Contributors

Friday, February 10, 2017

Trump's 3 AM Phone Call

During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary the Clinton campaign ran an ad that asked who you wanted answering the phone at 3 AM, implying that Obama was inexperienced, unfamiliar with the military and unprepared for the rigors of international diplomacy.

Now Donald Trump has had his own 3 AM phone call. But it wasn't his phone ringing: it was the phone of Michael Flynn, Trump's national security advisor:
President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one that’s good for the economy? Or a weak one?

So he made a call ― except not to any of the business leaders Trump brought into his administration or even to an old friend from his days in real estate. Instead, he called his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, according to two sources familiar with Flynn’s accounts of the incident.

Flynn has a long record in counterintelligence but not in macroeconomics. And he told Trump he didn’t know, that it wasn’t his area of expertise, that, perhaps, Trump should ask an economist instead.
How can Trump not know what kind of dollar he wants? And, as Flynn wondered, why the hell was Trump bugging a general at three in the morning about it?

This is not the only time something like this has happened. When Trump was on the phone recently with Putin discussing nuclear arms, Putin mentioned extending a treaty that had been signed with the Obama administration. Trump didn't know what Putin was talking about, so he put the president of Russia on hold to ask his aides about it. Then:
Trump then told Putin the treaty was one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration, saying that New START favored Russia. Trump also talked about his own popularity, the sources said.
First, it's patently ridiculous that Trump didn't know about the treaty to begin with. Didn't his aides briefed him before the phone call started? Or maybe they had, but Trump had already forgotten about it.

Second, Trump is making snap judgments about national security based on a two-minute conversation with "an aide" while Putin was on hold. Might the secretary of defense or the secretary of state want to weigh in on this?

What's really disturbing about Trump is that he doesn't know anything, and he makes important decisions based on what the person who happens to be in the room with at the time. What if the only other person in the room is the janitor when Trump's phone rings with news of an impending nuclear strike?

Republicans have got to be worried sick about this: not just because Trump is so stupid, but because his administration leaks like a sieve. In the last few weeks there have stories daily about Trump not knowing something basic; he doesn't even read the executive orders he signs; he doesn't think he needs a security briefing; he planned an attack on a terrorist base over dinner, and then didn't bother to monitor it in the situation room (getting one American killed on several civilians, including children).

There have already been a dozen idiotic scandals like this since Trump took office, things that would have had Republicans screaming for Obama's head if his administration had been so incompetent and amateurish.

Trump is not prepared to be president and has no interest in the job. His staff does not respect him (why else all the leaks?). The intelligence agencies all think he's an idiot. They think that Trump supporters will have their heads if they move against Trump, but he will bring the entire Republican Party and the conservative establishment down when he really screws the pooch. And he will.

Republicans need to remove Trump soonest. They can start by amping up the investigation of Russian interference with the election, and Michael Flynn's contacts with the Russians before the election, and then again after the election but before the inauguration. And then Trump's conflicts of interest, like making the Pentagon rent space in Trump Tower...

And releasing Trump's tax returns -- which Congress and Congress alone can do -- should be high on the priority list as well.

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