Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump, POTUS, Trump, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. State Department

Moron Fires Rex Tillerson while in African Exile: Haley and Bolton Sharpen the Knives……

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I wrote the following post late last night, did not publish it. Too late now, but here goes anyway:

“Earlier today, Secretary Tillerson arrived in N’Djamena to meet with Chad’s President Idriss Déby and Foreign Minister @cherif_mz to discuss ways we can work together to counter terrorism, advance peace and security, and promote good governance. ………..” State Dept

“Secretary Tillerson honored those lives who were lost & injured in the 1998 terrorist bombing & emphasized the shared U.S.- commitment to working together to end terrorism at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Park in Nairobi. ….” State Dept

“Secretary Tillerson met with President in on March 9 to affirm the U.S. commitment to our broad partnership with the Government of Djibouti as it addresses regional political, development and security challenges…..” Heather Nauert

Rex Tillerson is in his African exile, with one or two sick days, reported.

Meanwhile back in the rest of the world and Washington DC, Tillerson’s rivals continue to sharpen the knives. Mainly his aspiring successor Nikki Haley (UN ambassador) and co-conspirator the aspiring warmonger and Vietnam draft-dodger John Bolton* are setting the stage for his departure within this year. Just give it a few more weeks or months to make the departure look respectable if hasty. Remember: it was Rex Tillerson who last year reportedly called President Trump a “f-cking moron“.

(*Bolton is reported to have supported the Vietnam War, but declined to enter combat duty, instead enlisting in the National Guard and attending law school after his 1970 graduation. “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy,”. How about Afghanistan or the Persian Gulf?).

Trump will have his new war cabinet now, ready for new wars, likely in the Middle East. But wars in Muslim lands have a way of traveling back to the West, to Europe and other places. Still, being fired by a moron is always preferable to being fired by an intelligent person

 

Cheers

M Haider Ghuloum

Bannon, Donald Trump, MAGA, Steve Bannon, USA, White House

Fire and Fury of Steve Bannon and Hope Hicks and the Trumps ……….

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I just finished reading the book Fire and Fury, about the dysfunction, internal squabbles, and mutual backstabbings of the first year of the Trump White House. The author is not exactly a Theodore White, but then these are not Teddy White days, and the book’s focus was on the post-election rather than the campaign.

It took me a few days because I usually read several books at the same time, a habit from undergraduate university days. Here is my brief take, succinctly put: 

Beyond all the headlines and the cacophony which focused on Donald Trump and his inadequacies and consequent insecurities. The picture drawn in the book, at least the picture I saw, was one of a bunch of  self-serving extremely disloyal players. Everyone of the White House staff seems to be in the game for themselves, everyone focuses on their own role and its continuation.

Nobody gave priority to “serving” Trump and what is good for his tenure. That includes his own immediate family who took offices in the West Wing. That includes his New York in-laws. Everyone seems to have forgotten political convictions and principles and what Trump promised the voters. One young lady who apparently had some ‘boy trouble’, Hope Hicks, was/is probably loyal to the Trumps.

But there was one more other significant exception: one person who did not seem, from the author’s depiction, to be looking after personal gain and the one who did not play the sycophant. Perhaps the most ideological, most zealous person among them all.

Oddly that is the one person whom much of the media focused on and incessantly reviled during his brief tenure in the West Wing: Steve Bannon.

(P.S.: funniest thing in the book? Was the part about NSC candidate General H R McMaster showing up in a large suit and Trump thinking he looked like a ‘beer salesman‘)

Cheers

M H Ghuloum

Donald Trump, Elections, Fake News, History, POTUS, Trump, U.S. Politics

D-Day At Camp David: a Stable Genius, a Gaggle of the Worst, a Suicidal Teddy Roosevelt…….

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Donald Trump made another of his usual daily headlines this weekend. The headlines read: Trump, Defending His Sanity, Says He’s a ‘Very Stable Genius’.

A president of the United States needing to assert that he is “a very stable” genius. Meaning: he is not as unstable nor as stupid as the rest of the world believes him to be…..
He might be a genius in his own right. After all, as a newcomer he did defeat that other Democratic female genius, the former wonder woman of politics. What is at issue is the term “stable”.

Richard Nixon once famously declared to a Sam Donaldson question: “I am Not a Crook“, months before he was forced to resign.

Even Warren G. Harding, wherever he is now, is probably shocked at all this.

Abe Lincoln can’t believe how such a gaggle of aspiring Social Darwinist jungle-dweller quasi-Nazis have taken over “his” party. How the worst and least bright have floated to the top of “his” party in recent years, just in time to manipulate their new extremely insecure leader.

The no-nonsense Teddy Roosevelt, rightly known as a true patriot, would look at all this going on with “his” party, and very likely end up having his name headlined in a murder-suicide crime case. Dying twice is the same as dying once, he would argue.

