In most if not all of President Trump's answers, particularly in this interview, there is an unhealthy dose of revisionist history. We wanted to make sure that we didn't take anything out of context so it was important to watch the full unedited interview, which you can access below.
Chuck Todd introduced a wide array of topics and though we won't cover them all, we'll discuss the most significant ones covered, starting with Iran.
What was edited out of program's excerpt, but contained in the unedited version, were Mr. Trump's some of Mr. Trump's objections to the Iran Nuclear Deal. His focus in dealing with Iran is the nuclear issue first and foremost. However, he also said that he thought the term of the nuclear agreement was too short, that we couldn't inspect all the sites and that it didn't eliminate ballistic missiles. Fair enough, but the Europeans, Russians and Chinese through inspections said that Iran had been in full compliance. What's short sighted on Mr. Trump's part and detractors of the deal was that in honoring the deal with the world's other nuclear powers, it would bring Iran to the table to negotiate other weapons and or an extension of the nuclear deal. However, by pulling out of the deal, the Trump Administration has thrown away all good faith in negotiating. In the interview, he said he would negotiate with Iran with no preconditions, but that is unlikely to happen at any point because Mr. Trump has shown that he can not be relied upon to keep his word. The majority of Americans feel he lies too much so why would the Iranians?
Mr. Trump pulled back the military strike at the least minute when he was told that there would be approximately 150 Iranian casualties, but wouldn't that be a question asked in initial conversations? People will say that this whole episode was just 'Trump being Trump,' but it's more serious than that given how close we were to going to war with Iran. True that the response wouldn't have been proportionate to shooting down a drone, but this entire crisis can be better managed if the president's rhetoric was so scatter shot. Peggy Noonan described it, and his presidency writ large, as harum scarum [read: reckless]. Then in this interview the president said that if the Iranian regime commits a hostile act they would face 'obliteration like you've never seen before.' Not helpful, to say the least.
 | |||||
| Click Here for Full Unedited Interview |
The economy, which Mr. Trump likes to tout, is, let's face it, something he inherited from the Obama Administration and with his tariff plays he is doing everything he can to subvert the progress. No president has meddled with the Federal Reserve to the extent that Mr. Trump has and it has created insecurity in the financial markets which operate best on predictability. Lanhee Chen explained that this is Mr. Trump's modus operandi when it comes to diplomacy - using the leverage of confusion to bring people at the table. However, just like we saw with North Korea, nothing good has come out of it. The North Korean dictator has now met with Putin and Xi. All Mr. Trump did was legitimize this ruthless dictator.
The unpredictability is exhausting.
Mr. Trump said that we couldn't get a deal with Mexico for 45 years and he got one in one day because of his threat of tariffs. However, this statement is ridiculous on its face. NAFTA whether you agree with it or not, was not 45 years ago.
And speaking of Mexico, the president said that he inherited the separation policy from President Obama, but the fact is that Mr. Trump squarely owns it by instituting zero-tolerance policy. Kristen Welker reminded us that President Trump said 'I alone, can fix it,' but he refuses the fix this humanitarian tragedy at the border. These kids separated from their parents will carry these scars for the rest of their lives. Mr. Trump's revisionist history will never be enough to change that.
Mr. Todd asked the president was his biggest regret has been so far in his presidency, to which he answered 'personnel.' He would have never appointed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General for the fact that he recused himself in the Russia investigation. However, for someone who has said that he would hire all the best people, the administration has an unprecedented amount of turn over. We were about to attack Iran and there is no permanent Secretary of Defense. We also have an acting DHS secretary there is no plan for fixing the humanitarian crisis at the border, which will go on for the duration of Mr. Trump's presidency, for certain. He said that he is not pleased with the performance of Jerome Powell the Fed Chairman saying he hasn't done a good job, but it was Mr. Trump who nominated him.
Lastly, Mr. Trump said that he didn't campaign to win the popular vote and visited 21 states so that he could win the electoral college, but after 4 years in office by the time of the 2020 election, will he be able to duplicate that strategy to win again? It's unlikely. If there is no tariff relief, farmers will not turn up for him again. Autoworkers in Michigan haven't seen great improvement in lives, and the administration hasn't done nearly enough on the Opiod crisis to the tragic frustration of Ohio voters.
A drama-filled presidency is wearing thin on the American electorate and no amount of revisionist history is going to solve that.
Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Lanhee Chen - Stanford University
No comments:
Post a Comment