If you’re worried about our inexperienced President actually causing World War III, I wish I could tell you not to worry, but the truth is I’m not an expert in world politics, or military strategy. It would be irresponsible of me to tell you not to worry, although I can express an opinion that this may be one of those frightening situations where cooler heads must, in the end, prevail. Why? True it’s mostly wishful thinking, but it’s worth a look at Trump’s history of opinions on U.S. military actions to see a pattern, or lack thereof that ought to make even the Republicans who continually protect him take a closer look in the mirror and decide if it’s really worth it. Is it really worth looking the other way and pretending there’s nothing wrong here when the consequences are so great that even their families are threatened? And the real question: Is Donald Trump in any way justified to make this major decision for the rest of the World?
An argument can be made for Trump having some degree of military expertise. In his book The Art of the Deal, he claims to have punched his music teacher in the face in 2nd Grade, although there’s no support for that claim. Still, Trump was enough of a troublemaker to be sent off to military school in 1959, what would have been 8th Grade for him. Interestingly enough, reports are that Trump thrived under strict discipline, enjoying a well-defined set of rules as an easily definable way to work his way to the top. That said, there was some controversy as to whether Trump was promoted at a rate far less than most students, and whether he was switched out of a Captain’s Post for allowing hazing under his command. According to Trump, it was a promotion, but not everyone from the time seems to agree. Then again, Trump has said that “I always felt I was in the military” claiming he’s had more military training than a lot of guys who go into the military. This is an interesting perspective coming from someone who actively avoided serving in the Viet Nam War, settling on Heel Spurs in both feet as his ultimate reason. It should be mentioned that Trump has never had any noticeable signs of pain while walking in the 40 years since.
If Trump’s stay at New York Military Academy could be sited as the start of a potential military career, the evidence stops there. After Military Academy, Trump attended Fordham University with apparently an interest in Film, as well as for moving on. After two years, he left, transferring over to The Wharton School of Business. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that the admissions officer was a good friend of Donald’s brother Freddie. Trump and his supporters like to brag that Trump went to an Ivy League school, and technically, he did, for two years, never being on the Dean’s List, and observed by classmates that he did not “seem to care about being prepared.” So while Trump Loyalists were quick to point out that Trump went to an Ivy League school, the greater context is that he transferred in two years deep, likely with help from family, and performed at best, average. Most importantly for our purposes, in neither school did he show interest in anything remotely related to the Military. Not political science, not even sports, although he was reportedly a good first baseman back in his days at the Military Academy. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics which was almost unnecessary given that he had a job waiting for him in his Father’s business as soon as he graduated. In sort of a reverse Back to School, Trump was soon about to learn the real ins-and-outs of business as opposed to the theoretical aspects of the subject as taught in academia.
Trump’s life post-school need not be examined too thoroughly; it’s well documented. Real Estate developer, landlord, Golf Club owner, Casino owner, spokesman for various Trump branded businesses, Beauty Contest Producer, Reality Show Host… Trump’s ability to brand himself as somehow synonymous with money (despite being in default of debts so often he can’t obtain loans in America anymore) kept him well-known, yet still under the radar, a status he may be wishing he maintained right about now. Again, there’s the theme, or lack thereof, of anything military-related. Hell, if Trump owned a sports team he might at least gain some knowledge about strategy through osmosis. Which is why it was so confusing when Trump claimed, on multiple occasions, that he knew “more than the generals do” about ISIS, adding “believe me” with all the vigor of a used car salesman. Where did all this knowledge come from? He never said. Surely he couldn’t be referring to his 5 years in military school when he was a teenager in the 60’s? Some speculate he may have been briefed by his Russian buddies with just enough knowledge to be dangerous. But Trump’s biggest talking points were always vague. He had a plan to defeat ISIS he said, but he wasn’t going to tell anybody what it was, after all, why would you tell the enemy what you’re going to do? While there’s a logic to that of some sort, it’s certainly convenient that the man who would take photo ops of himself kissing the flag didn’t quite love the country enough to offer his brilliant plan to end terrorism for free. We had to vote him in first, then we’d get the genius plan that would defeat ISIS so fast our heads would spin. So far, I’ve been on roller coasters that have left me more light-headed.
