Trump’s Foreign Policy Philosophy Hard to Pin Down
Masood Farivar, Voice of America
Is President-elect Donald Trump a foreign policy realist or idealist? Is he bringing Richard Nixon’s hard-edged realpolitik to his foreign policy or following in the footsteps of the more idealistic Ronald Reagan?
The question has become a parlor game among Washington's policy pundits.
Trump’s frequent invocation of Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra and campaign pledge to rebuild America’s “depleted” military has invited comparisons to the Republican icon credited with winning the Cold War.
His advocacy of a foreign policy based on America’s national interests has led some to liken it to Nixonian realism, while his aversion to foreign interventions has won him the label of a non-interventionist and even isolationist.
Don’t Fence Trump In
Trump has professed no great power doctrine and his advisers discourage applying labels to his vision of the world.
“I’m not going to be put into the little academic, graduate school box because I think it doesn’t suit, and it doesn’t apply in a rapidly changing world,” said K.T. McFarland, Trump’s incoming deputy national security adviser, when asked to describe the Trump doctrine.
While Trump’s call for “peace through strength” reflects Reagan’s view of deterrence, “there are parts of Nixon and (Henry) Kissinger that Donald Trump has also advocated,” McFarland said at the U.S. Institute of Peace, alluding to Trump’s interest-based approach to world affairs.
Trump’s Speeches
A foreign policy neophyte, Trump has shied away from declaring any grand foreign strategy during the campaign, though he did give two major speeches devoted to foreign policy and national security.
In the first speech, delivered at the realist-leaning Center for the National Interest in Washington in April, Trump outlined what he called a “coherent foreign policy based on American interests” and called for “getting out of nation building,” creating stability and quashing “radical Islam.”
“Containing the spread of radical Islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the United States and indeed the world,” Trump said. “Events may require the use of military force, but it’s also a philosophical struggle, like our long struggle in the Cold War.”
In the second speech, at Youngstown University in Ohio in August, Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric about terror, warning countries around the world that they’d be judged based on their commitment to the U.S. goal of fighting terrorism.
“All actions should be oriented around this goal, and any country which shares this goal will be our ally,” Trump told a rally of supporters.
‘Strategic Surprise’
It was a theme that Trump would repeat, in one iteration or another, throughout the campaign, but his advisers say Trump’s pre- and post-election pronouncements on foreign policy, often delivered off the cuff, should not be read as policy prescriptions.
“Actually, he didn’t say a lot about foreign policy and national security on the campaign trail, and what he did say really doesn’t add up to a policy,” said James Carafano, director of foreign policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation who advises the Trump transition team on foreign affairs. “That’s very frustrating because the people want to know what’s this guy going to do.”
With the new administration yet to take office, McFarland, too, cautioned that Trump’s foreign policy is in an early stage of development.
“That’s what a new administration does: It takes time to rethink things and to come up with policies,” she said.
If history is any guide, Trump could quickly find himself facing a set of foreign policy crises different from the issues he campaigned on. Political scientists have a term for an unexpected world event that drives a new president into uncharted territory: “strategic surprise.”
For former President George W. Bush, who campaigned on pursuing a “humble foreign policy,” the strategic surprise came September 11, 2001.
For President Barack Obama, who vowed to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the “Arab Spring” protests in North Africa and the Middle East marked a strategic surprise, leaving his administration more deeply mired in the region than he’d hoped.
What international crisis might alter the trajectory of the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda has become a guessing game, with the number of scenarios exceeded only by the variety of foreign policy labels attributed to Trump.
A game-changing terrorist attack on American interests is one possible candidate. Another contender: an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launch by North Korea.
“I think the world is not necessarily going to allow President Trump to do everything he’s planned on,” said Blaise Misztal, director of the national security program at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “I think you’re going to see a triangulation between what he’s said, what he’s advised to do, and what is actually feasible on the world stage.”
Flip Flopping on Issues
While Trump has flip flopped on some issues, NATO and torturing terrorists, for example, he’s held steady on others. Among them: terrorism, trade, China and Russia.
In the weeks since his election, he’s reiterated his pledge to make terrorism a focus of his foreign policy, talked tough on trade, challenged the “One China” policy, and iterated again a desire to reset relations with Russia even as he embraced intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in last year’s presidential election.
Brian Katulis of Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, said the “most radical shift” Trump will likely undertake will be “engagement and involvement” with Russia, something Obama unsuccessfully attempted during his first term in office.
But former CIA director Michael Hayden said Trump is likely to reconsider his approach to Russia once he learns from intelligence agencies and allies that Russia and Syria are not committed to fighting IS.
“I’m personally very, very skeptical of any convergence between American and Russian interests in this part of the world,” Hayden said. “In fact, I’d offer the view that American and Russian interests are actually heading in different directions.”
Another major change: downplaying a postwar American foreign policy tradition of promoting democracy and freedom around the world.