Dwight Eisenhower? Ike would start planning a new D-Day for this weekend. Target? Camp David (as he named the presidential retreat), the new Normandie (or Normandy, if you prefer)…..

Stay tuned: unfortunately there’s more. The fun has just begun, I’m afraid…..

Cheers
M. Haider Ghuloum

Arab League, Donald Trump, Israel, JCPOA, MENA, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

After JCPOA and UNESCO: Will the USA and Israel Join the Arab League?…….

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President Donald Trump has taken the USA out of a whole bunch of international institutions, agreements, and deals. From the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) to the Paris Climate Accord, to the United Nation’s UNESCO organization (Mr. Trump and Israel both withdrew this week).

He is on the verge of breaking and violating the JCPOA (the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran). He is also threatening the NAFTA deal with Canada and Mexico. Early in his term he threatened US ties with NATO, the bedrock of the Western Alliance since after the last world war.

For most of the rest of the world Mr. Trump is not the usual credible American president. He has very little credibility. He is not liked (to put it politely) anywhere in the world, with the exception of Israel and some Arab royal palaces (and maybe in Manila). Predictably Netanyahu made a short speech welcoming Trump’s non-withdrawal from JCPOA, while the controlled Saudi media cheered on.

So here is a suggestion: why not declare the United States, and Israel, as members of the Arab League. They can start as observer-members. It is all an incredible fantastic circus anyway……….

Cheers
M Haider Ghuloum

Donald Trump, Fake News, JCPOA, MAGA, North Korea, POTUS, Trump, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Policy as a Game of Egos: Trump Promises to Unleash a Storm Somewhere……..

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“While taking photos alongside military leaders and their spouses before a Thursday night dinner at the White House, President Donald Trump cryptically stated reporters were seeing “the calm before the storm.”

Who could president Trump mean by this threat? Who is he warning? And what calm is he talking about in this tumultuous year of 2017?
Could he mean the dictator he calls Little Rocket Man, the belligerent pudgy Cute Leader Kim Jong Un of North Korea?
Could he (egged on by the Israeli right-wing and well-paying Saudi princes) mean his main anti-ISIS allies the mullahs of Iran?
Could he be preparing America and the world for yet another endless Muslim war of choice, based on fake analysis and manufactured evidence?


Could he mean Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, for allegedly calling him a F—ing Moron and then refusing to publicly deny saying it when given the chance?
Could he mean Secretary of Defense General Mad Dog Mattis for dismissing his threats to “pull out” of the international Iran Nuclear Deal?
Could he mean Carmen Yulin Cruz the mayor of San Juan (Puerto Rico)?
Could he mean the kneeling NFL players whom he called “sons of bitches” last week?
Could he mean the newest Caribbean storm Nate now moving toward the Gulf coast?


Or could this be just another transparent Art of the Deal bluff? Is he just bluffing in general, hoping one or two targets will bite? But this is not a game of egos. His credibility and that of the country are on the line: this big boy has cried wolf too many times this year……

Cheers

M. Haider Ghuloum

 

Donald Trump, Moron, Trump, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Politics, U.S. State Department

From the Age of Aquarius to the Stormy Age of Morons: Tillerson’s Parting Shot………

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The 1960’s were occasionally dubbed the Age of Aquarius, and not just by The 5th Dimension in 1969. It reflected the atmosphere, culture, and flavor of a particular era. The brief Age of Aquarius immediately followed the brief Age of Camelot in Washington.

Then immediately at the tail end of that started the Age of Nixon, a brooding era of expanding unwinnable wars in Southeast Asia. An era of political malfeasance, when first the Vice President, then the President were forced to resign from office, for unrelated reasons.

But the American center held throughout the following eras, through Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama. As the USA and the World moved away from the Age of Aquarius.

The 2016 US elections ushered in an unusual new era. I have been thinking of an appropriate name for it. The “Trump Era” seems too tame and banal for this wild ride of the past nine months.
Enter Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who took a parting shot at Donald Trump as he is preparing to depart this dysfunctional administration.

Moron, actually a “F—ig Moron” is what he reportedly called the president to a reporter. Trump has publicly denied that Tillerson called him a “F—ing Moron”.  Tillerson, when given a chance to deny, has publicly refused to deny that he called Trump a “F—ing Moron”.

So, that parting Parthian shot by Rex Tillerson will likely define this era. Rex succinctly but perhaps unintentionally, defined this Trump age as a “F—ing Moron” age. It may go down in history as such……

Cheers

M. Haider Ghuloum

 

 

Donald Trump, Fake News, North Korea, POTUS, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Politics

Presidential Name-Calling: Sticks and Stones from Washington to Pyongyang…..

