Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Talking Trump Foreign Policy: Incoherent But Inconsistent

I spent this afternoon talking to Canadian radio stations across the country (yes, it pays pretty well, unlike most media opportunities) about Trump's speech today.  What did I learn from waiting for and then watching that mess of a speech?
H/T to Pete Trumbore for
finding this
  • Trump either does not listen to his advisers or has crappy speechwriters.  It was almost as if two speechwriters had a war as almost every line contradicted the previous one: dump allies but Trump will be a better ally; make nice with China but cut their trade deficit with the US.
  • His speechwriters suck at history too, given the America First theme.  Yep, the last time we had that was when folks were trying to keep the US out of World War II, including Charles Lindbergh and other folks that might be considered Nazi sympathizers.
  • Trump's spinners said ahead of time that the speech would not have details.  So, yeah, that was perhaps the one bit of truth.  The speech contained many lies including the notion that the US does not investigate and document the backgrounds of refugees that are taken in.  This ain't Ellis Island...
  • Trump said US foreign policy went off the rails after Reagan, which was strange since the 1990s was actually pretty good for the US--peace and prosperity for most of the decade.
  • Trump talked about the US being humiliated.  Only by your success, Donald.
  • That GW Bush was able to pass the bar of being competent enough at foreign policy suggests that the American people might give Trump a pass as well. Good thing Trump is alienating women, African-Americans, Latinos and educated people....
Anyhow, it was a fun afternoon despite having to pay the price of listening to the same Trump clip a dozen times.  

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