The Pentagon and Wall Street have learned to ignore Trump ... finally

President Donald Trump in August 2017 formally ordered the Department of Defense to reverse a 2016 order allowing transgender individuals to serve openly in the military.

The Pentagon and SecDef Mattis paid lip service to the order. Then they simply ignored it.

President Donald Trump on March 23 issued a new order banning transgender individuals from serving in the military except under “limited circumstances,” again insisting they pose a threat to military readiness. The White House said retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” — those who may require substantial medical treatment — “presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality.” All others are allowed to serve, a privilege of which Trump never took advantage.

The Pentagon spokesman said the announcement of a new policy would have no immediate practical effect on the military because the Pentagon is obliged to continue to recruit and retain transgender people in accordance with current law.

Trump's tariffs policy caused havoc for a month and a half on Wall Street. The conflicting stories from Trump, Mnuchin, Kudlow, even President Xi of China caused enormous trauma and confusion. Traders did not know who to believe, and the stock market experienced wild swings much like a roller coaster ride operated by a drunk.

Finally the traders got wise and Wall Street has settled down. Trump is not paying attention to the tariffs he proposed, and neither will they. Wall Street learned not to pay too close attention to what Trump or the White House says. That is a good thing because they can't get their story straight.

In late March, Trump attempted to change American foreign policy at a campaign rally in Ohio. He declared to a cheering crowd, "By the way, we're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon -- very soon we're coming out. We're going to have 100 percent of the caliphate, as they call it... But we're going to be coming out of there real soon. Going to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be."

The comment stunned the Pentagon, but Trump was pleased. You could see it on his face as his adoring admirers clapped and yelled their agreement.

Ten days later the U.S., U.K., and France lobbed 105 cruise missiles on targets near Damascus and Homs. This time Nikki Haley upstaged Trump as she told Fox News, Trump's favorite cable network, that the US will not pull its troops out of Syria until Washington's goals are accomplished.

Mattis, too, upstaged Trump as he called the shots on the Syrian raid. Mattis sounded more Presidential than the President as he explained this was a limited strike on the Syrian regime. Whereas, Trump castigated Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, in highly personal and emotive terms.

Mattis told Trump, in effect, that the third world war was not going to start on his watch.

Trump then ignored himself and threw his U.N. ambassador under the bus. Haley said on Sunday the Trump administration will announce more sanctions against Russia as soon as Monday.

On CBS's "Face the Nation," Haley said the Treasury Department will announce the new sanctions and insisted the US has sent "a strong message" about the use of chemical weapons.

Haley doesn't set policy. She obviously was told to say that by the White House, perhaps, even Trump himself.

Trump on Monday put the brakes on the plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia. The official explanation is that Haley "misspoke." Officials said the misunderstanding could have been the result of Haley’s tendency to speak directly with the President.

Aw, this is too good to pass up. So in this administration, talking directly to the President is likely to lead to remarks that the President doesn’t like.

I'll say it again. This is better than Saturday Night Live.

 

Trump's own view of Russia has changed markedly, probably out of a desire for survival. His chummy views of Putin and Russia does not help him when matters are closing in on him from Mueller to the difficulties his lawyer, Michael Cohen, is having. What are prosecutors going to find when they review the records seized from Cohen?

Money laundering, maybe, involving Russia.

Time to get tough on Russia. Trump knows a thing or two about timing.

“Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!” he raged on Twitter last week.

The only issue now might be holding Trump back to prevent WWIII.

 

They are beginning to learn that Trump is all talk no walk.

 

So, um....how many of Trumps missiles did they shoot down or is that for "next time"?

If I recall, they packed up their little boats and left the area.

You still scared of the big bad bear?

 

The point I am trying to make is that with this President truth has gone AWOL. No one, Americans, the Pentagon, Wall Street, Trump's closest advisors, foreign leaders can believe anything Trump says anymore, assuming we ever did. Nor can we believe the people around him.

Take for example recent events. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, claims he took out a mortgage on his house to pay $130,000 to a porn star to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Cohen says he did this on his own and Trump did not know anything about it. Trump says he knew nothing about the payment which was made just prior to the 2016 Presidential election. Does that make any sense to anyone besides his loyal base? Trump's gullible base believes everything he says regardless of how bizarre it is. And this is bizarre.

Then we come to the other clients of the President's lawyer. Cohen only has three ... he says. Besides Trump, one client is Republican fund-raiser Elliott Broidy. It seems that Cohen brokered a deal to pay $1.6 million to a former Playboy model who said she was impregnated by Broidy. Wonderful. Does that sound at all familiar?

The secret client, the one Cohen did not want to admit to, is none other than Sean Hannity of Fox News. However, Hannity is an unwilling participant in all this. He posted this message on Twitter: “Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective.”