To be fair, Trump went into the Presidential race with at least some surprisingly effective strategies. Before running as a Republican, Trump was far more aligned with Democratic policies, telling Wolf Blitzer he identified as a Democrat more than a Republican and giving Democrats credit for seeming to have a better effect on the economy. In 1999, on Meet the Press, he stated unequivocally that he was pro-choice. How did he wind up running as a Republican? Some would say the Democrats would never have him, others swear he’s quoted as saying he would run as a Republican simply because republican voters are dumb and would believe anything. That quote hasn’t been found anywhere and has been officially debunked, but if it’s not surprising to hear, it may be because Trump seems to have acted on that very principal. As we’re discovering now, Trump was willing to say whatever sounded good at the time, whatever he thought would get a reaction from his base, and has since disregarded it, or somehow explained away why he has been unable, or even unwilling to accomplish most if not all of his campaign promises. Trump played the game of politics well, when it was just a game called “win the election”. He started off with his Wall concept, clearly playing on the strong immigration policies which had already been a hallmark of Republicans, despite the fact that he used illegal workers to build his buildings, and outsourced work on many of his products to other countries such as China. He criticized Obama for his “terrible” deal with Iran, a deal most experts praised. It was once he was sure he had Republicans in his pocket that he pulled the one move that he could that none of his 16 opponents in the Primaries could: He trashed the Iraq War. Republicans had long-since chosen Party over Country by sticking firmly behind Bush’s decision to attack Iraq for supposedly harboring weapons of mass destruction. Whether the real reason was to finish something his father had started, to distract the American People from the fact that we had not yet caught the perpetrators of 9/11, or simply to line the coffers of Dick Cheney’s “former” company Halliburton with lucrative contracts, it seems safe to say (now) that the Iraq War was a manipulation by the last Republican White House which didn’t actually receive the popular vote. Of course, Republicans had to defend the leader of their Party for eight years, and couldn’t bail immediately on it in the 2008 elections, which helped to bury John McCain. Even by 2012, Republicans couldn’t trash the wars we were still in because, it was still their fault, so the only route was to praise the troops and remind the American People how necessary these operations were. Donald Trump was barely a Republican however, and had the freedom to trash the war without coming off as completely hypocritical. This stance allowed him to obliterate Jeb Bush, at one point considered the likely nominee, and it made things awkward for a lot of long-term Republicans who had been trained for the last ten years+ to treat the war as a good thing, or at least a necessary evil. In a fractured Republican Party, Trump was now the anti-Republican’s Republican, rarely out of first place in the polls, as he would happily announce to anyone who’d listen. But becoming first the Presumptive, and then the official nominee meant Trump had to be taken seriously on a much larger scale. He had to be able to answer questions like “when did you become so against the Iraq War?” “Why, from the beginning,” he said, also claiming he had correctly predicted the war would destabilize the region. Democrats didn’t quite buy it as easily. They pointed to an old Howard Stern interview where Stern asked Trump directly if he was in favor of the war. “I don’t know, I guess” was the lackluster reply. Admittedly, this was perhaps a tough example for Liberals to completely hang their hat on. On the other hand, it certainly was no example that Trump was against the war from the start, or that he had the end results all figured out.
Trump was inconsistent on Libya as well, claiming during the election that the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi was a mistake. In 2011, Trump stated the opposite on his own video blog, at one point criticizing the U.S. for not going in. However, Trump pulled another clever move by framing Hillary Clinton as the Hawk in this equation. Let’s face it, Republicans, certainly for the last 30 years, like to play soldier. The last two Bushes gave us wars in the Middle East; the GOP has a history of raising budgets for the military as they cut social programs. Since 9/11 the GOP has been stoking the fears of anything Middle Eastern. During the Primaries, every candidate, including Trump, was all about ending ISIS, trashing the Obama Administration’s handling of anything off American soil while conveniently forgetting he authorized a number of drone strikes that took out numerous key terrorist targets. In a fantasy election that apparently had a lot of people fooled, Hillary Clinton was the war monger who would take us into World War III, and Trump preferred peace, or at least didn’t feel it was America’s job to get involved in the problems of other countries. According to some Trump defenders, Trump’s soft stance on Russia was a great thing. Trump could forge stronger alliances with Russia, and China. Of course, these people were conveniently forgetting just how much Trump shit on China, blaming them for everything from currency manipulation to creating the “hoax” of Climate Change (nope, not making that up). Despite one of Clinton’s main talking points being “we don’t want Donald Trump to have the nuclear codes”, enough people didn’t seem to see that as such a bad thing and well, here we are.
Where is that exactly? Since Trump has officially taken office it’s become clear that he simply did not know much about the job he worked so hard to steal get. He’s had executive orders overturned for being unconstitutional, his attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare was a disaster. “Who knew Health Care could be so complicated” he said. Every other candidate that was running! And if you think that’s hard… The truth is we had advance warning. Joe Scarborough, a former Republican senator, broke the story on August 3, 2016 that Trump had a meeting with a foreign policy expert, where he interrupted three times asking about nuclear weapons: “if we have them why don’t we use them?” Apparently, not enough people were paying attention if they’re surprised by Trump’s recent switch to a more “hawkish” outlook. It is the act of a man desperately trying to prove he can accomplish something, anything. It’s also the sign of someone trying to distance themselves from the Russians, and failing miserably. When Trump sent 59 missiles Syria’s way, it was supposed to make us question how he could possibly be in bed with Russia if he’s attacking one of their allies? Of course, the White House warned the Russians of the attack hours before it occurred to avoid any danger of damage to any Russian assets. As it turned out, there was very little damage to Syrian assets either. The airfield that was attacked was up and running the next day. Russia and The White House posed as if there was tension between them, but that has since vanished in lieu of Trump’s latest target, North Korea.
It’s almost amusing, these two infantile egomaniacs with bad hair and all-too-easily bruised egos standing off against each other, both refusing to blink. Apparently, the true test of toughness and virility is a willingness to destroy everything on either side. If only it weren’t so real. But how real is it? I don’t really subscribe to conspiracy theories, but if this counts as one, consider me on board: Whenever there seems to be someone in complete power, it turns out that there’s a secret cabal of people actually pulling the strings. Trump was being accused of being Putin’s puppet by Hillary Clinton in the third debate, where his genius response was “No, you’re the puppet.” Since becoming President, names like Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, and even Ivanka have been bandied about as the true decision-makers. None of this may be true, but the bottom line is, there are checks and balances in place that should, theoretically, keep Trump from just bombing the shit out of whoever pisses him off. If that’s not true, then Los Angeles and New York are in a bit of a pickle. But Republicans have families too, and perhaps more importantly, property. If it seems like the only thing the GOP responds to is money, then don’t worry, there’s plenty to be lost in even a nuclear skirmish. Somewhere incredibly private and obnoxiously lavish, there’s a true puppet master just waiting to see how far this game of chicken will really go, and if worst comes to worst, they’ll have to reveal themselves as they shut Trump down for good.