“Trump has signaled as a candidate and in the transition a proclivity to appreciate authoritarian and repressive leaders around the world,” Katulis said. “And this may be the biggest departure that is historic, that there really won’t be as much of a values-based approach that focuses on human rights democracy and freedom in other countries. And that I think puts the United States itself on shaky territory.”
But McFarland played down those concerns, saying “the three bedrocks of (postwar) American foreign policy” — American leadership, American values and international alliances — will remain under the Trump administration.
Unpredictability
There is usually some continuity between administrations on foreign policy, but “that rule actually may not apply under Trump,” Katulis said.
“We’re dealing with something here that is just fundamentally different and off the charts,” Katulis explained.
That 'something' is Trump’s well-known unpredictability. Trump has criticized President Obama for telegraphing his policy moves and has vowed to remain unpredictable. But experts say unpredictability can be dangerous in the international arena where both allies and adversaries expect a certain degree of predictability from the United States.
"Predictability is the cornerstone of deterrence," said Clarke. "You need to be predictable if you’re the United states, both in what your allies know you’ll do and in what your adversaries know you’ll do and how you’ll respond."
Comments
Appears that even US companies love the free publicly and support Trump's lying as well.....so exactly how can a European leader even begin to trust and or respect any US FP coming out of the WH right now?????
Alongside Trump, Intel reannounces Arizona factory it promised to create during Obama years
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hamzashaban/intel-trump-silicon-valley-compute…
BUT WAIT......Trump claims that all polls are fake and false..BUT suddenly he likes one from the EU that he bashes for trade reasons and he bashes NATO members which really reflect the EU as a whole....
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
'Majority in Leading EU Nations Support Trump-Style Travel Ban'
Poll of more than 10,000 people in 10 countries...
Let's see....roughly 1000 were polled in 10 each nation states....
This confirms that the polling was largely conducted in EU member states that have a strong neo right populist movement within their country....
QUOTE
The Chatham House poll, conducted with Kantar Public, surveyed samples of over-18s in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and the U.K. Fieldwork was carried out between Dec. 12, 2016, and Jan. 11, 2017, and involved 10,195 respondents
Austria just got through voting where a strong anti immigrant right wing party lost....Belgium has a strong neo right party....France as Le Pen's National Front....Greece does not want immigrants but demands millions of euros from EU that are not being used for immigrants....Hungary with Orban is proRussian and refuses to take any immigrants as demanded by EU....Ital...is no different and has a strong neo right populist party.....
Poland refuses to take any immigrants as national policy and has a strong Nationalist government....Spain has similar problem and UK had Brexit which was a vote against immigrants.....
And the Trump WH lies just keep on rolling.........
Trump claims without proof that violence in Chicago caused by undocumented immigrant gang members.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/without-evidence-trump-blames-chi…
Trump is doing everything propaganda wise to awake the image that his Muslim ban is tied to illegal immigrants and vice versa.....
But with lies...he is not gaining any traction for his arguments....
And the Trump WH lies just keep on rolling.........
Trump claims without proof that violence in Chicago caused by undocumented immigrant gang members.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/without-evidence-trump-blames-chi…
Trump is doing everything propaganda wise to awake the image that his Muslim ban is tied to illegal immigrants and vice versa.....
But with lies...he is not gaining any traction for his arguments....
War College: Rejecting refugees feeds into Islamic State propaganda:
http://reut.rs/2kOAi40
BUT WAIT...Trump is still attacking the judicial system with his tweets.....
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 2h
2 hours ago
Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!
Trump and his merry band still have not provided the courts with exactly what they asked for...show us the urgency of this decision and show us the factual numbers of attackers from these seven countries over the last years....and show us it is not discrimination towards a single group of people....
White House says Trump has every right to stand up for his family after tweet on Nordstrom about his daughter.
White House says Nordstrom action was a direct attack on Trump's policies.
BUT WAIT...what about his daughter telling the public she had quit her companies and she no longer was involved with them......apparently another family lie......
BUT WAIT...using the Office of the President to blast a company doing what it thinks is correct for their brand protection...smacks of a serious conflict of interest AND on the taxpayers dime.....
Trump called PM of #Spain: "& emphasized the importance of all #NATO allies sharing the burden of defense spending"
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/07/readout-presiden…
EVER notice the underlining Trump theme with all calls to EU/NATO...members which Hollande in his call took notice of as well....Trump is trying desperately to browbeat NATO members over their spending WHEN he himself does not whether a high and or low dollar is good and or bad or both....
AND he is browbeating a clothing store over their dropping of his daughters clothing line.....
Does the US Christian Right love Putin as much as apparently Trump does....????
They see Putin and Russia as a key ally in global religious war.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/12/why-the-christian-right-sh…
Remember the Russian Orthodox Church declared a global war on Islam when Russian went into Syria...
Trump does not believe the Russians hacked the US election process nor engaged in election influence operations in the US.........
