
And it’s not just Putin.
Courtesy of WaPo:
In one of his first calls with a head of state, President Trump fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the man who ordered interference in America’s 2016 election that he was a great leader and apologizing profusely for not calling him sooner.
He pledged to Saudi officials in another call that he would help the monarchy enter the elite Group of Seven, an alliance of the world’s leading democratic economies.
He promised the president of Peru that he would deliver to his country a C-130 military cargo plane overnight, a logistical nightmare that set off a herculean scramble in the West Wing and Pentagon.
And in a later call with Putin, Trump asked the former KGB officer for his guidance in forging a friendship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — a fellow authoritarian hostile to the United States.
Starting long before revelations about Trump’s interactions with Ukraine’s president rocked Washington, Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders were an anxiety-ridden set of events for his aides and members of the administration, according to former and current officials. They worried that Trump would make promises he shouldn’t keep, endorse policies the United States long opposed, commit a diplomatic blunder that jeopardized a critical alliance, or simply pressure a counterpart for a personal favor.
“There was a constant undercurrent in the Trump administration of [senior staff] who were genuinely horrified by the things they saw that were happening on these calls,” said one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations. “Phone calls that were embarrassing, huge mistakes he made, months and months of work that were upended by one impulsive tweet.”
…….
The first call Trump made that set off alarm bells came less than two weeks after his inauguration. On Jan. 28, Trump called Putin for what should have been a routine formality: accepting a foreign leader’s congratulations. Former White House officials described Trump as “obsequious” and “fawning,” but said he also rambled off into different topics without any clear point, while Putin appeared to stick to formal talking points for a first official exchange.
“He was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my people didn’t tell me you wanted to talk to me,’ ” said one person with direct knowledge of the call.
Trump has been consistently cozy with authoritarian leaders, sparking anxiety among aides about the solicitous tones he struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin.
“We couldn’t figure out early on why he was being so nice to Russia,” one former senior administration official said. H.R. McMaster, the president’s then-national security adviser, launched an internal campaign to get Trump to be more skeptical of the Russians. Officials expressed surprise in both of his early Putin calls at why he was so friendly.
So we have a commander-in-chief who acts like a tyrant to the American press and a pussycat to authoritarian dictators.
I think it is imperative that Congress gains access to copies of those transcripts outlining Trump’s phone calls to foreign leaders.
And no way are they going to give those up without a prolonged legal fight.
OT. Trump’s tweets about Romney are deplorable. Perhaps we independents and Democrats need to be confrontational with Trump supporters about their support of a character defective bully when mother Republican could support their ideologies. I feel increasingly angry and resentful they voted for him willingly and most knowing he is a POS human being.
Even if true…
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/05/trump-slams-romney-as-pompous-ass-for-critique-of-ukraine-call.html
Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous “ass” who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!
Nothing like buttering up one the the SENATORS that will be voting for conviction 🙂
The problem with transcripts is you can’t see body language or facial expression. At least with a recording you can hear inflection. Transcripts simply aren’t enough. It’s the difference between reading the script to The Godfather, listening to the soundtrack and watching the movie.
All of these aides who abetted this crazy man by covering up and hiding all of this need to be indicted as well. They put this country in danger by NOT blowing the whistle on him sooner and more often.
Albeit the redacted.
Reindeer games.
Who’s the bigger pussy? He or me?
It looks like he’s ordering a hooker and burgers.
FINE. Can someone just give him the Nobel Peace Prize already that he covets so he can equal President Obama and THEN he’ll go away???
Are you that retarded? Looks like it.
NO. Everyone has their breaking point, and I’m tired of the motherfucker while everyone spews talking points with their thumbs up their ass and do NOTHING. That good enough for you??
If they had a Noble Peace Prize for stupidity, I sure he would be the first to get one.
Or a Nobel Prize for bankruptcies from failed businesses.
Carrying over to this thread from fellow IMer OK previous thread:
“What has changed is not the facts, but what the public knows. It’s clear now that the president, his vice president, and several of his top, Senate-confirmed aides—as well as his personal lawyer CUM private foreign minister, Rudy Giuliani— have spent significant time over the past year trying to pressure foreign governments into producing stories that can aid in Trump’s reelection.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/global-scandal/599434/
Just remember, boys and girls, HE was the one fascinated about how President Xi could be president forever. “We’re looking into that.”