The more hawkish wing of the Republican party is hoping former President Donald Trump will put ultra-hawks in prominent positions in his cabinet if he’s elected for a second term as a counterbalance to Sen. J.D. Vance being picked as vice president, POLITICO reported on Wednesday.
Vance being chosen by Trump has alarmed many Republicans due to his opposition to the proxy war in Ukraine. One influential GOP member of Congress told POLITICO: “I’m scared to death.”
The report said Republican hawks hope to see Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former CIA director and secretary of state, as the secretary of defense in a future administration. Pompeo is a staunch supporter of the Ukraine proxy war, Israel, and the US military buildup around China.
During his time at the CIA, Pompeo sought revenge against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for the organization’s publication of documents detailing the spy agency’s hacking tools, known as Vault 7. In 2021, a bombshell report from Yahoo News revealed that the CIA under Pompeo plotted to kidnap Assange and even discussed killing him.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was another ultra-hawk mentioned in the POLITICO report as a potential counterbalance to Vance. The report said Republican hawks would like to see him as the head of the CIA or inside the White House. Other names mentioned for high-level positions included Trump’s former national security advisor, Robert O’Brien, and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN).
Vance became a leading critic of aid to Ukraine when he entered the Senate about a year and a half ago. In an interview with The New York Times, he outlined a potential way to end the war, although he left open the possibility of limited military assistance for Kyiv.
“What I would like to do, and what I think fundamentally is achievable here with American leadership — but you never know till you have the conversation — is you freeze the territorial lines somewhere close to where they are right now. That’s number one. Number two is you guarantee both Kyiv’s independence but also its neutrality. It’s the fundamental thing the Russians have asked from the beginning,” he said.
“I’m not naïve here. I think the Russians have asked for a lot of things dishonestly, but neutrality is clearly something that they see as existential for them. And then three, there’s going to have to be some American security assistance over the long term. I think those three things are certainly achievable, yes,” Vance added.
While Vance was portrayed as an “isolationist” and “non-interventionist,” he is hawkish on Iran and China and strongly supports the Israeli onslaught in Gaza. In an interview on Monday night, Vance came out strongly against Iran, saying, “If you’re going to punch the Iranians, you punch them hard.”
Vance has also framed the need to wind down the proxy war in Ukraine as necessary to focus on a military buildup around China, which he has labeled the “biggest threat” facing the US, putting him in line with the Pentagon.
“The thing that we can control now is making it costly for them to invade Taiwan, and we’re not doing that because we’re sending all the damn weapons to Ukraine and not Taiwan,” Vance told the Times last month.
A frightening state of affairs when the Hawkish Vance isn't Hawkish enough for the likes of the Establishment!
Well, wars on two fronts is for pussies. It takes forever that way to make Jesus come back.
Wise words Albert, wise indeed!
Not to worry. Vance will show his true colors much like Mike Johnson when he took speakership.
Donald Trump will make those decisions and nobody else. Donald Trump has made it clear he is not a Warmonger and wants Peace to be our goal. That's the reason he is so HATED by the Establishment Deep State. They know full well they can't control him.
If he wants peace, why did he tear up nuclear agreements? Continue secret wars? assassinate a general? try to assassinate the Venezuelan president? laud Assange during the 2016 campaign, then go after him? send lethal weapons to Ukraine? On and on it goes. Wake up. The National Security council runs the country.
^^^
Hi Warren,
Y’all give new meaning to the phrase: time to see the light!
Hubris and arrogance, along with money, power and prestige will blind anyone!……………
So you advocate 4 more years of what we have now Donna?
Nobody is that masochistic. But that doesn't mean you then have to deceive yourself into thinking the alternative is better.
There is no real alternative. I think, if not wish may father the thought, that many young Americans have finally began to realize the system is broken and the fact that the politicians they have are all either evil or incompetent or both is a consequence of the system being broken. Then the solution is not to elect another broken politician but fix the system.
Americans live to make money not to make money to live.
The nation needs to be reeducated and humanized, social, and humane are not four letter words, as our politicians seem to think. More money is the only value they know
Yes, he wants peace. But only under the condition that the US is feared to the point that others wouldn't dare fuck with us.
Trump:
"But maybe our country would be better off if I actually had the nuclear codes because our enemies would be afraid, unlike they are now."
The warm, fuzzy kind of peace.
No more war if everyone is dead.
Good point.
Does the elite have a colony on the moon or Mars to live if the Hamptons and their yachts are contaminated with radiation?
Zuckerberg might want to survive on his increasingly private island.
The tallest privacy fence can’t keep the radiation out, maybe can get scuba diving equipment to protect him?
Trump’s ace in a hole during his first term was unpredictability. That ace is gone now.
He plagiarized Nixon.
His cabinet looked like it had the deep state's seal of approval.
The elite made money the Trump way and that is what counts. Trump was a weapons sales man and he tilled the soil for future wars breaking multilateral agreements, including the nuclear related agreements. American MIC and Finance are doing very well, Trump will keep it that way.
Explain why Trump has so many haters in the Establishment/Deep State who want him stopped by any means fair or foul?
Trump sells weapons and overlooks the fact that the buyers, customers are killing each other and there will be no consumers left to buy more guns? Trump is irrational in a different way than Biden. See his body language, the facial grimaces and really no coherent and comprehensive policy discussions, not like a dignified statesman, just a conman wanting your vote speaking.
( I really wonder if in his long life did he ever see the inside of the home of an average working middle class American)
The Establishment hates policy UNPREDICTABILITY far more than it hates any particular set of policies.
And on policy, Trump looks a lot like this:
Biden’s out.
The question is: what does big T want? He spent his first presidency being hemmed in and stopped by his advisers … does he want to pick the same people this next time?
