The Trump foreign policy thread

[GreenGoo]

Before this the American ambassador to the UN threatened that she was taking names (presumably for THE LIST) when several allies indicated they were going to vote against the US.

If you watch the actual footage, it's laughable. Like a child threatening to not be your friend any more.

[Defiant]

Haley throws a party for the 65 countries that didn't support the resolution.

[Zarathud]

Haley: Yes, Trump's America is bribing you. And we won't hide that anymore.

It's like something out of an Austin Powers movie.

[YellowKing]

Wow, that showed 'em. Those countries missed out on bacon wrapped shrimp and free Diet Cokes. I bet they were PISSED!

[Pyperkub]

Called on the BS,and it doesn't go well

[Kraken]

Called on the BS,and it doesn't go well

"Though Hoekstra was born in the Netherlands, his family emigrated to Michigan when we was a toddler. He served as a Republican congressman for a decade and a half, eventually chairing the House Intelligence Committee."

The Grand Rapids that I grew up in was ruled by dour, conservative, fundamentalist Republican Hollanders. When I eventually visited the Netherlands I was blown away to find that they're the opposite of Grand Rapids Dutchmen. All the intolerant people must have emigrated to get away from the libtards.

The story doesn't say if Hoekstra is from GR, but I'll betcha he is.

[Isgrimnur]

New Netherland Institute

The family settled in western Michigan, in an area that is a Dutch American stronghold.
...
In 1992 he got that political itch again and decided to run for a seat in the House of Representatives in the Second Federal District in western Michigan, a congressional district that has the largest concentration of Dutch Americans in the nation.

Notice that little appendage in the Southeast sector? That weird cutout there? It's Grand Rapids.

[Daehawk]

The video...funny he gets caught in a lie then instantly re lies saying he never said the lie.

[GreenGoo]

New UN sanctions on NK pass unanimously.

Can we assume there will be a party for everyone who backed the US on this one?

[Max Peck]

New UN sanctions on NK pass unanimously.

Can we assume there will be a party for everyone who backed the US on this one?

There is no point in a party if there is no one to exclude from it.

[Defiant]

Guatemala to move embassy to Jerusalem

[Kraken]

Good overview of America's declining foreign influence from the LA Times. As usual, the people who need to read this won't, and those who do read it already agreed.

China has now assumed the mantle of fighting climate change, a global crusade that the United States once led. Russia has taken over Syrian peace talks, also once the purview of the American administration, whose officials Moscow recently deigned to invite to negotiations only as observers.

France and Germany are often now the countries that fellow members of NATO look to, after President Trump wavered on how supportive his administration would be toward the North Atlantic alliance.

And in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.S., once the only mediator all sides would accept, has found itself isolated after Trump’s decision to declare that the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In his wide-ranging speech on national security last week, Trump highlighted what he called the broadening of U.S. influence throughout the world.

But one year into his presidency, many international leaders, diplomats and foreign policy experts argue that he has reduced U.S. influence or altered it in ways that are less constructive. On a range of policy issues, Trump has taken positions that disqualified the United States from the debate or rendered it irrelevant, these critics say.

Even in countries that have earned Trump’s praise, such as India, there is concern about Trump’s unpredictability — will he be a reliable partner? — and what many overseas view as his isolationism.

[GreenGoo]

US has decided to reduce their UN contribution by $285 million. I believe this was a negotiated amount rather than a unilateral withdrawal.

Guardian article

It's starting to look like the Jerusalem move was just a pretense for fake outrage and an excuse to pull funding while convincing Drumpf's base it's the UN's fault.

Shrug.

[Holman]

"Sticking it to the libruls by creating a global power vacuum in dangerous times! MAGA!"

[malchior]

Politico explains how people in power outside the country see a wackadoodle in charge of US foreign policy.

[Carpet_pissr]

Politico explains how people in power outside the country see a wackadoodle in charge of US foreign policy.

Yeah, Putin's likely a certifiable sociopath.

