Donald Trump's phone call with Taiwan president risks China's wrath

[Dill]

(12-03-2016, 09:43 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: This is true, and this reads more of an error on his part thanks to a lack of quality foreign policy advisors around him and not him trying to piss off China. A lot of what I read suggested there isn't cohesion yet on the transition team, lots of his allies now together, each vying for influence. Their attitudes have turned off some potential members of the incoming Trump administration as there's a "you weren't with us then, you must grovel now". 

What's clear is he needs some quality foreign policy advisors, and Rudy doesn't cut it. I'm surprised Huntsman isn't in talks for State. 

Here is another consideration.  Since the Iraq disaster, one group of policy "experts" has been on the outs, discredited. Within the military, a division over how to characterize and fight the Islamist threat has also emerged, with those who want to fight a religion (like ex-General Flynn) on the outs while Obama was in power.

But Obama is soon gone. Now, with the authoritarian, Islamophobic, and inexperienced Trump at the center of national power, these fringe groups see their chance and vie for cabinet, intel, and advisory positions. What kind of advice will sound good to Trump--someone suggesting that a post-invasion plan needs to be in place before we send US troops into Syria or someone insisting we must "call radical Islam what it is," bomb them to hell, and forget regime change?  He as already chosen Flynn as his National Security Advisor--a man who has publicly called Islam a cancer, thinks Hillary should be locked up, and won't rule out killing the families of suspected terrorists. Whether Trump understands it or not, this is already a disturbing signal to US allies in the Middle East--the people the US needs to work with to defeat ISIS.  Other people, those the liberal media like to call the "adults in the room," are not applying.

Trump's new Secretary of Defense is also someone fired by Obama. "Mad Dog" Mattis is a disappointing pick on a number of fronts, but unlike Patton, whom Trump repeatedly compares him to, he at least he understands the importance of diplomacy, which means cultivating and maintaining alliances both in Europe and the Middle East.  

This is why the choice of secretary of State is becoming more critical by the day. Huntsman would have been a quality choice for Secretary of State or Ambassador to the UN, perhaps some other positions as well. But he is too diplomatic for Trump's taste, I suspect, and certainly for Trump's base.  The now groveling Romney looks like the best of the field considered so far, though Kellyanne and the base prefer someone with less competence and more loyalty. Petraeus looks good as well, though it would be an odd choice given the anger over the Clinton email scandal.