Now official: France's spy agency, the DGSE, believes #Russia is working to get Marine Le Pen elected
http://www.rtl.fr/actu/politique/marine-le-pen-la-russie-pousserait-sa-…
In a speech to law enforcement officials today, Trump called refugee ban “so simple and so beautifully written and so perfectly written.”
Does this sound like a sane individual who does not lie all the time....???
AND it just gets worse.....20 minutes into his supposed WH scheduled intelligence briefing he is tweeting about his daughter.....
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
BUT WAIT...this should not have impacted Trump as his daughter was as she herself stated withdrawn from her businesses in order to avoid charges of conflict of interests.....supposedly weeks ago...
BUT WAIT...she has not in fact withdrawn from her businesses and still owns and runs them even...evidently she lied as well....
So in fact a true conflict of interest if she is a member of the President's Economic Advisory Board.....
To review: the president attacked an American company on behalf of his family whose business he promised he would no longer be involved in.
Even more Trump attacks on the US judicial system which ensures the rule of law and is a critical part of the US checks and balances within democracy....
Trump simply cannot understand the US legal system...BUT why should he... he has been involved in over 4000 State and Federal court cases to include Federal charges of money laundering and criminal racketeering....SO he should actually understand the court system inside and out....UNLESS he senses his Muslim Ban EO will lose this court battle and is headed to the SC where the EO powers of a President might in fact become far more restrictive....
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-attacks-judges-weighing-tr…
President Trump on Wednesday went after a panel of federal judges weighing whether a court order blocking his travel ban should be lifted.
Speaking to a gathering of law enforcement officials, Trump argued the judges should immediately reinstate the executive order in the name of national security.
"I don't want to call a court biased, so I won't call it biased," the president said at a gathering of the Major Cities Chiefs Association in Washington. "Courts seem to be so political and it would be so great for our justice system if they could read a statement and do what's right."
He vented his frustration at the legal arguments made by judges and attorneys on both sides of the case, even reading aloud a portion of immigration law he believes backs up his executive order barring the intake of refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Trump argued the law gives him broad powers to control who enters and leaves the U.S.
"A bad high school student would understand this. Anybody would understand this," he said.
"They were talking about things that just had nothing to do this," he said of the judges.
"But I have to be honest that if these judges wanted to, in my opinion, help the court in terms of respect for the court, they do what they should be doing," he added. "It's so sad."
It's highly unusual for presidents to publicly comment on court cases dealing with their policy proposals - particularly as a court is weighing a case. But Trump has repeatedly proven he's willing to break longstanding political norms.
Trump said on Tuesday evening that he watched the oral arguments in front of a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which was broadcast live on cable news.
The judges aggressively questioned a Justice Department lawyer about the evidence Trump was using to bar people from the countries included in the executive order and the national security powers of the president.
The solicitor general of Washington state, which is suing to block the order, was also grilled over whether the nationwide temporary restraining order handed down by a lower court was too broad and whether his contention the ban amounted to religious discrimination.
Trump appeared to take issue with media coverage of the hearing, which centered on the government lawyer's struggle to make the administration's case, as well as any skepticism of the order itself.
"I listened to a bunch of stuff on television last night that was disgraceful," he said.
Trump argued that the country is in danger of being attacked by terrorists as long as the order is on hold.
"I think it's sad, I think it's a sad day," he said. "I think our security is at risk today. And it will be at risk until such time that we are entitled and get what we are entitled to as citizens of this country. We want security."
BLUF...QUOTING Trump.."we are entitle to security BUT not the rule of law...and that idea alone is dangerous...far more dangerous than anything IS has been able to do against the US....
IS attacks US citizens NOT the US political and legal system...Trump in fact does both....
EFF
✔
@EFF
Have you been ordered to unlock your phone at the U.S. border? We want to hear about it.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/02/invasive-digital-border-searches-…
QUOTE
Following President Trump’s confusing executive order on terrorism and immigration, reports surfaced over the weekend that border agents at airports were searching the cell phones of passengers arriving from the Middle East, including U.S. permanent residents (green card holders).
We’re concerned that this indicates an expansion of the already invasive digital practices of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is why we’re asking for your digital border search stories.
CBP has for some time now had a practice of demanding from both Americans and foreigners social media information and access to digital devices, which store on the devices themselves highly personal information and communications or link to cloud-based apps with equally sensitive data.
Last week, for example, we wrote about complaints by Muslim American citizens that CBP accessed public posts by demanding social media handles, and potentially accessed private posts by demanding cell phone passcodes and perusing social media apps. Border agents also allegedly physically abused one man who refused to hand over his unlocked phone.
CBP has also searched or attempted to search the digital devices of journalists, including a Wall Street Journal reporter who is an American citizen.
Other Americans are also subject to seizure and search of their digital devices at the border, including one Iranian-American dual citizen who was returning to the U.S. from vacation to Niagara Falls and on whose behalf we wrote an amicus brief.
Last fall, we submitted comments to CBP opposing a proposal, which was approved in December before President Trump took office, to ask foreign visitors from Visa Waiver Countries voluntarily to disclose their social media handles.
And CNN reported recently that the Trump Administration is contemplating requiring all foreign visitors “to disclose all websites and social media sites they visit, and to share the contacts in their cell phones.”
Given these recent developments, we’re worried that the invasiveness and frequency of device searches and investigations into the digital lives of travelers are increasing.
As part of our work to combat what we believe to be unconstitutional practices at the border, and to better understand how the Trump
Administration’s new policies may be changing border practices, we would like to hear your stories.
Please let us know if a U.S. official at the border examined your cell phone, laptop, or other digital device; asked for your device’s passcode or ordered you to unlock or decrypt it; or asked for your social media handles.
We would like to hear from everyone, but especially if you are a citizen or permanent resident (green card holder) of the United States.
Please tell us:
Your legal status in the U.S. (citizen, permanent resident, visa holder).
What airport or border crossing you were at.
What devices you had with you.
What border agents specifically demanded (including social media handles and passcodes) or what they specifically looked through.
Whether border agents recorded any information.
Whether border agents stated or suggested that compliance with their demands was voluntary or mandatory.
Whether border agents threatened you in any way.
Whether border agents stated any reasons for their demands.
You can write to us at borders@eff.org. If you want to contact us securely via email, please use PGP/GPG. Or you can call us at +1-415-436-9333.
AND the rule of law as a cornerstone of US FP...?????
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago
If the U.S. does not win this case as it so obviously should, we can never have the security and safety to which we are entitled. Politics!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 24m
24 minutes ago
I will be speaking at 9:00 A.M. today to Police Chiefs and Sheriffs and I will be discussing the horrible, dangerous and wrong decision.......
APPEARS Trump has never heard of the "thing called checks and balances" which is a hallmark of the US so called democracy that Trump wants to eliminate.....
WHAT is extremely interesting is that in Europe terrorism has been fought since 1960s by the extensive use of local and federal police and state security agencies and not once have they restricted the rule of law to fight terrorism...left...right or jihadist.....
Trump WH still cannot name a single terror attack against any American inside the US from a single immigrant from the WH Muslim banned seven countries....APPEARS that maybe the existing vetting system is in fact working...SO WHY does Trump want to change it??????
Interesting statistic indicates that potentially 23-37% of all Trump voters came from the far right...neo right and the rest were standard RP voters....
Trump's FP tweets and telephone calls are self destructing years of US FP and damaging relations with key allies that have supported the US since 1945.....
.@POTUS had another bumpy phone call with a foreign leader, this time ranting to Hollande about the U.S.'s money
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-foreign-leaders-phone-calls…
QUOTE
President Donald Trump spent much of a recent phone call with French President Francois Hollande veering off into rants about the U.S. getting shaken down by other countries, according to a senior official with knowledge of the call, creating an awkward interaction with a critical U.S. ally.
While the Hollande call on Jan. 28 did touch on pressing matters between the two countries — namely the fight against the Islamic State — Trump also used the exchange to vent about his personal fixations, including his belief that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and by international bodies like NATO, the official said.
At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. “wants our money back,” the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be “obsessing over money."
“It was a difficult conversation, because he talks like he’s speaking publicly,” the official said. “It's not the usual way heads of state speak to each other. He speaks with slogans and the conversation was not completely organized.”
The revelations about the unconventional call are only the latest in a series of leaked accounts of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders that are generating increasing doubts about the new president’s style of diplomacy at a time of global uncertainty. Diplomats and politicians across the spectrum and around the world are worried that Trump’s seemingly unstructured and personality driven approach to dealing with foreign leaders risks alienating traditional allies and emboldening foes.
Trump and the White House have so far brushed off the concerns, which spiked after reports emerged that he warned Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto that he might send troops to Mexico to clear out the "bad hombres down there” and that he argued with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a prior agreement with the Obama administration to resettle refugees from a camp in Australia, saying that Turnbull is giving him “the next Boston bombers.”
The White House has provided sanitized readouts, including of the call with Hollande, presenting it as a focused conversation with Trump expressing his support for NATO. "President Trump reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO and noted the importance of all NATO Allies sharing the burden on defense spending,” the release read. "The leaders also lauded our combined efforts to eliminate ISIS in Iraq and Syria.”
A member of the National Security Council also pushed back against the senior official’s assessment of the Hollande call.
"This is mischaracterization due to the nature of the call," said an NSC communications aide. "They did discuss the issue of countries meeting their defense commitments under NATO. They agreed that was important that countries meet their goals." (France is among the NATO members who does not meet the target of 2 percent of GDP to be contributed to the alliance’s defense.)
The spokesperson also did not elaborate on why Trump brought up the topic of China with the French president.
Trump also defended himself at the National Prayer Breakfast last week, telling the crowd, “When you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having, don’t worry about it. Just don’t worry about it.”
"This is not the way you lead our country,” Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, said of the Mexico and Australia conversations. Warner added in a brief interview that he remains concerned about Trump’s combative calls with foreign leaders.
Veterans at the State Department are also worried about Trump’s brash style in dealing with world leaders and his early forays into foreign policy.
The phone calls to foreign leaders from France, Germany, Mexico, Russia, and Japan during Trump’s first week in office came with little guidance from the State Department, angering some at the agency, which is accustomed to briefing presidents extensively on geopolitical currents before the calls happen.
State Department officials say there’s little respect at Foggy Bottom for Trump’s Twitter diplomacy, where longtime foreign policy hands find themselves simultaneously frustrated and relieved by the fact that they are limited in their ability to go out and try to clean up Trump’s diplomatic mess because of all the vacancies at the department.
Still, not all of Trump’s phone calls have gone off the rails.
The trick to a good call with Trump is less about policy agreement than personal chemistry, said two people familiar with some of the world leader talks.
For example, New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English began his Sunday evening call with Trump by thanking the president for taking the time to talk during the Super Bowl and chatting about New Zealand golfer Bob Charles, said someone briefed on the call.
The person said that set the tone for an amicable conversation, even though English went on to express disagreement with Trump’s executive order restricting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Continued......
UNQUOTE
More US Congressional activities that coupled with Trump tweets are actually convincing European leaders that Trump is a serious clear and present danger to the EU as a whole as the US appears to "have lost it's way" on the concept of "rule of law".....
First Trump lies about a 3 to 5M illegal voters....and Congress says nothing and then Trump wants his VP to lead an investigation on this fraudulent voting......
NOW Congress does the following to restrict any ability to double check US elections....and or upgrade voting machines and software....also goes to the public funding of presidential elections......
ABC News
✔
@ABC
House committee votes to eliminate independent election commission tasked with helping states improve voting systems
http://abcn.ws/2k0iSlw
AND the rule of law so vastly important in earning the respect and trust of foreign nations in our own FP see this as what??????
Chaos.....
Bill C...now you see why many European leaders are openly questioning if the US is still defending it's own democratic values especially the rule of law.....appears Trump WH is now willing to set up a true constitutional crisis....
http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/breaking-lawyers-accuse-trump-admin-of-…
A group of lawyers on Tuesday filed a motion in federal court in New York asking a judge to force the Trump administration to disclose a list of any individuals detained by his ‘extreme vetting’ Executive Order.
The motion also seeks the return of any individuals who were removed from the United States as a result of the order. The lawyers, in court paperwork filed Tuesday afternoon, accuse the Trump administration of failing to comply with prior judicial orders issued in the case.
“The government has already been ordered to produce a list of individuals detained, pursuant to the January 27, 2017 Executive Order, to the petitioner’s counsel. However, despite repeated written requests for this list, Respondents have yet to provide Petitioners’ counsel with even one name of any person held at any U.S. airport or returned to a foreign port,” the motion states.
The original lawsuit was brought on behalf of two Iraqis, Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkaleq Alshawi, who were being held at JFK airport. The ACLU and a group of attorneys filed the case as a class action lawsuit shortly after the Trump executive order was signed. On January 28th, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) issued an order banning customs officials from deporting or detaining anyone who had arrived in the United States with valid visas, lawful permanent residency, or approved refugee status.
In the newly filed motion, the plaintiffs allege that the Trump administration is now not complying with some of the terms of the judge’s previous orders. In addition, they claim that border patrol agents “intimidated” travelers into withdrawing their visa applications “under conditions that cannot, under any reasonable interpretation, be construed as ‘voluntary.'”
“If the allegations in this legal memorandum — allegations that are shocking but seem entirely plausible on their face and appear to be supported by the affidavits and other materials referenced in the memo — are indeed true, then the President and those acting under his direction have a great deal to answer for and are skirting ever closer to outright defiance of lawful judicial orders or perhaps even crossing the line.
Needless to say, such defiance is powerful grist for the awesome mill of impeachment,”
Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe told LawNewz.com.
The State of Virginia is also looking to hold Trump administration officials for allegedly violating an order that required Customs and Border Protection officials to let lawyers speak with legal residents who were being detained.
This latest court filing comes as more than 40 similar cases are being heard in federal courts across the country.
On Tuesday afternoon, the 9th Circuit is expected to hear oral arguments after a Seattle judge issued a nationwide halt to most of Trump’s travel ban.
Leaks suggest Trump's own team is alarmed by his conduct
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-ad
ministration-leaks_us_589a45f1e4b04061313a1fbb?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004
When a WH is awash with leaking and the WH is engaged in constantly stopping up those leaks when will it ever get to a consistent FP....never...
Right now the only sure thing on Trump's FP...is the constant contradictions led by his tweets....
Bill C.....really read and then intensively reread the Trump EO Muslim Ban...there was also the intent to openly deny entry to the US from countries not currently required to have a 90 day visa which is most of the EU as a reciprocal measure as the EU allows US citizens a 90 day visa free entry into EU countries....
INS/CBP was planning to question those EU passport holders about any travels to those SEVEN banned Muslim countries especially focusing on Iranian travels.....
AND then restrict anyone who has travelled to those countries from entering the US even though not a passport holder from the seven banned countries...
Totally not mentioned in the US MSM...
Bill C.....
HERE we go again but from a new angle....Trump cannot simply let this Muslim Ban go and now a former retired US General "plays along"...when will he stand up and speak truth to power as his former JCoS demanded in Mission Command demanded from his officers......???
Now Kelly as Dir DHS states....as a trial balloon..."if we cannot limit Muslims from the named seven countries from entering THEN we need all their email and social media account names and passwords".....
HAS anyone noticed that not a single American has been attacked by an immigrant from these SEVEN largely Muslim countries????
None...nada...nichts...nothing......YEt they are hit by the ban USING the argument that it "was Obama" who named the seven countries before Trump...WHICH is basically a serious deliberate and misleading Trump WH lie......
BUT WAIT....two things are strikingly apparent.....
1. the Trump WH/NSC has signaled to EU that the "Data Safe Harbor" agreement which took only SIX years to negotiate is null and void.....
This agreement was designed to protect data privacy for EU citizens when they use online services...email and or social media provided by US online/social media companies WHICH under the US Patriot Act must house their data on their own servers WITHIN the US..........
WHY...EU data privacy laws protecting the common citizen are much tougher than anything in the US....NOW those US companies must base their servers inside the EU if they are to continue to do business in EU areas....Or not do business inside the Eu as they will be in violation of EU privacy laws that come with massive fines...
2. BUT more importantly there was a small BUT significant event this last summer WHICH indicates that DHS has been regularly and illegally monitoring EU communications with the US...WHICH under FISA and the latest Patriot Act regulations DHS is not allowed to do....without a FISA court order with a detailed "probable cause"......
BUT has anyone said anything...nothing.....
A German HS graduate was going to take a summer vacation with her relatives in the US before starting German university studies....her American relatives offered her a place to stay and sleep and she in one of her emails/FB page thanking them... offered to babysit their children as a repayment kind of thank you for their offer of a free room and board for the summer....
BTW...she had applied and was granted by the Us Embassy in Berlin a visa allowing her to remain past the visa free period of 90 days....and she was asked there why she wanted to stay longer and it was the same answer she eventually also gave INS and CBP....
WHEN she arrived in JFK....CBP pulled her off the plane and INS then interrogated her for over four hours as to what was her reason for visiting the US.....and she explained everything just as above and offered the telephone number of her American relatives as a reference call to confirm her statements.....and showed them her Herman university acceptance letter with the start dates for the WS....
INS openly accused her of wanting to stay longer as a "nanny" and then quoted from her emails and FB page concerning her offer to babysit......
THEN after six hours of questioning she was placed back on a plane to Frankfurt and forced to fly back to Germany.......
NOW tell me that Kelly and his entire DHS has not been using illegally monitored email and FB pages as a security measure LONG before Trump was on the horizon....AGAINST even those not on the SEVEN Muslim nation state banned list.????
The story made German MSM TV and print media but not a word was mentioned in the US.....
Bill C.....
Being the global hegemon requires an important degree of restraint & introspection. Trump, a true idiot, threw this all away.
Buckle up.
Bill C...I have a large Berlin German circle of friends and family...many of them down right wing conservative through and through AND even they think Trump is dangerous and a mad man...
Bill C...here is the core problem for this somewhat none knowing FP NSC...
http://www.interpretermag.com/february-7-2017/#16084
Paul Goble
‘A Small Country Far Away about Which We Know Little’
February 8, 2017
Staunton, VA, February 7, 2017 - British Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain’s dismissal of Czechoslovakia as an artificial country created at Versailles and one that was “far away” and “about which we know little” have long been the byword forthe betrayal of a small country by a larger power and of the appeasement of an aggressor.
But Chamberlain’s role as betrayer and appeaser in chief is now being challenged by US President Donald Trump’s declaration that Washington doesn’t know what is going on in Ukraine and therefore cannot evaluate it.
And Trump’s words are given content by his vice president who says that sanctions the US imposed on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine can be removed if Russia cooperates elsewhere.
Americans are notorious for their ignorance about other countries. Last week, for example, the Russian media had a field day with the report of a poll Russian journalists conducted in New York City about how the US should react to Russian aggression against a non-existent country, “Kyrgbekistan”.
Moreover, this ignorance often extends to the level of senior officials as when the White House suggested that it was concerned about Polish forces that supposedly were invading Ukraine at the present time.
But for anyone who has been awake the last three years to declare that he doesn’t know what is going on in Ukraine at all, especially if that individual has been openly dismissive of intelligence briefings, suggests either stupidity, willful ignorance or something even worse. And for his deputy to say sanctions should be lifted not when their goals are achieved but when those who have committed a criminal act agree to help out elsewhere is perhaps even worse.
As Winston Churchill observed at the time of Chamberlain’s collapse before Hitler, the British prime minister had chosen shame in order to avoid a war; but by so acting, Chamberlain’s successor said, the author of appeasement would end by getting both.
That is a hard lesson, but it is one that needs to be learned again.
Suggestions have been made that a "Jacksonian Backlash" -- a "Jacksonian Revolt" may best explain -- not only our current times and the current thinking of a large number of Americans -- but also the current thinking of our newly elected President.
Given these suggestions, the following is offered in consideration what a new Jacksonian/Trumpian foreign policy/use of force concept might look like. Here is an excerpt:
BEGIN QUOTE
Walter Russell Mead begins his indispensable 1999 essay, “The Jacksonian Tradition” by describing American savagery in war. “In the last five months of World War II, American bombing raids claimed the lives of 900,000 Japanese civilians.” America killed roughly one million North Korean civilians between 1950 and 1953. “The United States dropped almost three times as much explosive tonnage in the Vietnam War as was used in the Second World War.”
Mead goes on to explain the political tradition that underlies this ferocity, which he names after President Andrew Jackson. Jacksonians, Mead argues, view America as a country that just wants to be left alone. They have little interest in the “Hamiltonian” project of prying other countries open to American commerce or the “Wilsonian” project of spreading democracy and liberty across the globe. But when attacked, especially by what they consider dishonorable foes, Jacksonians believe that “wars must be fought with all available force. The use of limited force is deeply repugnant.” ...
It’s easy to see the Jacksonian ethic in Trump’s foreign policy. He’s against nation building. He couldn’t care less whether other countries are democratic. But when “animals” attack the US, he rejects virtually any moral limits on America’s response. Torture? Sure, because “You’re not going to win if we’re soft and … they have no rules.” Using nuclear weapons? Trump won’t rule it out. In a quintessentially Jacksonian moment, former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight praised Trump last month for being like Truman, who had “the guts to drop the bomb in 1944.”
END QUOTE
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-jacksonian-can…
Thus, as I have noted, I believe, at another thread:
a. Those espousing the Jacksonian/Trumpian foreign policy (we just want to be left alone) and related use of force concepts (if you don't leave us alone, we are going to kick your butt from here to kingdom come); these such folks do not seem to see "achieving a better peace" as either a national goal or a national responsibility.
(Thus, to consider President Bush Sr.'s First Gulf War from this perspective?)
Whereas,
b. Those of the Hamiltonian/Wilsonian/FDR foreign policy and use of force traditions (we want to constantly maintain, and indeed improve, America's position in the world; this, for example, by advancing our way of life, our way of governance, our values, etc., wherever and whenever possible); these such folks DO seem to see "achieving a better peace" as both a necessary national goal and a critical leadership responsibility.
(Thus, to consider President Bush Jr.'s Second Gulf War from this perspective?)
Bottom Line Question:
Should we, thus, view the distinction -- between the Jacksonian/Bush Sr./Trumpian "whack-a-mole" ideas -- and the Hamiltonian/Wilsonian/FDR/Bush Jr./Obama "better peace" concepts -- exactly in these such, respective, rejection of responsibility, versus acceptance of responsibility, terms?
(Or should we, in the alternative, understand that while Jackson/Bush Sr./Trump understand and accept their responsibility for sustaining, and indeed improving, America's place in the world/achieving a better peace, these folks believe that these such enduring national missions can be done in other ways [(what ways?] and via other means [what means?]; other than advancing the Western way of life, the Western way of governance and Western values, attitudes, and beliefs throughout the world?)
Reference Bannon NSC member's political views.....interesting to say the least.....
Bannon Has Ties
to Traditionalists in the Vatican
By JASON HOROWITZ
Stephen K. Bannon, a Catholic, has cultivated strategic alliances with those in Rome who share his view that the pope is a dangerously misguided pontiff.
In first speech since Trump's inauguration, Iran's supreme leader calls @POTUS the 'real face' of U.S. corruption:
http://reut.rs/2ko7ONi
WH Kleptocracy......hard at work.....
QUOTE
* MELANIA HOPES TO MAKE BIG BUCKS OFF FIRST LADY ROLE: Melania Trump has now filed a lawsuit over a newspaper story about her, alleging that it will compromise her ability to establish “multimillion dollar business relationships” during her years as first lady, in which she will be “one of the most photographed women in the world.”
As former George W. Bush ethics chief Richard Painter puts it: “There has never been a first lady of the United States who insinuated that she intended to make a lot of money because of the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity of being first lady.”
