By the time most of you read this column, we will have a new US President. Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated for his second term today at 11:30 AM, Eastern time, and many Americans are hopeful that the disastrous foreign policy of the past four years under Biden will be improved. There is good news and bad news.
When Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen met with President Donald Trump, December 2019, Trump was threatening less support for NATO and European conflicts if they did not use 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for defense. What defines “defense” is at issue herein since Denmark, at least, could not meet 2% without using funds for the current war in Ukraine-Russia.
On Monday President Donald Trump signed an executive order that ensures no federal government official facilitates conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen, reports Joe Lauria.
Just before leaving the White House, in January 1961, President Eisenhower famously warned against the “military-industrial complex”, describing how defence firms and military officials colluded to unduly shape public policy. Joe Biden, 64 years later, dedicated his own parting message to similar themes. He evoked a new oligarchy — a “tech-industrial” complex that sucks power into Silicon Valley at the expense of the American people.
Trump has never been known for learning on the job. That’s actually what people like about him. Learning on the job suggests adaptability, a character flaw for a public that believes Washington corrupts politicians. His gifts and drawbacks are those he had in 2016 and in 1983. His attorney-general nomination of Matt Gaetz, a man who would never have been confirmed by the Senate, was a classic Trump move. It was reminiscent of eight years ago.
NATO announced Tuesday a major strengthening of its military presence in the Baltic Sea, seizing as a pretext recent damage to undersea cables allegedly caused by ships associated with Russia’s “shadow fleet.”
It’s still before dawn when hundreds of Chinese missiles begin to rain down on Taiwan. Much of the self-governing island’s air and naval forces are obliterated in a matter of minutes. Chinese special forces storm the residence and offices of the Taiwanese president, executing the “decapitation strike” they’ve trained for years to carry out.
On Friday, the Supreme Court delivered a sweeping, unanimous broadside against the First Amendment of the Constitution, just days ahead of the coming to power of President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to rule as “dictator on day one.”
