during said oval office meeting?

[knapplc]

I'm not going to sit here and defend McConnell.

That was directed at the thought, not you personally. Sorry if it came off as against you.

[TGHusker]

Can't have it both ways:

Trump said Hillary wasn't qualified to be president based on the emails - that she couldn't be trusted wt classified info. It appears Trump cannot be either.

 

Looking at McMaster's 'denial' today you have to see he didn't contradict anything the Post story said regarding the 2 specific points he brings up- he however did not address the real issues - Where our sources compromised ? He distracted us with 2 items but didn't address that the city was exposed where the source was. I believe Scotter Libby went to jail for far less.

 

If the Post story is true, Pence needs to step in go into the oval office with others and ask the President to resign for the sake of the country. Otherwise, all chaos will break out. Not likely to happen and even less likely for Trump to respond by resigning. But the grownups need to take control otherwise we have to assume there are none.

 

Funny in a not funny way how things have flipped:

2012 Repubs accused Obama of getting too close to Russia with his "I'll have more flexibility after the election' open mic comment to Russian PM.

2012 Debate - Romney said Russia was our greatest geo-political threat. Obama said that was 1980,s policy and that ISIS was the threat

2016 Dems say with the Hillary emails - nothing to see here.

 

 

Now

Dems say Russia is the threat

Republican's ignore / defend Trump's actions - nothing to see here

Both sides have flipped flopped on Comey

[Enhance]

It's a political game this country is far too comfortable allowing to persist, and many of the elected leaders aren't doing their part to make a difference.

[BigRedBuster]

OK....so...as of now we know.....

 

a) Washpo wrote an article claiming that "Current and former US officials" claimed Trump said things in the meeting that were highly inappropriate.

 

b) Administration claims everything said in the meeting WAS appropriate.

 

Who do you trust?

 

If this were pretty much any other administration, I would try to have a wait and see attitude. The problem the administration has is that they have said and done so many things that are stupid/inappropriate that my ability to give them the benefit of the doubt has gone out the window.

 

It appears that people within both parties on Capital Hill are in the same boat.