What We Want to Believe

Fabricating Fear: It was politics as usual yesterday, that is politics Trump style.  Trump went to Texas where he rechristened Ted Cruz, changing his nickname from Lyin Ted to Beautiful Ted.  The two men went full bromance, remarkable when you consider their history.  Two years ago Trump made fun of the appearance of Cruz’s wife, accused his dad of involvement in the assassination of JFK, called him “unhinged,” “a little bit of a maniac,” and “a totally unstable individual.” For his part the more word adept Cruz had called Trump a “sniveling coward,” a “pathological liar,” a “serial philanderer,” a “braggadocious arrogant buffoon” and a “narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen.”  But that was then and this is now so Trump embraced Cruz, complimenting him for his accomplishments even though he had previously pointed out that Cruz had none.  Though Senator Cruz continues to dominate his Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in the polls, the Trump and Cruz’s performance leaves the distinct impression that the two are concerned that the polls are understating Beto’s appeal.  For his part Beto continues to campaign, spending the record setting amount of money that he’s raised in the hope that he’ll energize enough potential voters, especially those who typically don’t bother to vote, to show up and vote blue. During the day and in Texas Trump stuck with his usual themes, hammering away at the Democrats, holding them responsible for his failure to pass immigration legislation even though Republicans control all three branches of government.  He told the Texas crowds and all who would listen that the Democrats were responsible for the growing “horde” of mostly Honduran migrants traveling through Mexico in hopes of making their way to the US border.  During the day he tweeted that he has “alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy” his spelling, not mine, even though the caravan is more than 3000 miles away from the border and. while certainly a problem, their eventual arrival to the US border is hardly an impending emergy or even an  emergency.  To further flame fears he also declared, without evidence that "Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in." When asked for details about those unknown Middle Eastern terrorists no one from the White House or the Department of Homeland Security was able to provide any evidence that any of them really existed primarily because they don’t, but then again riling up voters rather than truth telling is the point of Trump’s fabrications and sadly, as in 2016, his fear mongering is scarily effective. Building on the anti-immigrant theme, Trump also claimed that Californians are rioting to protest “sanctuary cities,” another fanciful fabrication that neither he nor other members of the White House can document primarily because Californians are not rioting but if Trump’s calculations are correct some people really do fear the specter of rioting Californians, marauding Hondurans and Middle East terrorists crossing the Mexico border enough to show up and vote for his candidates.  And if they don’t believe that, they may believe that a middle class tax cut is forthcoming and that all of their health insurance woes can only be solved by Republicans led by Trump.  

The Murderous Monarchy:  Trump sent out his big guns yesterday to help with the Saudi debacle.  Treasury Secretary went to Riyadh to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman who continues to deny that he authorized or even had anything at all to do with the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  Their tete-a-tete, which was focused on issues related to the prevention of terrorism, may not have accomplished anything on that front, but did show the world that despite his propensity for violence and his murderous ways, the Crown Prince continues to command respect from the Trump administration.  Trump also dispatched CIA Director Gina Haspel, who given her involvement in the CIA’s post 9.11 extraordinary rendition program knows a thing or two about torture, to Turkey to help investigate the events surrounding the Khashoggi slice and dice.  While the two were overseas, the intrepid but usually publicly silent Jared Kushner ventured to New York City to attend CNN’s Citizen Conference.  While there when asked about the Khashoggi murder, Kushner said that Trump was mindful of getting answers but noted that the “Saudis have been a strategic ally of the US and then, after it was pointed out to him that even his father in law had said that there had been “deception” and “lies” from the Saudis in relation to the Khashoggi case, Kushner responded “We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national security team to help us determine what we want to believe.”  Those words were either poorly chosen or an accidentally truthful window into Trump’s crisis management strategy.  Yesterday, a video of a member of the Saudi hit squad dressed in a Khashoggi style beard and wearing Khashoggi’s clothing leaving the Saudi’s Istanbul embassy right after the journalist’s murder was believed to have taken place was released.  The video provides further evidence of Saudi deception and the extent to which the Saudi team went to try to cover up their crime.  This morning Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan revealed more details from his country’s investigation.  He said that the murder was planned days before it took place and then went on to provide a detailed timeline of the killing from the moment that Khashoggi entered the Saudi Istanbul embassy, detail that included the departure by the “body double.”  Though it’s still not clear that he has shared the tapes of the gruesome event that he claims to have with outsiders particularly the CIA,  he went on to say what that the murder was a “meticulously planned” “political killing.” Those facts may become harder and harder for even Kushner and Trump not to believe.

And Bolton:  Though he wasn’t in Riyadh, security advisor Bolton was also on the road in Russia, preparing to meet with Putin to discuss and possibly withdraw the US from the Intermediate Nuclear Arms Nuclear Forces Treaty that was agreed to be between Reagan and Gorbachev back in the 1987.  Trump argues that it’s time to build up the US nuclear arsenal, his response to Russian violation of the treaty.  It’s not yet clear if Trump really plans to pull from the treaty or if he is just taking a hardline in an effort get the Russians to behave better.  As to Russian behavior, yesterday Bolton acknowleged their inteference in the 2016 US election but said that it wasn’t a bigly deal since it didn’t effect the outcome, or at least Trump believes that it didn’t effect the outcome.