Enemies First

Friends Last:  Maybe he had the newest indictments of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his colleague, the once and always Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik, on his mind or maybe it was the trip to Singapore for the soon to be held sit down with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.  Whatever the reason, Trump arrived late to the G7 meeting in Canada, acted erratically, left early and then after promising to sign a joint post meeting communique, he didn’t, blaming his change of mind on Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau and his “weak,” “meek, and dishonest” behavior.  Trump lambasted Canada for taking advantage of the US, continuing his practice of misstating economic statistics to falsely claim that the US has a huge trade deficit with our northern neighbor, the country that he also views as an existential threat to US security.  He called for Russia, the country that had been kicked out of what was once the G8 for its annexation of Crimea to be invited back in and blamed  the Russian aggression that got the country booted in the first place on Obama mostly because he likes to blame Obama for everything but also because he said that Obama let Putin do it.  He went so far as to tacitly approve of Russia’s occupation of Crimea by saying that Russia is entitled to stay there because they’ve made infrastructure investments since moving in, and they have, they’ve built a bridge to further cement their claim on the disputed territory.  As to economies, it is worth noting that the G7 is fine without Russia.  Russia’s economy isn’t even among the world’s top ten and is smaller than those of the other G7 members, a list that includes the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada.  Only Italy, a country now led by a new “populist” government, agreed with Trump’s call for Russia to be invited back into the group.  France’s Macron responded to Trump’s rant with a statement saying  "International cooperation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks. We spend two days working out a joint statement and commitments. We are sticking to them and whoever reneges on them is showing incoherence and inconsistency."  Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Mass said “In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters,” adding that it would take much longer to rebuild lost trust and also saying that Trump’s conduct was “actually not a real surprise, we have seen this with the climate agreement or the Iran deal.” In an attempt to clean up for Trump’s rude and destructive acts, Senator McCain tweeted "To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values, Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn't." A nice thought but one that stood out for its singularity as other likeminded Republicans, fearful of Trump’s tweet power, remained largely silent.  In any case McCain’s remark was thrown by the wayside Sunday when Trump’s economic advisor, the newest Trump complicit excuser, Larry Kudlow defended Trump by saying “POTUS is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around … he’s not going to permit any show of weakness on the trip to negotiations with North Korea.”  Peter Navarro, the White House protectionist National Trade Council director who’s never met a US imposed tariff he didn’t like nor an ally that he didn’t want to dump on doubled down.  Speaking on Fox, of course, he said that was “a special place in hell” for Trudeau, calling the Canadian Prime Minister’s end of summit press conference, one where an incredibly polite Trudeau said that he had to put his country’s needs first, a remark that Trump should have related to, a stunt and calling Trudeau “weak and dishonest.” Navarro also sent a message to his “friends in Canada,” that Trudeau’s statement “was one of worst political miscalculations of a Canadian leader in modern Canadian history.”  Trudeau’s fellow Canadians disagree, they stand by their leader for calling Trump out.  When asked about all of this today in Singapore, Secretary of State Pompeo glared at the questioning reporter and responded that he was unconcerned about what he called,  bumps in the road with our G7 partners.  Pompeo also went on to say that Trump, who earlier asserted that he didn’t have to really prepare for the meeting with Kim Jong Un because he’s been preparing all of his life, this is what he does best, he negotiates and who also claimed that he’ll be able to size up the North Korean leader the second he meets him because again that’s what he does best, is really prepared.  Pompeo also pushed back assertions that the US team had failed to consult with US nuclear experts in part because so many of them have been pushed out of the administration because of their participation in the Iran deal by saying that he had spoken with many PHDs, though  he didn’t really make it clear if any of them had expertise in nuclear disarmament.  In an indication that Trump is poised to give Kim Jong Un something big, as if elevating the Hermit Kingdom leader to the international stage isn’t big enough , Pompeo also said that the US is willing to make major security concessions and by concessions he may mean a reduction in regional security forces, in exchange for assurances of “verifiable” denuclearization.  Of course, Pompeo didn’t mention that Trump just pulled out of a similar agreement with Iran.  Nor did he note that verifying North Korean denuclearization will be much more difficult than verifying that Iran hasn’t restarted its program given that the North Koreans, unlike Iran, already have nukes and that the country has a terrain that makes masking hidden resources too possible.  Anyway, the two leaders will meet soon.  It’s been reported that Kim Jong Un, who really has been preparing for this meeting for his entire life, plans to leave shortly after the meeting, though his ”scheduled” departure time might be a negotiating ploy, his way of being prepared to get out of Dodge quickly in the event that Trump, after making his one second assessment, tries to flee first.   

Pardon Me:  Before he left for Canada Trump announced that he has a committee evaluating pardons and that they are considering thousands of names. To that end, he said “There will be more pardons. … In fact, we’re doing, right now, recommendations on — you know, frankly, we’re doing recommendations on Muhammad Ali.” Apparently neither Trump nor any members of his probably fictitious pardoning committee are aware that Ali’s sentence for refusing to serve in Viet Nam was overturned in 1971 by the Supreme Court by an 8 to 0 vote, nor are “they” aware that in 1977 President Carter issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” for most who violated the Viet Nam era draft laws.  Then in an effort to defuse the take a knee “problem” that he amplified in the first place Trump offered to meet with NFL players and other athletes who kneel during the National Anthem so they can recommend people they think should be pardoned due to unfair treatment by the justice system.  Not surprisingly, most players and civil rights activists remain skeptical of Trump’s so called olive branch, given his repeated use of a controversy around the national anthem at NFL games to stoke the country’s culture wars, and his poor relationship with the African American community. In any case, it’s clear that pardons won’t help those who’ve died in the series of police related shootings that inspired the movement in the first place.  It’s also clear that the whole pardon thing really has more to do with keeping Trump’s associates quiet about Russian canoodling than anything else.   As to that Russian problem, despite Trump’s Russia affinity and continued refusal to say anything bad about his good friend Vladimir who he plans to meet with in an upcoming summit once he finishes speaking with Kim Jong Un, Dan Coats, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, told an audience in Normandy France on June 8 that Russia is attempting to influence the midterm elections in the United States in November as well as divide the transatlantic alliance.  He also said that these Russian actions are purposeful and premeditated and they represent an all-out assault by Vladimir Putin on the rule of law, Western ideals and democratic norms.”  Despite all that, Trump wants Russia and Putin back in the G7.  Go figure.