A day after mocking recently fired John Bolton as “Mr. Tough Guy” for his notoriously hawkish positions, President Trump on Thursday singled Bolton out for not being aggressive enough on Venezuela or Cuba, claiming he was “holding us back.”
“It set us back, and frankly he wanted to do things – not necessarily tougher than me,” Trump added in comments to reporters. Trump has also assured Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) that US policy changes toward Venezuela “won’t be to make it weaker.”
While assuring Rubio that he is “far stronger” than Bolton on the issue is sort of vague, it does point to Trump being a long-time advocate of regime change in Venezuela. Trump has in particular been keen to emphasize the idea of an ideological war against Cuba and Venezuela as Socialist states.
Bolton, by contrast, centered a lot of his hawkishness of picking fights with Iran and North Korea. Though Bolton argued the world needed to accept the US position on Venezuela, it does not seem he was driving that policy in any way.
they’re all frigging idiots and war mongers.
how can you rationally talk to or about these kind of infantile narcissistic people
Washington, DC: A toxic oxidation pond stinking up the world.
Trump’s ego knows no bounds. He can’t even stand to be out hawked by Bolton, the king of hawks.
Well I hope he’s learned something from the disaster of Bolton. Not sure who’ll be replacing him but considering he was the worst possible candidate for the job it can’t get worse unless you managed to find someone who openly wants nuclear holocaust.
Yeah, he’s learned – he just appointed a Bolton protege as acting National Security Advisor. The *only* reason he fired Bolton was because Bolton argued with him – and the Orange Mophead doesn’t allow that from any employee.
I disagree. Trump was the one who hired him in the first place, to be his THIRD Nat’l Security Advisor in less than three years, and Trump doesn’t need to learn lessons from anything, he knows he’s always right.
It just gets more absurd by the day with Trump, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it make you wonder how crazy he’s going to be by the end of his first term? And what will he do in his second term, assuming he wins, when he doesn’t have to worry about the next election?
War with China? Russia? He’s a lunatic with absolutely zero clue about international relations, the military, the Middle East, or pretty much anything else outside of real estate. And he’s probably the most narcissistic President in US history, even outdoing Obama in that regard.
His supporters are going to bear the blame for anything he does that gets Americans killed.
Trump has never gotten OFF the campaign trail his whole presidency – he’s always yelling at rallies rather than actually doing his job. So a second term (jesus christ) really wouldn’t be much different from the first, except that he’ll crack even more “jokes” about becoming dictator for life.
Oh, just f**k and get it over with, you two. Better yet, how bout a duel. No matter who loses, we all win.
This is what happens when you have no principles or spine and you try to please everyone in your tent, which contains self-deluded anti-war types, warmongers, deficit hawks, nativists, and people who think the center-right Dem party is socialist and/or Communist.
That is to assume that these people actually know what socialism or communism is. Or have ever heard that there is actually no such thing — as every country that labeled itself socialist or communist implemented entirely different things. And that there us no way to even agree on any set of policies or institutions one can definitively call communist or socialist. Why was Hitler’s party called Socialist?
The scary thing is — these are IGNORAMUSES that just know how to throw labels about and really no clue what they are talking about. Just hoping some mud sticks.
This is what scares me. Our elites are like spoiled brats — the world is their oyster. No need to lose beauty sleep over learning, focusing on facts. To them, politics is all about a game of winning — a game of “educating” electorate in how they should think about anything. And we have retail style politics, like some Democrats firebrands, geared to specific electorate in specific districts. If you really nail any of the candidates into listing a few economic, political or social examples of. Venezuelan socialism — I doubt any of them can do it.
They are all about talk, appearing knowledgeable — yet they all are as irrelevant to anything really important to our lives.
Trump is a liar. Is that some sort of surprise?
Trump tells Rubio very publicly what Rubio publicly says he wants to hear. Is that a surprise?
To return to reality, Bolton is homicidal foreign policy. Nobody is more aggressive.
That is to assume that Bolton — or any appointee is an independent warrior, representing no one but himself! If people actually believe that — then we are really screwed. The whole drama about appointing anyone to these high level presidential team positions in defence and foreign policy — is all about the power of their backers. With a range of perceived foreign policy failures (even if “failures” were deliberate) — it was time to sacrifice someone, and Bolton is perfect. Much disliked and ridiculed in public, nothing easier. They do not need Bolton — Pompeo is the war pimps favorite.
But having sacked him, Trump needs to reassure his backers that he is just as crazy if not crazier than Bolton. Simple math.
Nothing changes. Bolton will be OK — plenty of work for war hawks as there are plenty of war profiteers and their mouthpieces about.
The people raised in Bronx talk too much.
Trump does it all the time. He will nuke North Korea to his dear friend Kim. He would nuke Iran to let’s talk. From talking to Taliban to — I hate them.
We had the same style politics for ages. Only it was limited to our leadership
Internal debates, and now Trump made those debates visible to the whole world.
He is no Obama to hide the ugliness behind the veneer of intellectualism and make believe legality. No, no! He is showing to the world American elite thinking — raw and naked. Allies and adversaries — this is what you get, like it or not.