Trump continues to stretch his dictator legs, settling into his newfound freedom to do whatever the fck he wants, and is damn well going to prevent future Vindmans from hearing his conspiracies with foreign leaders in the future. Regarding having American experts and foreign service offers listen to phone calls with foreign leaders, Trump says: “I may end the practice entirely.”
Now why oh why would Trump do such a thing? What possible advantage could come of such a practice?
He is not even trying to hide it anymore.
A normal person who just nearly lost office due to criminality associated with a phone call would want triple the number of people listening to his or her phone calls to increase the number of people who can attest to one’s innocence. That normal person would be someone conscientious and committed to not breaking the law.
That is not our president, according to Business Insider [1], a periodical the Trumps increasingly hate:
Trump’s remarks show he’s “willing to forgo the potential utility of these discussions in order to see to it that he can fulfill his agenda, rather than the national interest, without would-be witnesses listening in,” Price added.
That’s the key, isn’t it? When one is calling to fulfill his or her own agenda, rather than the national interest, then it is helpful to not have anyone on the line who might be able to tell others; “Hey, he talked putting Trump buildings in Moscow, if he pulled out of NATO, rather than possible sanctions and trade agreements.” It would seem that this is the exact type of “witness” that Trump is attempting to avoid.
“Right now, President Trump is a nightmare to every intel and [national-security] officer, and this is all stuff he’s done with their knowledge,” one former senior National Security Agency official told Insider. “Allowing him to conduct these calls in private would be catastrophic for us.”
Nightmare for national intelligence? Calls in private would be catastrophic for “us”? What the insider quoted above fails to understand is that there is no longer an “us.” The American government is now “him,” as in Trump. So what helps Trump helps the United States government, there is no “us.”
The article mentions that this is not the first time that Trump has sought to keep foreign communications secret. Can you guess which other country Trump has demanded secrecy with respect to his communications? Correct. Russia.
The Washington Post has reported that “there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years.”
Comforting.
Of course, we all know that in 2017 Trump told the interpreter to never discuss what he heard and then grabbed the interpreter’s notes.
And we just let all this happen. We the American people know what is happening. We know what is going on right in front of our faces, and “we” (actually, it is just the Republicans) just let it happen, again and again. Indeed, the Republicans want him elected one more time … at least.
This is post-acquittal Trump. Trump saw what happened when others overheard his “perfect call” with Ukraine, one that clearly constituted extortion, and that will be the end of that. No more people listening in on calls, at least if this policy goes through.
Trump is willing to run the risk of not having another American on the phone to counter Putin, or Chinese President Xi Jinping, when Putin or Xi them states: “But president Trump promised to give us Hawaii and Alaska, and we have six people who heard the call, all willing to attest to its truth.”
The United States will have no one to say: “Actually, that’s not how it went. Trump promised Putin Oregon if Trump got to build towers in Moscow and Portland.”
This is the United States. This is Trump. This is where we stand with an absolute dictator, one who is now unleashed. We now have a lawless president, it is no longer a theoretical danger.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom