In the past few days, it became quite clear to me that Donald Trump made a deal with the Neocons in Washington. He traded part of his domestic agenda for ceding control of foreign policy to the D.C. establishment.
It’s obvious when you connect the dots. Signing the sanctions bill, the non-shift in Afghanistan policy, the tit-for-tat diplomatic aggression with Russia, weapons to Ukraine, etc. I’ve written extensively about this. Graham is suddenly touting his Obamacare replacement bill.
But, taking Graham at his word what this means is that the whole repeal vote was nothing more than a setup, because in no way could they have put this together in the last few weeks.
Therefore, this was held back from Trump and the rest of Congress for the purpose of finalizing a number of foreign policy initiatives that Trump was hostile to, namely expanded sanctions on Russia and Iran and a troop surge in Afghanistan.
Remember, Graham said after Trump’s Afghanistan speech (cribbed almost verbatim from previous speeches made by National Security Advisor Gen. H. R. McMaster) that he was finally proud of his President.
These moves make sense only if you realize that Lindsay Graham and John McCain ran an operation on Trump that was all about regaining control of foreign policy at any cost. And the costs were enormous.
It goes farther than Obamacare. We’re talking tax cuts now. Graham also withheld crucial information about former FBI Director James Comey’s conduct during his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server last year.
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And this may give Trump enough room to cut a deal with the GOP to pardon Julian Assange to corroborate Hillary’s crimes as Secretary of State. And all of that, in the end, is to the good. I’ll believe it when I see it but there’s the strong chance that a number of prominent people from the Obama administration and the DNC could wind up in jail.
Neutering Trump
Now, that said, none of that is important. Because what is important is Trump’s neutering as a change agent for foreign policy. You can disagree with me all you want but I do believe Trump was sincere in his desire to change the course of U.S. policy in Central Asia and Europe.
If he wasn’t then the U.S. ‘Deep State’ wouldn’t have been so apoplectic at his election. They wouldn’t have spent so much political capital in trying to rein him in. As that nexus, Trump has served us valuably.
Because now these people have been unmasked as to just how vile and depraved they truly are to a huge swath of the American public. Trump, like Putin in Russia, will be able to play the victim card here. He’ll be able to say that this is all an external attack on him by traitors in the GOP.
He can still go to his base and weakly sell the Neocon’s agenda because that’s part of the deal.
But, it will ring false.
And very few in the base will believe it.
Moreover, many of them will gladly take tax relief and Obamacare repeal (or do I repeat myself?) for a few more thousand troops in Afghanistan and open conflict in Ukraine. Sad to say, but all politics stops at the water’s edge here in the States.
So, Trump will stump for reformers. He’ll focus on domestic improvements. And he’ll let them own foreign policy. Most Americans simply don’t care. And the GOP handing him domestic wins (which are necessary) plays to his long-term survival. Remember Reagan.
Trump is not about to go to bat for Jeff Flake in Arizona. He’ll take the wins handed to him and play them for what they are worth while looking to the mid-terms and beyond.
Because if Lindsay Graham and John McCain think the old-guard, “uniparty” GOP leadership will survive the next three years, they are kidding themselves. The visceral hatred of these men here in the U.S. is beyond palpable.
What happens next, unfortunately, is not good. We will have to suffer another couple of years of insane foreign policy from Washington. Russia will be treated like the world’s biggest leper colony while Putin, Xi and the rest of the opposition make strategic moves to divest themselves of Washington.
The Neocons will lash out everywhere. In fact, they are doing so right now. Winning makes you sloppy. Simply note the desperation of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the past two weeks to see how things are changing now that Syria is effectively settled.
Things are not as bad as they seem. Because with the military effectively running foreign policy in the White House there is little chance of a major war. This is the difference between having men who have seen battle making policy and those who only dream of it.
And when push comes to shove and Graham et.al. push too far, I have faith that Putin will step up and force the issue to its crisis, like he did in Syria multiple times. And that’s how this insanity ends. But, that’s not today.
Today, they will run amok to the detriment of us all.
Reprinted from Russia Insider.