Does he want a better aim next time?
indeed … we'll see how brave he is from the picks, should he survive and win.
I don't recall a whole hell of a lot of pushback from Trump when he was "hemmed in and stopped by his advisors". Now, if he would have been as adamant about those things even a fraction of how he was about the election being stolen, then he'd either be dead or the things he supposedly wanted would have been implemented.
As Yakof Smirnoff used to say “what a country” …
A second Trump presidency will be like a Reagan presidency, doubling if not tripling in government spending and increasing national debt, foreign guerrilla warfare if not worse, shifting the tax burden on W2 earners while the wealthy pocket more money,. Only difference, no great music, movies, hair spray.or those large shoulder pads.
Immigration might improve. Reagan granted amnesty.
I don't see Trump improving immigration by converting to Reagan's open borders position. He's more likely to stick with the traditional authoritarian Democratic position of his first term (and Obama's two terms, and Biden's term).
The last president who even made any noises about improving immigration was Bush the Younger, and he got shouted down pretty quickly.
I don’t remember Bush II being strong on immigration in any way, but I assume you’re correct. The old battle when Bush II was running was to get them to just mention immigration. He’d debate or campaign, and there’d be no mention. His family bought land in South America as I recall.
I might well vote Kennedy or Stein. I’m not solidly for Trump. I truly hate the foreign policy.
My state will go for Trump regardless. So, I’m under no delusion that I matter.
Amusingly, I talked with a guy today who told me most politicians are corrupt, but he believes Nikki Haley isn’t. I found that funny.
"I don’t remember Bush II being strong on immigration in any way"
He briefly pushed "immigration reform" to try to move back toward the Reaganite position. Probably not full common sense/Reaganite/constitutional "open borders," but at least an improvement from the authoritarian progressive "Make America East Germany Again" position.
In all the accumulated wisdom informing your opinion of Trump's future actions have you considered the fact the man who barely survived an attempted political assassination Saturday is one of maybe a handful alive that actually know who Killed Kennedy.
Have you ever considered, perhaps it was just a warning to play ball?
No, I didn't just wake from a 9 year coma.
I'm not aware that it's a "fact" that Trump actually knows who killed Kennedy.
Do allow me to clarify: “… the man who barely survived an attempted political assassination Saturday is one of maybe a handful alive that actually have had full and complete access to every classified detail the government ever recorded (assuming nothing has been deleted from the government record) about the Kennedy assassination including who, how many, and from what locations was a gun or guns held, aimed and the trigger or triggers pulled at President Kennedy with the intention of ending his life and whether the act was planned, resourced and executed by (1) a single individual, or group of individuals acting together, in order to achieve what purpose through the assassination or (2) a single/group acting for monetary gain or in ideological/other motivation associated with/provided by what single/group/organization(s) for the achievement of what purpose requiring the death of the president thusly concluding at what probability who Killed Kennedy.
When questioned on the All In pod last month Trump said "I think CIA was probably behind it."
“had full and complete access to every classified detail the government ever recorded”
That’s one major assumption I wouldn’t bet the ranch on.
“assuming nothing has been deleted from the government record”
That’s a second.
In both cases I accept your assumption assessments as valid, even probable, but I've allowed both of us to stray from the point of my my original post which in the specific case of Trump and that point in time questioned the reliability of prognostications based on pre-assassination data.
He’ll tighten the boarder for sure but won’t be able to kick anyone out.
Just needs to make employment more difficult for those here illegally. I don’t want him to round people up.
Let the lawsuits begin…
Employment is already impossible for those here "illegally," since it's literally impossible under the US Constitution to be here "illegally."
A second Trump presidency will be like a Reagan presidency, doubling if not tripling in government spending and increasing national debt, foreign guerrilla warfare if not worse, shifting the tax burden on W2 earners while the wealthy pocket more money,. Only difference, no great music, movies, hair spray.or those large shoulder pads.
The more hawkish wing of the Republican party is hoping former President Donald Trump will put ultra-hawks in prominent positions in his cabinet if he’s elected for a second term as a counterbalance to Sen. J.D. Vance being picked as vice president, POLITICO reported on Wednesday.
Yes, just like I like to balance out a fine soufflé with a side of horse manure.
One influential GOP member of Congress told POLITICO: “I’m scared to death.”
I bet you are after your little plot in Butler PA failed.
Cotton and Pompeo twins of evil
Great Hammar horror flick if you haven’t watched it yet.
The neo-con scum shoulf return to under the rocks and cesspool s they inhabit. Unfortunately, instead they are likely to assume key roles in any administration that derives from this election. Nothing has changed but the shade of lipstick on the pig that has been US foreign policy for decades.
Anybody notice Tucker was the first to greet Trump as he entered the family seating area at the RNC Monday Night? And wasn't it here I read Trump was seeking his boys council over Ivanka and Prince Jared this time around? If Trump keeps Don Jr, Eric, Tucker and JD as first – and last – council the Hawks haven't got a prayer. Or better I say the Extreme Hawks given I am talking about the GOP.
But then it's an old woman speaking here, forgetting the War Machine rules both major parties. Why though I do like JD, sharing his working class roots as I do, I'm remaining Jill Stein 2024!
So, no Tom Cotton? Would Don jr. "veto" him? Pompeo?
Vance is probably just another opportunist who changes his tune when he sees where the wind is blowing. DC is full of them.
He doesnt seem to be non-interventionist at all.
Theyre not worried.
We can be sure Tel Aviv approved. Wars are big business with big profits, that is all that counts.
The ruling elite has nothing to lose, only the people lose.
Tom Cotton for Postmaster General!
Vance is in it for the money and power like all of them. The nation lacks real leadership, persons with character and humanity and basic common sense, all we have are narcissists who never get enough and don't care about the nation, and the welfare of the people.