Trump explained that he didn’t need to prepare much for an upcoming summit with North Korea in Singapore, a first between the two nations. Instead, he explained that it was all about “attitude.”
He also said that he didn’t need notes from the meeting, due to having “one of the great memories of all time,” a claim Trump has repeated elsewhere.
After a senior Iranian official was killed by drone strike, Congressional members balked at how the White House had failed to brief them on the attack. Trump said via tweet that no notice is required (in direct contradiction with the 1973 War Powers Act), but that his Twitter posts would serve as notice to Congress.
These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!
In the Middle East we have people chopping the heads off Christians, We have people chopping the heads off many other people. We have things that we have never seen before as a group, we have never seen before…
I would bring back waterboarding. And I would bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.
During a Fox News interview, Trump said that the problem with the US’ handling of the war against ISIS was that “we’re fighting a very politically correct war,” and so “the other thing is with the terrorists, you have to take out their families.”
Amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran following the drone strike of a senior official, Trump threatened to destroy a variety of targets including “some at a very high level & important to Iran & Iranian culture.” The deliberate destruction of cultural sites constitutes a war crime. The Pentagon immediately contradicted Trump by ruling out any such targets.
….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
On January 3, 2020 Qassem Soleimani, leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force and a senior political figure in the Iranian government, was killed by a drone strike, along with several others in his motorcade. The Quds Force was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 2007, as it supported militant proxy groups like Hezbollah. Iran claimed that Soleimani was in Iraq at time to meet with officials to deescalating regional tensions. However, officials believed that he was working to target US military forces in the region to instigate reprisals and galvanize public support for the government, which had been facing domestic protests.
Trump received criticism of the unilateral action for escalating tensions by assassinating a political figure. While Israel and Saudi Arabia were briefed ahead of the move, and Trump reportedly made mention to patrons at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, no briefing was given to Congress. He had similarly briefed Russia on another airstrike before Congress. Instead, he asserted that his tweets constitute official notice. Tensions were further inflamed by his threat to target and destroy Iranian cultural sites, a war-crime, and a claim which the Pentagon ruled out.
While the White House had originally claimed that Soleimani posed an imminent threat, requiring the strike, little information was offered to Congress or the American people. His intelligence briefing was derided even by Republicans. Instead, Trump cited his “horrible past” as sufficient cause.
The Iran Nuclear Deal was an agreement reached between the United States, Iran, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China. It strictly limited the amount of enriched uranium and enrichment equipment Iran could have for a period of 15 years. In exchange, sanctions on Iran were to be lifted, and Iranian funds frozen after the 1979 revolution were to be returned.
Trump described the Obama administration’s “embarrassing” treaty with Iran to be “decaying and rotten.” He withdrew the United States from the deal unilaterally in 2018 and restored prior sanctions. The European Union sought to maintain the agreement, and passed a blocking statute to ban all EU citizens and business with complying with US sanctions on Iran. Iran continued to take part in the agreement until January of 2020, when a US drone strike killed a senior Iranian official.
Trump was discussing the possibility of mediating a solution between India and Pakistan over a growing humanitarian crisis in the disputed Kashmir region when a reporter mentioned the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump replied, “I think I’m gonna get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t.” Trump had been previously nominated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the request of the US government.
Trump remarked on President Obama having been awarded the prize: “He had no idea why he got it and you know what, that was the only thing I agreed with him on.”
On the subject of negotiations between the geopolitical rivals, Trump said, “I’ve never failed as an arbitrator. I’ve been asked to arbitrate disputes, pretty big ones, from friends. And I’ve done it in a good successful fashion.”
The base had been so hastily abandoned that photographs show it was still powered and stocked with food. Russian journalists took footage of the abandoned base and claimed in media broadcasts, “Manbij is ours!” Turkey immediately began an offense against Kurdish militias in the region, who had lost over 10,000 soldiers fighting alongside the US against ISIS. Trump later tweeted about his own “great and unmatched wisdom” regarding the matter.
Though the Kurds had long been US allies in the region, Trump dismissed concerns about them by saying they are “no angels.” He also suggested that the Kurds were releasing ISIS prisoners, though other US officials have said that this was being done by Turkish-backed forces. Concerns about the released ISIS prisoners were dismissed as being a problem for Europe instead of the United States. Trump claimed that allies like the United Kingdom’s were “thrilled” with his decision, though the UK government has denied this, and opposed any Turkish incursion. Other reports with sources in Trump’s administration assert that he believed Turkey to be bluffing, and that it wouldn’t actually attack Syria.
Trump also claimed that the soldiers that had been stationed in Syria would be coming home, when in fact they were just to be redeployed to Iraq.
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over…
