Q&A of the Day – President Trump’s handling of Iran, Mexico, Russia, illegal immigration & more
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry...Trump didn't get Iran right. Yes, there are neocons itching for war with Iran, but unfortunately ruthless dictators only respect strength, not weakness, like under Obama. Trump needs to take proportionate military action (it's not a war) as a response - he has this bad habit of promising and then not delivering and he looks weak. He does this on domestic issues as well. Calling off the roundup of illegals because Pelosi called him? Not releasing the documents about the fake Russia probe after specifically saying he would?Calling off the tariffs on Mexico for a promise that can't be fulfilled?
Being right on the issues is important - but having successful outcomes is more important.
Bottom Line: I’m not going to suggest that everything is/has been handled perfectly here but it’s pretty darn close and there’s a lot more behind each of these stories than meets the eye. Starting with Iran. The most important thing to remember about Iran, is that it’s not about Iran. Just as Venezuela isn’t about Venezuela or we’d have dealt with Maduro by now. Iran is about Russia, China and North Korea. I have no idea what Putin, Xi and Little Rocket Man would do in response but I’m certain it wouldn’t end up being a more favorable trade deal with China. Behind the scenes it turns out that we successfully hacked into their military operations and disabled their missile defense system. That’s not nothing. It just doesn’t have to optics of mass destruction.
Regarding the postponing of the illegal immigrant raids. You may recall that I was able to accurately depict throughout the week what was set to happen this week by digging into government disclosures last week. Turns out that was a leak by someone on the inside operating outside of President Trump’s interest and I wasn’t the only one who figured it out, though I beat the Washington Post by what three days? ICE was concerned their mission was compromised and that the mission could even be dangerous with operational details revealed. Paying homage to Nancy Pelosi is likely a way to appear diplomatic to the public at large. It also at best is endemic of what he did with Mexican tariffs. Provide a deadline. Demand an outcome & see what happens. Though the Mexican government is easier to negotiate with than Congressional Democrats. I agree he needs to follow through – let's see what happens. As for the Russian probe, Steel Dosier content...
If you’ve followed my work locally or nationally on this story for the past two years you’ve known I’ve been spot on. In that vein, I’m going to tell you to trust me when I tell you that accountability is coming. I can’t tell you this empirically, but I’m about a certain as I can otherwise be that AG William Barr doesn’t want those docs redacted and publicly revealed. Doing so could compromise his investigation. The irony is that the entire bogus Trump-Russia Steel Dossier fraud was a 2016 surprise. The accountability for the corruption that went into it is set to be the ultimate 2020 surprise. Stand. By. For. News.