Trump’s attorneys office got raided. Now suddenly he indicates he wants back in to the TPP talks. And he is talking about retaliating against Assad for a chemical weapons attack which it would have made no sense for Assad to do. I wouldn’t have expected any of this from Trump. Could it be that the elites are blackmailing Trump with info revealed from the raid on his attorney’s office? Or is this “4D chess” on Trump’s part? Or all just coincidence? Or this all seems more weighty than it is?
Trump is an idiot and has no idea what he’s doing. You’re trying to derive meaning from tea leaves when it’s just a bunch of leftover dreck in the bottom of a cup.
+1
How are the elites controlling the FBI?
The Republican party dissed TPP simply because it was Obama’s idea, not because it was a bad idea. Trump, as a citizen, picked it up from the news and accepted that it was a horrible thing. Once he became President, he ditched it, based (again) on it having been a central Republican rallying point right up to that point.
But now that Trump has decided to go into a trade war with China, it behooves all of the Republicans to admit that the whole thing had just been an act, and actually the TPP was a pretty decent way to start nullifying Chinese influence in the world and to disentangle the US from China, so that we are in a better position to negotiate with them. And, given that we are still entangled and given that the tariffs are a dumbass way to go about trying to deal with China, they’re forced to point out to Trump that the TPP is really what we should be doing.
In short: He’s reacting to the last person he talked to.
On the Assad front, the chemical attack shouldn’t be a big deal at this point in time to Trump. Before, when he reacted to it, that was probably Ivanka pushing him to do something, since it had affected a lot of children. But right now, Assad has been killing people left and right for the last several months, just using more traditional weapons and Trump hasn’t given a shit because the news hasn’t been reporting it and it hasn’t involved children.
Personal guess: Either Bolton is taking command of the situation and Trump has to allow him to do so because he’s the new head cheese, or the Russians have decided to let Trump intervene in Syria for their own purposes. He also recently established some real (seeming) sanctions on them, so maybe they’re trying to sell the image that they hate each other. Trump might also help pull back the Israelis - who are pretty close to going all out on the Iranians in Syria. Russia wants the Turks to kill Kurds in Syria, so that Turkey continues to move towards the Russian sphere, but otherwise is just as happy to let the Middle East stay as it is with the Iranians in Iran, Assad leading Syria, the Israelis in Israel, etc.
I would hope that it’s the Bolton aspect.
It’s possible that Trump is just no longer able to find people with the necessary qualifications to work for him - he needs his allies to have a very specific combination of characteristics, and while quick-thinking people are not scarce, quick-thinking and extremely gullible people are few and far between.
The only reason to work in this White house now is to get a book deal. I wish I wasn’t serious.
IIRC, Republicans didn’t dis the TPP. It was the Dems, notably the left-wing of the Dems, that dissed it. Boehner and McConnell and Hatch were all instrumental in getting it passed. Trump was actually going against his own party when he abandoned it.
Your history is incorrect. While all of the Democrat candidates for the nomination opposed TPP after the Obama administration negotiated it, The Republican candidates were split Trump, Fiorina, Paul, and Cruz were against it, Rubio, Walker, Perry, and Bush were for it. In the Senate, Democrats voted 32-13 against giving Obama the authority to negotiate the TPP and Republicans voted 47-5 for it.
This is just how politics with a inexperienced and callow president works. He has filled his administration with Republicans and they have influenced him to adapt Republican policies. No need to postulate blackmail.
Who are these guys? Elite what, athletes? I’m going out on a limb and saying that I believe that elite athletes are not blackmailing Trump.
The extent to which the Republicans backed TPP was dependent of the relative influence of plutocrats, vs rabid anti-Obamites had on that individual. Trumps initial opposition was just a kneejerk evrything Obama does is bad reaction. But as others have said, if you really want to stick it to China, the TPP was probably your best shot.
Trump was against the TPP because he doesn’t like and doesn’t understand international trade. He’s now developing a tenuous understanding that some trade is necessary, and that the US’s trading partners aren’t just going to roll over and change the playing field in his favor. He’ll rant and roar, but eventually trade agreements will be made, things will have changed little, the US will still have a major trade deficit, but Trump will declare victory.
People with power/money/influence who can “pull strings” to get elected representatives, among others, to do things.
Who are these people and why haven’t they been effective in the past? And again, how did they influence the FBI?
Even then, any money you get on the book will be eaten up by your lawyers’ fees:
a) when you’re called into a meeting with Mueller’s team and then have to testify in front of the grand jury;
b) when you’re defending yourself when Trump sues you for breach of the NDA he made you sign.
Go read a History textbook.
You may be right in the fact that most Republicans supported the TPP and are exerting their influence on Trump, finally with some desired effect. But you’re claiming “blackmail”, so the onus is on you to show why it’s “blackmail” and not simply political influence at work.
I am hoping it is not blackmail. For a history lesson (I just googled for something and skimmed it):
Even skimming it you should have been able to realize it is completely irrelevant to the idea you’re being asked to give some substance to. Who are these elites who can get compromising information out of a FBI raid where the information won’t even be handed to the investigators until it’s been deemed pertinent to the warrant by an independent team.
No one is saying there’s never been blackmail or that there’s no influence peddling, but getting that kind of information out of an ongoing investigation, and being able to blackmail Trump with it, is a special kind of insidious power.
I mean, they wouldn’t just need to be able to get that information from the FBI, they would also have to convince Trump it was going to stay hidden if he gave them what they wanted. Why wouldn’t Trump instead use it to immediately take to Twitter and state that the FBI was leaking false information from the investigation, killing multiple birds with one stone, and for once do something good. That version of the FBI would actually need a serious housecleaning.
The lead from the article in the NYT on Trump’s change of mind says, “President Trump, in a sharp reversal, told a gathering of farm-state lawmakers and governors on Thursday morning that the United States was looking into rejoining a multicountry trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal he pulled out of days after assuming the presidency.” In other words, he told people what they wanted to hear. If his next meeting is with people who are opposed to trade deals, he’ll reverse course. Or if Fox & Friends says the TPP is a bad idea, he’ll change his mind.