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WhiskeyGrinder

(22,309 posts)
12. Link here.
Mon Jun 29, 2020, 06:27 PM
Jun 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html

In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.

The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often "delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders. The sources said there was little evidence that the President became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with most heads of state over time. Rather, he continued to believe that he could either charm, jawbone or bully almost any foreign leader into capitulating to his will, and often pursued goals more attuned to his own agenda than what many of his senior advisers considered the national interest.

These officials' concerns about the calls, and particularly Trump's deference to Putin, take on new resonance with reports the President may have learned in March that Russia had offered the Taliban bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan -- and yet took no action. CNN's sources said there were calls between Putin and Trump about Trump's desire to end the American military presence in Afghanistan but they mentioned no discussion of the supposed Taliban bounties.

By far the greatest number of Trump's telephone discussions with an individual head of state were with Erdogan, who sometimes phoned the White House at least twice a week and was put through directly to the President on standing orders from Trump, according to the sources. Meanwhile, the President regularly bullied and demeaned the leaders of America's principal allies, especially two women: telling Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom she was weak and lacked courage; and telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel that she was "stupid."
K & R . . . Iliyah Jun 2020 #1
Trump is a menace. lpbk2713 Jun 2020 #2
Not a menace. warmfeet Jun 2020 #24
Any links? SlogginThroughIt Jun 2020 #3
Not yet. sheshe2 Jun 2020 #5
Just watched Bernstein malaise Jun 2020 #4
Have a link? Like to know the enemy! No tv or print. Or maybe youtube link? bobbieinok Jun 2020 #13
Here malaise Jun 2020 #14
Thanks! bobbieinok Jun 2020 #16
Trump isn't a threat to Russia's national security, though. sop Jun 2020 #6
The United States is just a commodity for Traitor Trump to enrich himself, it's an "opportunity" AnotherMother4Peace Jun 2020 #7
Recommended, but I disagree, she. The Trump Adminstration did something. guillaumeb Jun 2020 #8
And those GOPers in the Senate knew it, yet still acquitted him. iluvtennis Jun 2020 #9
I've been wondering how this registered on Susan Collins' dflprincess Jun 2020 #47
Yes, you can. iluvtennis Jun 2020 #49
From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm U Person of Interest Jun 2020 #10
I thought you were going to say LiberalArkie Jun 2020 #11
Link here. WhiskeyGrinder Jun 2020 #12
It's a dandy soothsayer Jun 2020 #15
And just like Bolton, these Rat$ to the nation said nothing?? Lock him up. Jun 2020 #17
the impeachment trial proved that it was better for competent people to stay as long as possible renate Jun 2020 #26
That's just swell, innit? *sigh* crickets Jun 2020 #30
Thank you. sheshe2 Jun 2020 #33
Angela Merkel 'stupid'...with a doctorate in quantum chemistry? SeattleVet Jun 2020 #37
"Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had. " OMGWTF Jun 2020 #51
... Lucinda Jun 2020 #18
Of course, trump is.. we've known that and now it very much seems Cha Jun 2020 #19
Yes, many of us knew this before the election in 2016 Kaleva Jun 2020 #20
This a link sunonmars Jun 2020 #21
If we get FOUR MORE YEARS with him...There will be no more COUNTRY left. He will destroy it all yuiyoshida Jun 2020 #22
You are correct. sheshe2 Jun 2020 #34
Absolutely this! BlueMTexpat Jun 2020 #48
The info in the article is just appalling and infuriating Docreed2003 Jun 2020 #23
Senior officials? stillcool Jun 2020 #25
Yea, just read the article at CNN.com. All, I mean All, (except Jarvanka, who are NOT anything) are fwvinson Jun 2020 #27
The Reich Wing think Dems are a bigger threat so they let Drumpt do whatever. kairos12 Jun 2020 #28
Republicans put a criminal lowlife scumbag in the White House and refused to remove him from power. dalton99a Jun 2020 #29
we should never let bdamomma Jun 2020 #44
"It was like the United States had disappeared. It was always 'Just me'." dalton99a Jun 2020 #31
Recommended. H2O Man Jun 2020 #32
THIS malaise Jun 2020 #35
How do they sleep? H2O Man Jun 2020 #42
I know that H2O man. sheshe2 Jun 2020 #39
Oh, I knew that! H2O Man Jun 2020 #41
that's old news...way been when it was first noticed that he's submission to Putin this was discusse Demovictory9 Jun 2020 #36
tRump treats women Chicagogrl1 Jun 2020 #38
Thanks, Mitch world wide wally Jun 2020 #40
Remember back in History what happened to traitors bdamomma Jun 2020 #43
It's amazing llashram Jun 2020 #45
Huh. Present tense.. they say he's a threat. Past tense Laura PourMeADrink Jun 2020 #46
They did nothing!! DesertRat Jun 2020 #50
If the military does nothing to stop this failed CiC, it doesn't have its own back and ancianita Jun 2020 #52
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