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
Question: is there any country RU isn't waging Infowar agnst?Just tip of iceberg in RU hybrid war agnst int community
https://www.nrk.no/norge/xl/pst-bekrefter-russisk-informasjons_operasjo…
Amazingly the Russian readout of the Putin trump conversation FIRST came from the Russian side leaving the WH to basically agree to what Putin was in fact stating as was correct....
QUOTE
Sounds like Trump agreed with Putin on basically everything Russia wants: Syria, Ukraine, anti-terrorism, sanctions, and multi-polarity.
Normally Putin's phone readouts are quite icy. This is the most effusive I've seen. It must have gone really, really great, just terrific
BUT WAIT.........
Can anybody trot out a list of the concessions that were secured by "deal maker" @realDonaldTrump in return for all of this?
No? Strange.
Amazingly the Muslim Ban on SEVEN so called terrorist countries where no 9/11 attackers came "missed" the Muslim states where they did come from and "misses" Muslim countries that Trump does business in....
Business equals now US FP.....AND no conflict of interest with this President?????
Trump business interests may have determined which countries to ban. Another reason we need to see his tax returns.
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/28/511996783/how-does-trumps-immigration-fre…
Amazing that those with humble beginnings and whose father was a sentenced federal criminal for insider trading/who is still in jail...and who is now a special advisor to Trump "suddenly forgets" his own personal history as an immigrant......he should have raise his voice as the first one in the room when the EO was signed or can he not read?...but power tends to corrupt and ALL power corrupts ALL...who come in contact with it.....
QUOTE
Only in America could the Kushners go in just two generations from desperate Jewish refugees to shutting out desperate Muslim refugees....valid US Green Card holders....and dual passport holders....
Wow..another major win for the Trump Muslim Ban FP move.....
Looking at the Iranian press over last 24 hours it's clear ban is a gift to Iran's hardliners.
Rouhani may in fact lose to a real hardliner come May..
NOTE...the US does not need another Khomeini v3.0 and he is there and waiting and this Trump move certainly helps him greatly counter the Great Satan....
Oh to be a fly on the wall on this set of conversations......
QUOTE
Trump has calls scheduled with the King of Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi today.
REMEMBER during the campaign Trump sent surrogates to tell especially these two countries that all his Muslim Ban and Registry rhetoric was just rhetoric and not really meant....that these meetings actually did occur were actually reported on by social media who caught the visits by seeing his surrogates actually in those countries and then verified the meetings took place....NOT US MSM who seemed to be completely non interested.....
REMEMBER also Trump has large investments in these and other Muslim countries.....AND thus they were not on his list of seven countries...many of which have never had a citizen of their involved in any attack in the US on American citizens....how strange is that?????
BUT WAIT....from a European commenter who has watched Turkey for years....
I've watched Turkey long enough to know what happens next: dollars to donuts
Trump attacks "liberal" or "biased" judges, rigged courts
BY THE WAY...this is just getting to be a major embarrassment for US...
Priceless. American residents with the wrong place of birth can now seek asylum in Canada. Europe should follow the lead.
QUOTE:
Canada is now accepting asylum applications from U.S. green card holders. All this in under 24 hours.
Trump's EO Muslim Ban is heading to a SC decision on the power of a CinC vs the immigration laws and regulations passed by a duly elected Congress who passed those laws....
QUOTE
Court orders people not to be detained under the authority of the EO and orders CBP to notify airlines of order. Gov't doesn't object. This Federal Court decision allows for Green Card holders to enter again their valid country on their very valid green card....
BUT WAIT LAX and NYC CBP unit are failing to adhere to the Federal Court order....
NEW: Immigrant groups just asked Brooklyn judge to address alleged fed non-compliance w/stay at JFK & LAX
http://politi.co/2kfrxPR
Does not bode well if Trump ignores the rule of law..he will get his day in court as CinC as this will be fast tracked by the 1st Federal Circuit Court to the SC for immediate injunction ruling....
REMEMBER when Trump stated he would order the withholding of federal funds to US cities that are immigrate sanctuaries...to the tune of 3.5B USDs.....
California announced yesterday that under State and Federal laws they are considering the withholding of Billions of USDs in tax flow to the Federal government as they state their tax payers funding the US government were not asked how they were to be spent....
BTW California is considered to be the SIXTH largest global economy paying a large amounts of tax money into Federal coffers.....
Other major cities threatened by Trump on withholding their federal monies are also considering this move since a lot of the threatened withholding is in fact flow back from tax money they sent to the federal government...to begin with....
How Trump's abrupt immigration ban sowed confusion at airports, agencies
http://reut.rs/2kGvRbS
BUT WAIT.....Trump actually stated in public...the immigration order is going very smoothly....
AND Trump continues to plagiarize...if the inaugural cake the same as Obama....and now this...is there anything that he does that is actually his own?
In 1993 Clinton signed "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees." Trump signed EO with exact same title.
https://n.pr/2kev8xv
WOW....the Trump Muslim Ban was in fact a Muslim Ban and written largely outside of the US government and did not include the input from Federal Agencies....
REMEMBER Trump did use the term Muslim Ban and Muslim Registry many many times during the campaign BUT yesterday suddenly Trump states it was not a Muslim Ban.....
BUT now a former surrogate states it is.......
Rudy concedes Trump wanted a Muslim ban and suggests lawyers including himself helped draft eventual EO
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l9GKL6i38pI
QUOTE
I'm 20 minutes from landing at JFK. Pilot just warned us about delays due to #NoBan protests at T4.
The passengers' response?
Applause.
SO Trump believes he is legitimately speaking for all Americans....he lost the general election by 2.8M votes and that is not a mandate...to ignore those 2.8M.
We have now officially entered the zone of American fascism and we the American people did not democratically vote for it...a single advisor has the power to iusse EOs and rulings on how they are carried out without the input from DoJ and DoS and DHS....who have to carry them out....THAT is not how the NSC works.....nor how government works...
How in the heck is it possible that a well known white nationalist really a white supremacist who boasted that he was a Lenin wanting to tear down the American establishment....JUST HOW is it possible as an advisor under FISA warrant able to single handily cause a FP chaos yesterday and completely side step the correct flow of government..????
A very valid question that goes to the heart of the American democracy that we claim has checks and balances....
QUOTE
DHS initially ruled #MuslimBan did not apply to green card holders. Sources say Steve Bannon overruled them. Let that sink in 1 man > agency
Steve Bannon will be in Trump National Security Council meetings, but not General Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
NOTE...Trump under Flynn guidance actually removed Dunford and inserted Bannon also under Flynn guidance....
Scariest news today
UNQUOTE
How in the hell does an advisor who is a confirmed white nationalist/white supremacist have a seat on the NSC BUT the JCoS who must carry out any NSC military decisions IS EXCLUDED from those meetings.....
That my friends is power out of control...democratically elected which German Communist friends told me years ago could in fact happen in the US as we have that tendency...
This European commenter has actually hit it on the head....but in a blunt fashion....
Europeans have not lost sight of the Russian ties into Trump and his advisors....many Americans and the MSM has though...
QUOTE
Trump is throwing so much shit at the fan, that the US press is not able to see the massive treasonous ties of Trump with Russia anymore
with his EO flood Trump has effectively shifted the 24 hour news cycle off of potentially lifting Russian sanctions and the Russian ties to him and his advisors and Russian hacking of the US election....
That is exactly what Bannon...Manafort..Cage and Flynn want....
IMPORTANT to the above comment....
So @th3j35t3r posts blog on Kremlin infiltration of US Govt, receives sustained attack on his servers from Russian source almost immediately
AND he is a profession white hat hacker....
This European commenter has actually hit it on the head....but in a blunt fashion....
Europeans have not lost sight of the Russian ties into Trump and his advisors....many Americans and the MSM has though...
QUOTE
Trump is throwing so much shit at the fan, that the US press is not able to see the massive treasonous ties of Trump with Russia anymore
with his EO flood Trump has effectively shifted the 24 hour news cycle off of potentially lifting Russian sanctions and the Russian ties to him and his advisors and Russian hacking of the US election....
That is exactly what Bannon...Manafort..Cage and Flynn want....
By changing the rules of engagement you actually mean killing more civilians...as if they are IS??????
The Int'l Spectator @spectatorindex
BREAKING: Trump orders military to suggest changes to its rules of engagement, that exceed requirements of international law, in ISIS fight
SO now members of the US military are expected to be committing violations of international law and possible the Geneva Convention....
THEN that really does play into the hands of IS and AQ....
Germans now telling a US President what democracy really is...how strange is that????
Berlin's mayor just issued this message for Donald Trump. It's quite something...actually it is a hammer of a statement....
http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2017/pressemi…
Trump as a sociopathic narcissist truly believes lies and truth are the same thing...on this EO he is truly in an altered state of reality....
"It's not a Muslim ban," Pres Trump just said about his "extreme vetting" Exec Order issued yesterday. "It's working out very nicely."
EO written by Bannon......Miller....and Flynn with no input from DOJ and DOS.....
BUT WAIT..Flynn's own son is calling it a Muslim ban and he should not as he is just as flaming anti Muslim as is his father....
Jake Tapper
✔
@jaketapper
Son and former top aide of National Security Adviser @GenFlynn calling Exec Order a Muslim Ban, despite GOP insistence it isn't a Muslim ban
AND Flynn's son worked on the transition team until fired for his white supremacist tweets...
Iraq vet w/ 4 Purple Hearts, drove two hours to Dulles w/ his son.
Nobody called him. He just came. Why?
"Not what I fought for."
HOW would Trump know/understand......he is a four time VN draft dodger for a bone spur which he years later could not remember on what foot...stating my biggest battle was fighting off the women during VN...
NOW the disaster is forming in ways that even Trump and Bannon did not envision nor did Flynn....
Breaking out of Iraq....
CBS News: US official says Americans could be expelled from Iraq during crucial battle against ISIS in Mosul
CBS News: US AMB to Iraq has warned Trump Adm the Iraqi Government is considering banning all American passport holders entry to the country
Tit for tat FP is in gear now or did not Bannon...Flynn and Trump not realize Iraq and Iran hang out lately together....
MORE proof that Trump is now operating totally above and outside the rule of law and deciding things in the way a King would decide....
First DOJ admits they had no input on the legal side of the EO and now DoS states they had no input as well....
So is the Us government now being basically ruled by a dictator....
So the two key US Agencies that handle the immigration process were kept out of the loop and basically ignored....
That my friends is not democracy it is a dictatorship at work....
Who could believe that a religious/cultural conflict with Islam is in the strategic interest of the West? Insane.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/01/28/will-we…
Actually Trump and Bannon both want a "clash of civilizations"...as both are white nationalists and Christian.....
Both have talked about it for the last 18 months..many just did not want to believe it possible...
Since Trump was a VN draft dodger four times he would not fully and completely understand the following......yet he claims his EO is not a Muslim ban but it hits mainly Muslim countries...but not a Muslim ban...at least he should be honest enough to admit it is a Muslim ban.....
QUOTE
odp @dyllyp
He was able to do so, bc the turnover rate for local nationals work with us was enormous. And not bc they quit, bc they were killed.
Besides the money, we were able to get them to volunteer with us by promising them refugee status in the U.S. if they completed a tour.
(But really, I think the chain of command knew that most interpreters wouldn't make it through their contracts alive.)
He told me how they did have the basic necessities most days and that him volunteering w/ us was one of their sole sources of income.
One day, I went down to the PX and bought him $20, maybe $30 worth of toiletries. Nbd really. Just didn't want dude to smell like shit.
When I presented it to him, he cried. Literally bawled his eyes out and said he give his life for me. OVER SOAP. Completely sobering.
He spent the next year acting as our liaison, providing us with valuable intel, essentially saving our lives on a daily basis. At 16.
At the end of my tour in Iraq, I knew I was leaving him to die. I knew I'd never see him again. Was just kinda like "take care kid."
Fast forward 5-years. And I'm flying home to Phoenix to bury my little brother who was brutally murdered. (Gun violence is another subj.)
Spend 6 years fighting wars and you don't expect to get a phone call that your kid brother was randomly murdered in a carjacking.
My first thought is I killed one of his family members and he recognizes me. And now im literally getting ready to bail out of the cab.
He stops, turns around and says, "Dylan, you remember me? It's me, Brahim." And I'm like wtffffff. And just start sobbing.
5 years after I left him in Iraq and a few days after my younger brother was violently murdered, the universe linked us up again.
Brahim literally saved my life, twice.
Side note....even I had a 17 year old Iraqi HS guy get beheaded as a warning to not work for Americans....
Trump needs to get into the "real world more often".....
ForMin @Linkevicius on a dialogue with Russia: it can only be meaningful if it is value-based and principled
http://www.baltictimes.com/lithuanian_finmin_says_dialog_with_russia_mu…
WHY is it that now in the midst of a Trump melt down in US FP based on his dog whistle called the Muslim ban.....we have Europeans instructing the US on "values"......supposedly those same values we have stated since 1945 that are important to the US....
Pardon my French but the cow dung is getting deep now...we have a President throwing around EOs as if he fully and completely understands them THEN he locks out hundreds of legal US residents who pay taxes and have businesses and or students and or were visiting family members as if they are dirt....and who have been living for years in the US.....
NOW we hear this.....
Senior Justice official tells @NBCNews that Dept had no input. not sure who in WH is writing/reviewing. standard NSC process not functioning
SO is now the Trump inner circle of white nationalists and white supremacists writing EOs without full knowledge of the existing US laws and regulations....
Trump's EO looks "tough" & he promised it, plus he doesn't care about anything but appearance. So here we are in the middle of a total PR chaos.
Trump repeatedly used the dog whistles of racism and hatred of anything other than being white and Christian.... and now it coming back to haunt the US....
Does he truly want a "clash of civilizations" because if he does in the end the US will lose....the US is not an island fortress....
George Orwell: "we have sunk to depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men"
How crazy is this now......requesting legal alien residents required to now reapply.....that turns the entire US immigration process on it's head and makes everything before Trump ILLEGAL.....
Is this the "new democracy"....that is now the US...no wonder the US was recently stated to be a "flawed democracy by the Economist....
Green card holders who've lived in this country legally for many years now have to "apply" to return home
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/green-card-donald-trump-travel-b…
Normally in a functioning democracy there is a warning period for such drastic changes in a legal system...but under a Trump fascist system anything goes....and the rule of law no longer applies....
MORE Trump lies......
H floating EO giving Pentagon 30 days to "outline a strategy for defeating ISIS." There never was a "secret plan"
http://www.thewrap.com/donald-trump-has-foolproof-plan-to-defeat-isis-b…
Putin & Trump talked about fighting terrorism. But Putin has never fought ISIS. Here's who he thinks terrorists are.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/29/the-remarkable-similarity-of-putin…
Haaretz.com
✔
@haaretzcom
Holocaust survivors respond to Trump’s refugee ban with outrage and empathy
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.767553
Confirms CIA information that the Russian hacking against the US elections was in fact true and Trump should pay very close attention as well......
Russia charges four top intelligence officials with treason -
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/01/28/Russia-charges-four-t…
This is the perfect example of how just poorly thought through this Trump...Bannon Muslim ban is...this German Parliament member is a dual Iranian German citizen as Germany allows dual citizenship as does the US....
He is the deputy chief of the German American Parliamentarian Council and YET he is not "secure" enough to be allowed into the US....
This EO also effects thousands of dual German citizens.....and this is from a President who is supposedly 100% behind NATO.....
It Trump keeps this up...will Trump be allowed to attend the G20 in Hamburg as he does not have an EU residence permit...........
Vize der deutsch-amerikanischen ParlamentariergruppeGrüner Abgeordneter darf nicht mehr in die USA reisen
Das von Donald Trump verhängte Einreiseverbot trifft auch Zehntausende Deutsche mit Doppelpass. Einer von ihnen ist der Grünen-Abgeordnete Omid Nouripour. Er ist Vizechef der deutsch-amerikanischen Parlamentariergruppe.
A foreign leader with morals.....
Justin Trudeau
✔
@JustinTrudeau
To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength.
Use to be the US strength.....
BUT..........
All Trump's done today apart from imperil rights of millions of permanent US residents is to embolden jihadists & Iran's hardliners.
A gift.
ACLU National
✔
@ACLU
Lawyers are stationed at airports across U.S. If you know someone entering country, tell them not to sign anything before talking to lawyer
BUT WAIT......Putin and his FM still view the anti Assad forces FSA as terrorists as they have been bombing them in lieu of bombing IS....DOES Trump even know this.....
Putin & #Trump spoke 'in favour of establishing genuine cooperation ..with the aim of crushing ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria'
"Partnership" mention in Trump-Putin readout not specific to Ukraine, but Mid East, etc. Rings of "grand bargain" we've be hearing about.
Putin-Trump Kremlin readout: "underlined importance of restoring mutually beneficial trade" = abolish sanctions soon
http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/53787
Russian source
Call ends w mutual love fest. Trump tells Putin Americans love Russians & Putin says RU's feel "analogously" & have supported US for 200 yrs
Kremlin: Putin and Trump emphasized joining forces to fight international terrorism is top priority.
The moment Putin has been waiting for.
NOW Putin is equal to Trump and the US...what he has wanted for years was simply handed to him without a single reciprocal move demanded of Putin by Trump...great businessman move....
AND Trump just sold out Ukraine for nothing as well...by overriding Minsk 2....
Kremlin says Trump and Putin agreed to have "regular, personal contact" and will order staffs to begin preparing for face-to-face meeting
- "Called for real coordination of US and Ru actions [...] in Syria"
- "Stressed the importance of restoring trade and economic ties"
Putin's summary of the call: "Agreed to coordinate on Syria; discussed Ukraine and reached conditional agreement; we will meet soon"
STRANGE......
STILL no readout from the US side....
Just keeps getting worse by the minute here in Europe....more comments coming in.....
From a well know European business journalist....have contacted a lot of globally operating companies and tech firms..they will now will consider moving to Canada and Europe with Green Card losing in attractiveness.
AND this is called US FP?????
U.S. companies scramble to cope with seven-country immigration ban
http://reut.rs/2kF6z9Y
So, according to the State Department, Iranian-Canadians, Iraqi-Canadians, Syrian-Canadians cannot travel to the US now even using strictly their Canadian passports...
European social media comment sums up Trump's Muslim ban EO...
The small-handed man,who never risked anything for the US,sits in the WH.
Heroes,who risked everything,are detained.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/refugees-detained-at-us-airports-… …
You gotta work hard to create a policy that harms both American interests and values, but Trump has pulled it off.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-to-lose-the-war-on-terror
How can Iranian moderates who favor a softer line with the US survive politically after this Muslim ban executive order? They will not as now the hardliners have their "enemy"....Trump hateage of Muslims...
Counterproductive is it not......
Is this actually what Trump and Bannon want...appears so does it not....
NEW: Officials confirm to @CNN Green Card holders from 7 countries impacted by EO will NOT be let back into the U.S.
This means Iraqis seeking to enter the U.S. on a British passport, for instance, will also be barred.
THINK about this....
Number of US citizens who traveled to Iraq, Syria to kill locals on behalf of ISIS: 250.
Syrians or Iraqis who carried out attacks in US: 0
Does it strike anyone as fishy that as soon as Trump's team is read into top intel, Russians uncover a spy in FSB?
https://nyti.ms/2jFTBIT
Strange coincidence??????
Hours after Trump signs Muslim ban, Texas mosque goes up in flames
https://thinkprogress.org/islamic-center-of-victoria-fire-8a683f632a7a#…
NOT a Muslim Ban..yes it was as it hit only Muslims the last time I checked....
The notion that Trump's immigration action is 'Muslim ban' is ludicrous: U.S. administration official.
http://reut.rs/2keFT3l
BUT WAIT...all Trump and Bannon talked about was banning Muslims and Muslim Registry....the entire campaign...
WHAT a serious political failure WHAT a walk back of the prestigious Trump EO signing.....
UPDATE: Green card holders from seven countries in Trump's ban have to be cleared in to U.S. on case-by-case basis - administration official
BUT WAIT.....Trump said it was all about stopping terrorists...did he not...now sounds like they are looking for some excuse to cover their actions when the sh....t hit the fan media wise...
Name of the Trump EO and it does point to stopping terrorists...not immigration abuses.....
“Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,”
There is serious concern about abuse of immigration programs by people not properly admissible - senior U.S. administration official
All immigrants are in fact vetted an number of times by the US Embassies where they apply...
Another Trump lie that he uses to support his idea of what "an alternative fact".....
Washington Post
✔
@washingtonpost
Trump says sanctuary cities are hotbeds of crime. Data say the opposite.
http://wapo.st/2jxDU9d
DATA is not a fact of truth for Trump and company....
Trump executive order prompts Google to recall staff fearing they may not be allowed back into the United States
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38781420
Many US MSM missed this Russian press conference held recently by Putin....
In this speech Putin admits they hacked the US elections, defends it on grounds of the content DNC emails had. https://twitter.com/Elshad_Babaev/status/825342239845056513 …
Maybe more MSM need to speak Russian...
The US MSM is simply to shut up and just repeat what Trump and Bannon say they should say????
THAT is what "freedom of speech and press".....
CNN's Jake Tapper gave a one-word response to a top Trump adviser's attack on journalists
Bryan Logan
27.01.2017, 01:13 624
CNN anchor Jake Tapper had a terse response to President Donald Trump's adviser Steve Bannon, who insisted in an interview with The New York Times that the news media should "keep its mouth shut" about the new president.
"No," Tapper said in the opening of his show, "The Lead," on Thursday.
Bannon, who ran the far-right website Breitbart News before joining Trump's presidential campaign last August, unloaded on journalists in his quotes to The Times, published Thursday, referring to journalists as the "opposition party."
Bannon's accusations echo Trump's own remarks about the press. During an address to the CIA on Saturday, the president said, "I have a running war with the media."
Tapper has been one of several news personalities challenging the president and his surrogates amid competing and sometimes contradictory narratives between the Trump administration and the reporters who cover it.
House GOP aide: "Fun fact: under Bush fewer refugees came in than the limit Trump just set. But hey it's Trump so let's lose our minds."
WHAT a total fool....Bush never forbid the entry of US Green Card holders...
Never did he do this...and this fool is providing cover for Trump.
House GOP aide: "Fun fact: under Bush fewer refugees came in than the limit Trump just set. But hey it's Trump so let's lose our minds."
BUT AGAIN...Bush did not forbid US Green Card holders....