[malchior]

Maybe this will work. More likely Pakistan will soon be a Chinese or Russian client state. Either way this might look like a relatively severe over reaction to many outside our borders. Winning!

[hepcat]

Guatemala to move embassy to Jerusalem

I'm guessing there will be a wall between the US embassy and the Guatemalan's building.

[Pyperkub]

Maybe this will work. More likely Pakistan will soon be a Chinese or Russian client state. Either way this might look like a relatively severe over reaction to many outside our borders. Winning!

Word is that it was a Pakistani who helped NK. However, this smacks of Trump's id picking another fight with a nuclear power.

[Defiant]

President Donald Trump's secretaries of state and defense are trying to persuade him not to strike North Korea, while his national security adviser is pushing for a "bloody nose" attack, according to recent reports in The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tillerso ... ike-2018-1

[Enough]

President Donald Trump's secretaries of state and defense are trying to persuade him not to strike North Korea, while his national security adviser is pushing for a "bloody nose" attack, according to recent reports in The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tillerso ... ike-2018-1

Yep, this is the really terrifying thing about a Donald presidency. All the rest of it is nightmare fuel as well of course, but that anyone thought it was a good idea to give a petulant child the nuclear football is beyond comprehensible.

[Kraken]

President Donald Trump's secretaries of state and defense are trying to persuade him not to strike North Korea, while his national security adviser is pushing for a "bloody nose" attack, according to recent reports in The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tillerso ... ike-2018-1

Yep, this is the really terrifying thing about a Donald presidency. All the rest of it is nightmare fuel as well of course, but that anyone thought it was a good idea to give a petulant child the nuclear football is beyond comprehensible.

Worse: His actions are poll-driven. If attacking NK would raise his approval rating, then by golly that's what we're going to do.

[Defiant]

Worse: His actions are poll-driven. If attacking NK would raise his approval rating, then by golly that's what we're going to do.

I wish they were poll driven - most people don't approve of nuclear war. Or Neo-Nazis. Or...

[YellowKing]

My fear is that Trump will use a NK strike as a distraction from the Mueller investigation. When Mueller drops the bombshell, Trump drops the bombs.

[RunningMn9]

My fear is that Trump will use a NK strike as a distraction from the Mueller investigation. When Mueller drops the bombshell, Trump drops the bombs.

I don't think that I'm afraid of Trump issuing a NK strike. I think that the intent was to appear crazy enough to do it, and to see if that would impact NK. And on that it appears to have caused NK to try to appear like they are willing to avoid any sort of military strike. Or at least that's what NPR told me this morning.

Edit to add: I don't think that the change by NK is related to Trump's stupidity. I think it's related to McMaster appearing insane enough to advocate a military strike.

[Chaz]

Worse: His actions are poll-driven. If attacking NK would raise his approval rating, then by golly that's what we're going to do.

I wish they were poll driven - most people don't approve of nuclear war. Or Neo-Nazis. Or...

Ah, but you're looking at polls of everyone. He only cares about polls of people who voted for him, and they're a lot more bullish on those things. Maybe he'll start caring about those other people once they vote for him.

[Defiant]

Missed this tweet earlier, but:

"We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table"

Despite that I think the Palestinians have a much weaker claim to Jerusalem, I'm going to call out Trump for this. Trump had, in his original speech, made clear that he wasn't taking a position on final status issue, but his statement here contradicts that .

Of course, other countries have done that as well, such as those leaders that said that Jerusalem should be the capital of both states or that the borders should be based on the '67 lines.

[RunningMn9]

his statement here contradicts that .

He doesn't make statements. When he feels that he's not being respected, he vomits words. They don't mean anything.

[GreenGoo]

He doesn't make statements. When he feels that he's not being respected, he vomits words. They don't mean anything.

It's hilarious to watch people treat him seriously when he's talking about something they care about. His reasoning for doing anything is the adulation he thinks it will bring him. When he doesn't get it (or he thinks he deserves more) he responds like the petulant child he is.

The dysfunction within his family must be insane.

[Freyland]

Word-vomiting, Exhibit A: "...but also many other countries, and others."

I don't use Twitter, but I assume it gives you the chance to look at your text and realize you repeated yourself in the same sentence with the same words, before you post?

[GreenGoo]

Do you ever sleep?

[LawBeefaroni]

We don't pay Palestinians (or Pakistan) all that money to pay their people to like us. I know that's all Trump cares about, being liked and bowed down to, but the reality is that we send them money as part of the delicate dance of international diplomacy. A dance Trump performs like a drunken elephant on marbles with a spear through his scrotum. No doubt he doesn't understand why we send money.

[Carpet_pissr]

He doesn't make statements. When he feels that he's not being respected, he vomits words. They don't mean anything.

It's hilarious to watch people treat him seriously when he's talking about something they care about.

Yeah, I've been there for a while, wondering at this phenomenon as well. I get that the Fox News' of the world do this, to imply some level of respectability and normalcy with this clown, but ANY other news agency that treats him like any previous president, has lost a lot of respect from me. NPR for one. I know they are trying overly hard to show objectivity, but it's too much, IMO. Well past time to actually call out his bullshit for what it is, and stop reporting on his tweets an insane comments as if Obama, Bush or Clinton had said them.

He is not "normal", he is not even coherent most of the time...I resent them trying to desperately fit him into that model for....reasons? Just tell it like it is, please.

I think you can report on his idiotic statements and behaviors while being neutral/objective.

"In a stunning show of ignorance about the subject, the President tweeted..."
"Breaking precedent with all office holders before him, President Trump..."
"Making comments that have several experts questioning his intelligence level, and even literacy..."

[Freyland]

Do you ever sleep?

Lol, not really. Literally not at all the night before last, between PUBG* and getting called in. And yet, I still can type in full sentences!



*miss having you in-game, hope issues get resolved soon!

[Isgrimnur]

Congratulations to Norway, the proud new owners of our F-52s.

[GreenGoo]

For just about any other politician with little experience I would give that a pass, or at least not care, but when added to the sheer fuckwittery of the last year, it's just another item on a long list of failures.

edit: Actually, what I meant to say was #FakeNews!, Drumpf has access to all the secrets files, the best secrets files believe me, so he knows about things the Fake Media doesn't know. Who are they to question whether the US is selling F-52's to Norweigia? Drumpf IS the government. He would know.

[Zarathud]

Do you ever sleep?

Lol, not really. Literally not at all the night before last, between PUBG* and getting called in. And yet, I still can type in full sentences!

Sleep is for puppies.*

* and those who have no children with medical issues.

[Isgrimnur]

Business Insider

US intelligence officials apparently once warned Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, that one of his close friends could be a Chinese agent.

The friend, Wendi Deng Murdoch, a Chinese-American who kept her surname after being married to the media mogul Rupert Murdoch for 14 years, is a prominent businesswoman.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Kushner was warned early last year that Murdoch could be using her friendship with him and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to "further the interests of the Chinese government."

Murdoch, The Journal said, was previously believed to have lobbied for a planned $100 million Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC. The project, according to The Journal, was eventually blocked because officials feared a planned 70-foot tower could be used for surveillance.
...
A representative for Kushner said the couple had "been friends with Rupert and Wendi Murdoch for a decade before coming to Washington and their relationship is neither political nor about China."

But Michael Wolff, the author of an explosive and sometimes questionable tell-all about Donald Trump's presidential campaign and early presidency tweeted a different response to the story.

"Since their divorce, Murdoch has been telling anybody who would listen that Wendi is a Chinese spy--and had been throughout the marriage," Wolff wrote.

A spokesman for Murdoch told The Journal that she "has no knowledge of any FBI concerns or other intelligence agency concerns relating to her or her associations."

[Kraken]

Putin's not going to like that.

[Holman]

Putin's not going to like that.

Oh, I think he likes it.

Deng has been romantically linked to Tony Blair as well.