In an Trump interview in 2001 he mused about the possibility to make money even as a President....
The Moscow Times
✔
@MoscowTimes
Donald Trump has ushered in a bipolar world, argues @leonidragozin in a new op-ed. The post-1991 order is gone.
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/liberal-vs-illiberal-welcome-to-the…
Important as this is coming out of Moscow.....
Michael McFaul
✔
@McFaul
My latest @washingtonpost column: "We can't let Trump go down Putin's path"
http://wpo.st/Q1w_2
Former US Ambassador to Russia....
Trump sides with Putin against US intel community.
He "doesn't know" who controls Russian led, armed, and paid Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Flies in the face of the photos of Russian artillery forces inside Ukraine released by DoD in 2015....
Trump also does not believe that Russia shot down MH17.....
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 3h
3 hours ago
I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy - yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!
BUT WAIT........
Trump seems to forget his number of videos talking abut his Miss Universe dealings....his relationship with a large number of Russian oligarchs who have strangely purchased a real real large number of Trump properties.....or the 254 Russian companies that have some sort of marking deals with the Trump main company....AND a 2013 video where Trump does state he has met Putin....
Another set of lies......
"haters"...ah the new form of those that did not vote for him...or Republicans who are now not sure who they helped get elected......
THIS is a typical Russian propaganda move...called "whataboutism".....
Meaning when someone is being critiqued...then the person being critiqued suddenly states..."WHAT ABOUT......????
Trump uses this technique very well.....
Moscow Doesn’t Expect Trump to End Sanctions All at Once but ‘Cleverly’ Over Time.
http://www.interpretermag.com/february-3-2017-2/#16079
BREAKING: The Supreme leader of #Iran Khamenei says “We should thank @realDonaldTrump for revealing the real face of United States.”
Bannon allies tell us they're nervous about all the coverage he's getting. They wish it would settle down a bit.
https://www.axios.com/the-president-bannon-problem-2243331718.html
German @DerSPIEGEL calls for international alliance against Trump. I've heard similar language in Europe this week
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-1133177-amp.html
Some Trump tweets from Jan 27 2015, day of major terror attack in Libya listed by WH as underplayed. ABC, CNN, NYT reported.
Trump ignored.
Not a single Trump tweet on this terrorist attack....
The hotel attack by an ISIS affiliate killed 10—including a US citizen. Trump didn’t mention it the next day either
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/27/middleeast/libya-corinthia-hotel-attack/
CNN Newsroom
✔
@CNNnewsroom
Trump's media dishonesty claims are "a distraction, a tactic, a strategy" says @lynnsweet
It is not good when a President of the US stays his course on constant lying or deliberately pushing disinformation.....makes one look exactly like Putin whom he greatly for some reason admires....
Yesterday he claimed in front of CENTCOM that the MSM is not reporting radical jihad attacks and is doing that deliberately ...accused as well European MSM in this massive conspiratorial endeavor.....
BUT WAIT...he got his information from a well known white nationalist blogsite "Infowars"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/06/trumps-sugges…
.@AndersonCooper responds to White House list of undercovered attacks: "We covered them heavily"
BTW...Dugin is the key ultra nationalist Russian connector on the far right side of Erdogan...Putin and Trump.....
This is the man linking Putin, Erdogan and Trump
http://bloom.bg/2kHc3EK
Hell freezes over: guest blames Russia for war in Ukraine on Russian state TV live [VIDEO]
http://euromaidanpress.com/2017/02/06/hell-freezes-over-guest-blames-ru… …
Russia’s Churkin stunned by US tough stance against Russian Federation at UN Security Council
http://ukraine-english-news.forumotion.com/t3046-ukraine-crisis-news-in… …
Churkin is stunned because it was Churkin who first invited Trump to the Soviet Union in 1986...their friendship goes back 30 years.....
At the home of CENTCOM who works daily with NATO allies especialy in Iraq ...Syria....AND AFG......TRUMP goes off the rails.....AGAIN.....
.@realDonaldTrump to US Army command: "Our NATO allies are very unfair to us"
Pres. Trump: "We strongly support NATO, we only ask that all of the NATO members make their full and proper financial contributions."
THE second part of the sentence is what one refers to as a qualifying BUT statement.....SO he only really supports NATO 100% if all pay up....BUT WAIT...his close buddy UK has not even reached 1.3% as of yet this last year and is still cutting back....
Wonder if Trump and his merry band has ever heard of NATO SOF.....
NOW Trump heads over the cliff with this lie and at CENTCOM of all places.....
POTUS accuses media of not wanting to report terrorist attacks: "The very dishonest press doesn't want to report it."
"There's so much terrorism in Europe that isn't get reported by the dishonest media"
While both Trump and Pence play nice with Putin......
U.S. Preps for Infowar on Russia
http://thebea.st/2kcdTdu