Donald the Menace - by Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman FEB. 3, 2017
For the past couple of months, thoughtful people have been quietly worrying that the Trump administration might get us into a foreign policy crisis, maybe even a war.
Partly this worry reflected Donald Trumps addiction to bombast and swagger, which plays fine in Breitbart and on Fox News but doesnt go down well with foreign governments. But it also reflected a cold view of the incentives the new administration would face: as working-class voters began to realize that candidate Trumps promises about jobs and health care were insincere, foreign distractions would look increasingly attractive.
The most likely flash point seemed to be China, the subject of much Trumpist tough talk, where disputes over islands in the South China Sea could easily turn into shooting incidents.
But the war with China will, it seems, have to wait. First comes Australia. And Mexico. And Iran. And the European Union. (But never Russia.) And while there may be an element of cynical calculation in some of the administrations crisismongering, this is looking less and less like a political strategy and more and more like a psychological syndrome.
The Australian confrontation has gotten the most press, probably because its so weirdly gratuitous. Australia is, after all, arguably Americas most faithful friend in the whole world, a nation that has fought by our side again and again. We will, of course, have disputes, as any two nations will, but nothing that should disturb the strength of our alliance especially because Australia is one of the countries we will need to rely on if there is a confrontation with China.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/opinion/donald-the-menace.html?emc=edit_th_20170203&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)Krugman sees it like me.
Get the orange idiot out of there!
dalton99a
(81,465 posts)They need wars and crises
MBS
(9,688 posts). . . . this administration doesnt seem prepared on any front. Mr. Trumps confrontational phone calls, in particular, dont sound like the working out of an economic or even political strategy cunning schemers dont waste time boasting about their election victories and whining about media reports on crowd sizes. No, what were hearing sounds like a man who is out of his depth and out of control, who cant even pretend to master his feelings of personal insecurity. His first two weeks in office have been utter chaos, and things just keep getting worse perhaps because he responds to each debacle with a desperate attempt to change the subject that only leads to a fresh debacle.
America and the world cant take much more of this. Think about it: If you had an employee behaving this way, youd immediately remove him from any position of responsibility and strongly suggest that he seek counseling. And this guy is commander in chief of the worlds most powerful military.
Thanks, Comey.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)and it was found out that Trump had lied on his resume about having his MBA, he would have been canned on the spot. But, nowadays, with more extensive background checks, he never would have been hired in the first place because they would have found that out ahead of time.
ginnyinWI
(17,276 posts)"America and the world cant take much more of this. Think about it: If you had an employee behaving this way, youd immediately remove him from any position of responsibility and strongly suggest that he seek counseling. And this guy is commander in chief of the worlds most powerful military.
Thanks, Comey."
dchill
(38,474 posts)K&R.
TrollBuster9090
(5,954 posts)Bill USA
(6,436 posts)America and the world cant take much more of this. Think about it: If you had an employee behaving this way, youd immediately remove him from any position of responsibility and strongly suggest that he seek counseling. And this guy is commander in chief of the worlds most powerful military.
Thanks, Comey.
Beartracks
(12,809 posts)Well, Trump DOES work for us, technically. Voters are the board of directors: we hired him, now let's fire him.
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