On the other hand, Hannity is a conspiracy theorist and a diehard supporter of Trump who has been known to tell a few tall ones to make a point. A few? So. we don't know who to believe, Trump's lawyer or Hannity. All three, Trump, Cohen, and Hannity all lie in the course of their dialogue. They think nothing of it.

Which is exactly my point.

And so is this. All of this is surreal. Never forget, we are talking about the President of the United States here, not some mob boss!

 

I am still trying to figure out what your response has to do with my post. It would appear you posted this on the wrong thread.

 

I knew that at least a year ago. His campaign promises sounded more like a wish list for a bigot and a xenophobic. Or a child. His gullible base bought it.

A year ago he launched 58 cruise missiles at an empty airbase, missing the runways entirely. Then he forgot about Syria.

Soon after, he okayed the use of the largest non-nuclear bomb in our arsenal, bombing an uninhabited mountainous area in Afghanistan. Then he forgot about Afghanistan. Some are still trying to figure out what that was for.

Like you said, all talk and no walk. In other words, a phony, but, for some unknown reason, his base believes in him. The remarkable thing is, even they can't explain it.

 

You said Russia vowed to shoot down our missiles, they most certainly didn't, they backed off.

 

We're in a "boy who cried wolf" situation here.

What happens when there really IS a wolf...

 

Why can't you do the same?

 

No I did not. Russian threatened that before the raid, but I didn't mention it. Besides, Russia said it, not me.

 

Good point. Our enemies know Trump is just a blowhard.

I do not wish to discuss Comey and his book tour, but he made a good point. The nation has become numb to Trump's excesses. There is so much. Americans can't handle it. Any one or two of these issues would have caused the downfall of any other President. In Trump's case, shock is a daily occurrence. His incompetence, infidelity, his extremely poor management, and his wild unsubstantiated accusations have become routine.

Trump said in an official Presidential statement that an American citizen should be jailed. The fact that caused only a mere shrug is dangerous. We all just played it down as Trump being Trump.

He is our freaking President for chrissake!

 

Who is "you," and what are you talking about exactly.

 

And it didn't happen, so what's the point in bringing it up?

 

You seem to revel in confrontation

Why is that?

 

I'm referring to "you", "Sandy Shanks", the starter of dozens of threads over the last year and a half about how bad President Trump is and how much you cannot stand him.

 

Whe-e-e-e!

 

Can I help it that not a day goes by that Trump doesn't screw something up?

I have noticed you never correct the errors of my ways. Now why is that?

There are no errors. I am telling the truth about Trump and you don't like that. Sorry about that.

 

That is exactly what you would have said if Trump hadn't hit Syria.

 

truth or not you don't have to act disrespectful or hysterical. You do both regularly. and you're not alone.

 

You don't know what I would have said if Trump hadn't hit Syria. I don't deal in hypotheticals. I deal in reality.

The death toll in Syria's CBW attack has been placed at 40. Even an Arab news source, Al-Jazeera, says Assad has killed over 500,000 of his own people with conventional weapons. Trump's policy of attacking Assad if he kills a handful of people with CBW while permitting him to kill 500,000 with conventional weapons is absurd. I would be interested in knowing how many Syrians have been killed using conventional weapons since the CBW attack. Probably a few hundred. I know his warplanes took off for an attack a day after that happened.

I don't have a complete answer, but the President's current policy makes no sense.

 

Many have learned to ignore Trump's pronouncements for various reasons. They are foolish, counter-productive, senseless, dangerous, embarrassing or a combination of all of above.

Another reason is because Trump ignores important personages in his administration. Take the case of Nikki Haley which transpired over the weekend and on into Tuesday. Once again, Trump made a complete fool of himself by changing his mind. This has become a habit with him.

The US ambassador to the United Nations hit the Sunday talk show circuit and said the US would level new sanctions the next day targeting Russian companies that facilitated the Syrian regime's chemical weapons program.

Prior to making this call Haley was informed of this decision by the Trump White House. She may even have played a role in the decision. She is a tough cookie. One thing is for sure. The U.N. ambassador does not set American foreign policy. The President does that.

The sanctions were not imposed. Trump changed his mind and his U.N. ambassador was not in the loop. Carelessly, Trump simply threw Haley under the bus. Ostensibly, Haley made a fool of herself. That is not true. It is quite clear Trump made a fool of himself. The chaos in the White House continues. Still another reason Trump cannot be respected.

Several administration officials said Haley got ahead of Trump. That is ludicrous. "She got ahead of the curve," National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday a day after Trump "put the brakes" on plans for new Russia sanctions. "She's done a great job, she's a very effective ambassador. There might have been some momentary confusion about that," Kudlow added.

Haley struck back with a stunning statement later in the day that opened a new rift in the administration and raised questions about the White House's explanation of her comments. "With all due respect, I don't get confused," she said.

Another reason Trump's orders are ignored is, how can one respect a man who lives in a dream world?