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“Sticks and Stones may break my bones
But words will never hurt me…”      Untrue children’s rhyme


Epithets and insults have been memorable these past two years. From the US presidential campaign to the post-election rallies to the UN General Assembly speeches. Almost all of them dished out by Donald Trump:
– Look at That Face (Trump mocking Carly Fiorina)!
– Little Rubio (Trumo mocking Marco, who famously   confided to the media that Trump has a small, er, hand)!
– Lying Ted (Trump describing Sentor Ted Cruz)!
– Low Energy (Trump about Jeb Bush? Ben Carson)!
– Crooked Hillary (Trump for Clinton)!
– Rocket Man (Trump about Kim Jong Un)!

Now the Iranians have picked up the term “rogue”, a favorite epithet used by US politicians against other nations. Trump and Rouhani traded “rogue” name-calling at the UN General Assembly this week.

But the top prize, the Oscar, the Nobel of epithets goes to an alleged North Korean Twitter source: “Impotent threats by international shouting magnate Donald Trump are dismissed, as the twitchings of a Dog licking its flea-riddled scrotum.”

That trumped Trump, and probably stumped him as well.

Cheers
M Haider Ghuloum

Arabian Peninsula, Donald Trump, Humor, Islamophobia, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Sorcery, US Foreign Policy

Which Saudi King will Visit Donald Trump? What about Sisi, the Big Magical Globe, and Male Exotic Dancers…….

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“Saudi Arabia’s king will visit Washington in early 2018, according to a White House readout on the monarch’s latest call with Donald Trump.The three-sentence statement did not elaborate on the substance of the US president’s conversation with King Salman bin Abdulaziz, other than to note the two leaders discussed “ways to continue advancing shared priorities, including enhancing security and prosperity in the Middle East”. However, it did state that the Saudi monarch had agreed to visit the White House “in early 2018″…….”

My very own global correspondent has added: Saudi King Salman will visit Trump early next year, if he is still king of Saudi Arabia. Otherwise the new king, so far slated to be his favorite son Mohammed Bin Salman (affectionately called MBS in the palace), will do the visit. The timing of the Washington pilgrimage/Hajj in that case will depend on if and when the new king replaces his father on the throne.
It almost like a race: whether the royal visit precedes or follows the new king taking the throne. Some Saudi exiles who claim to know are betting that King Salman will not be king for long: some give him weeks, others give him only a few days from now.

My global correspondent also is not certain if the Saudi King will try to create a certain magic of the Riyadh Summit last May. That would require that he bring along a certain magical white ball (globe), and perhaps Generalissimo Sisi of Egypt as well, as per this following photo and my appropriate comments at the time—>

 

No, not this one below, this was just an irreverent Scandinavian mockery of some serious global Arabian/American magic of the May summit—>

It is also not clear whether the king will ask for a complete recreation of the magic of the Riyadh Summit in May. Complete with the Guru Stephen Bannon, Herr Doctor Sebastian Gorka (PhD), the all-male Arabian exotic sword dancers, and the other more fetching accoutrements.


Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

9/11, Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Muslim Wars, Taliban, US Foreign Policy

Donald Trump’s Mission Accomplished in Afghanistan: Defying History, Bluffing the Taliban……..

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President Trump was quoted after his Afghanistan speech as stressing that “in the end, we will win in Afghanistan“.
He is going for a victory in a region where no foreign power achieved lasting victory in some 200 years. He is imitating the famous George W. Bush claim of “Mission Accomplished (in Iraq)’. Only Trump is doing it backwards: he is already predicting that he will accomplish the mission, whatever the mission is. Most likely the best mission at this stage is to get out.

Mr. Trump left the details of his Afghan plan vague, meaning there is no real Afghan plan. He is trying to bluff the Taliban, just as he tried to bluff the North Korean regime and Iran and failed. War is not a real estate deal in Manhattan, war doesn’t lend itself to bluffing.

The real Trump plan is most likely based on a desire to avoid being called “the loser of Afghanistan” before the 2020 elections. So he will dabble in the Afghan war for a couple of years, bide his time, shoring up the hopelessly corrupt regime in Kabul. just as Nixon shored up a corrupt regime in Saigon for a few years and ended up losing all of Indo-China.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Donald Trump, Elections, Fake News, Trump, U.S. Politics, U.S. Senate, US Congress, USA

History: On Voter Fraud, Mike Pence, and a Roman Horse Named Incitatus……

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US Vice President Mike Pence will spend about three hours today with a shadowy group of conspiracy-theory people appointed by Trump ‘to prove’ that he actually won the popular vote . They are assigned to investigate “Voter Fraud”.
FYI: Mike Pence, like a good poodle puppy, calls President Trump “a Great Leader” or a “Great President” almost every other day of the week.

Historians tell us that the insane Roman emperor Gaius Caligula appointed his favorite horse Incitatus to the Senate (Roman Senate not US Senate). Incitatus was not from Kentucky, and he was one senator who was NOT afraid of Caligula.
I thought you might want to know….

Imperial WWE: Emperor Caligula and his GOP Roman Senators and Their Wives……

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum