Trump=trade, and what that might mean for his national security policies
My gut feeling is that trade questions will dominate Trump’s foreign policy decisions more than has happened with any president in the last 100 years.
My gut feeling is that trade questions will dominate President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions more than has happened with any president in the last 100 years.
My gut feeling is that trade questions will dominate President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions more than has happened with any president in the last 100 years.
That may seem obvious, given his tweets, but the implications for national security questions may not have sunk in. I think it means that defense will take a back seat to trade deals. So, for example, Turkey may stick it to NATO but Trump will be happy if it says it wants to buy a lot of American goods.
Donald Trump may not know a lot about the world, or the U.S. Constitution, but he does think he knows about business. And so that will be his vulnerability.
This means that being at State, Defense, or intelligence agencies may be very frustrating. War crimes? Human rights abuses? Playing footsie with Putin? All these things may well be forgiven by a Trump chasing the carrot of trade.
Meantime, on Russia and Trump, I think the real question is not whether he invested in Russia, but whether he is in hock to Russian banks. If so, how much? Could they crush his businesses by calling in the loans? Does he actually have a negative net worth? As Donald Trump Jr. put it in 2008, after six trips to Russia in a couple of years, “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
And if you have some free time, google Trump and “Felix Sater.”
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