Trump tweeted, "Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed." Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!"

Trump is dreaming. Kim is not going to give up his nuclear weapons. To him, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would be an existential threat to his regime.

Do not take my word for it. Bill Richardson is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has been to North Korea several times, and has met with Kim's father on multiple occasions. He appeared on Fox News today and flat out said North Korea is not going to denuclearize. He went on to say the only way that would be accomplished is a land war.

The other problem in trying to take Trump seriously is Trump does not take Trump seriously.

Trump tweeted today, "Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!"

See, now that is very funny. Trump told Lester Holt before a national television audience the Russian thing was on his mind when he fired Comey. In the Oval Office he told two Russian dignitaries that he got rid of the "nut job." “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off,” Trump told them.

See what I mean? No one can take a man like this seriously.

No one does.

 

No. You deal in slamming Trump no matter what he does.

There have been some 500,000 killed in this war, which includes people in Assad's army and the rebel groups, as well as civilians. Those rebel groups include Al Qaeda and all of its many offshoots, including ISIS. We have killed tens of thousands of them. The reason 500,000 people have been killed is because two sides are at war, not just one side killing 500,000 people. It takes two sides to go to war, and they are both responsible for the casualty count.

Some time ago, you and I both agreed that we should disengage from the wars in the middle east. I believe you made a thread about it. We were in agreement.

Before this most recent strike, I expressed my doubts on PF about who exactly carried out this chemical weapons attack that we were blaming Assad for. I still have those doubts. But the strikes happened. They were very limited. They did nothing to more deeply entangle us into this civil war. I am satisfied with this point at least. You should be happy about that as well. The President has said that he wants to get our troops out of Syria. You should be happy about that too.

I'm not sure, and I could be wrong, but I think we had that conversation about getting out of Syria before Trump was elected. Now that he is the president, if he withdrew our troops from Syria, would you stand behind your earlier position that we should get out of there? Would you support him on that? Or would you excoriate Trump for doing it just because he's Trump? I think you would. I think you are thinking out of blind hatred, Sandy.

Seth

 

I tell the truth about Trump. You know that, Seth, because you never question the issues I have presented about Trump.

All that is very true. The fact remains, Assad is at war with his own people and he has killed the vast majority of those 500,000 Syrians. I seriously doubt "We" have killed ten of thousands of Syrians. This is a proxy war. Our small force of 2,000 troops are merely in a training and advisory roles. Our air strikes are designed to prevent collateral damage as the recent raid will attest.

As I said, Seth, I really don't know. Yes, I said more than a year ago that we should get out of the Middle East. I may have been wrong about that. At that time I didn't know Trump would become infatuated with Putin and Russia. Today, that war has dragged on far too long. There is no end in sight, and Assad has become a monster. Today, the idea of doing nothing but withdrawing seems repugnant to me. Also, Russia has become more engaged in Syria, and I am not so sure that we should hand Putin a victory there.

On the other hand, we haven't been able to extricate ourselves from the Middle East wars we started 16 and 14 years ago. The idea of becoming embroiled in another Middle East war is also repugnant to me.

So, I don't know. That decision is above my pay grade.

I once swore an oath to protect my country from enemies, foreign and domestic. Again, I remind you, Seth, you have never questioned the issues I have raised about Trump. This thread proves it.

Consequently, Trump has proven to be a buffoon who can't make up his mind. His decisions are largely ignored now. He throws his own people under the bus. The turnover rate of his staff is 45%, indicating extremely poor management skills. He demands loyalty, but he does not give loyalty. He is morally corrupt, having affairs with a porn star and Playboy bunny while married to the First Lady. His tweets, official Presidential statements, BTW, are infantile, vindictive, and paranoid. His tariffs policy created havoc on Wall Street, resulting in the worst March in 17 years and the worst quarter in two years. His decision to talk to the North Korean dictator was impulsive, based solely on the words of a South Korea envoy, and without consultation from our state department and intelligent agencies. In Europe his approval rating sucks, hovering around 20%. He is the least popular President in modern American history. He supports torture. His SecState nominee supports torture. His CIA nominee supports torture.

In short, Trump is dangerous. He is a danger to our country. He is a danger to American values.

Yes, I have a blind hatred for any man who threatens our country.

I'm curious. You can't question anything I said. Why do you support him? I would really like to know.

 

I know this wasn't directed at me but can I answer it?

I support President Trump because of you and others like you. I believe your hatred (and that of no doubt millions of others) is a much bigger danger to our country than anything president Trump has done or will do.

I don't think you and others are taking the long view. I think in your view there will "surely never be another president like Trump" but I think that won't matter. The level of vitriol you (and others) pour upon President Trump will be used against future presidents. Quite possibly to the point that the U.S. is effectively ungovernable.

I've already seen a preview in the venom directed at Mike Pence and Paul Ryan. Two of pretty much the most innocuous Republicans around.