What is Donald Trump Doing?
12 November 2024 by Larry C. Johnson
Let me state up front that I am no “Trump fan-boy.” But I am sure that what I am about to write will lead some of you to accuse me of that. So be it. When you listen to my interview earlier today with Danny Davis, I was quite disturbed by the news (still unconfirmed) that Trump planned to appoint Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Rubio is a lightweight on all counts and not a deep strategic thinker.
But then came tonight’s stunner — Trump named Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, as his nominee for Secretary of Defense. Wow!! Hegseth, apart from having served in the Army, has no experience managing a gargantuan bureaucracy like the Department of Defense. What the hell is Trump thinking? I think it is simple — he is installing loyalists in key positions who are not compromised by or beholden to the military industrial complex or the defense lobbyists in DC. I know one of those lobbyists (we used to be neighbors) and I guarantee you he is livid tonight. Trump is sending the Deep State an unmistakable message — I will be running the show.
Hegseth also is not a creature of one of the many Washington “think tanks,” which are funded in large measure by the military industrial complex and the Zionist lobby. Trump did not select Hegseth because the former Army officer has a great plan for reforming the bloated, corrupt U.S. defense complex. He chose him because Hegseth is expected to follow orders and do what Trump wants. Anyone want to bet that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who were announced to oversee the Department of Government Efficiency, will be taking a big whack at the DOD?
Trump also named former Congressman and former Director of National Intelligence (aka DNI), John Ratcliffe, as the nominee to head up the CIA. That is an excellent choice in my view. Ratcliffe is a straight shooter and not a self-seeker aspiring to be President, like Mike Pompeo. By virtue of his previous stint as the DNI , Ratcliffe knows where some of the bodies are buried at CIA and will play a key role in releasing the JFK files.
I know there are many of you convinced that Trump has fallen under the sway of the AIPAC/Zionist crowd. You may be right, but I think there is some hope that Trump is not fully captured. Let me remind you of some past incidents. First, on a Sixty Minutes interview following his 2020 defeat, Trump excoriated Bibi Netanyahu for being the first one to come out and congratulate Joe Biden. Trump used an expletive to describe Netanyahu. Second, most of the Jews in the United States — at least 70% — cast their vote for Harris, not Trump. Third, Trump reportedly has warned Netanyahu that the war in Gaza must be over by January 20th.
I am making a nuanced point. Trump is not reflexively going to submit to the radical Zionists. Worth recalling he also has good relations with the Haredim — the ultra-Orthodox Jews who reject the State of Israel. While I am not suggesting that Trump will side with the Palestinians, I doubt that he will be like Biden, giving Israel everything it needs to continue the carnage.
Let’s not forget that Trump wants to be liked. He made some promises to Muslim Americans as well. I do not think that Trump fully appreciates how isolated the United States is among Israel’s Arab and Muslim neighbors. MBS in Saudi Arabia, who was on the verge of cutting a deal with Trump four years ago to engage Israel in diplomatic relations, is speaking with a different voice now. There will be no relationship with Israel until there is a secure Palestinian state. To underscore that point, the Saudi Defense Minister traveled to Tehran to meet his Iranian counterpart last week.
While I’m willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, I stand by my belief that if Trump takes the US to war in Iran or China, he will destroy his Presidency, and possibly the nation. My advice, let’s wait-and-see what Trump does his first week in office. At that point, if I am wrong, I will take the drubbing I deserve. Until then, keep your powder dry. Trump is trying to do something with the bloated US Government that has never been attempted, at least until now.
As much as I hate to admit it, politics is the art of compromise. Fingers crossed, Divine guidance requested and action needed.
Very true.
I was a Q follower and then became a Q sceptic. However, I still keep an ear open to the factions still following Q. The coincidences that pop up in the Q predictions are, at times, uncanny. Q has said that Israel will be saved for last. Maybe lots of power connections need severing before Israel can be successfully tackled.
Whether I judge or with hold judgement of Trump’s strategy at this point, is kind of moot. I’m not in a position to do much anyway. I sure am enjoying the reactions to apple carts being overturned!!
Thanks for your appraisal. We need to hear different perspectives.
Q was and is a Mossad/CIA/MI6 psyop. Keep us distracted and hopeful and docile. They’re feeding off the good natured American psyche.
I am interested in all viewpoints!
I was cogitating on one issue, wondering why the Trump/Rogan podcast was such a big deal. Trump had already sat with at least 2 other podcasters prior. OK Rogan is the most watched most pieced out in YT’s for clips, but still. So maybe the “tell” isn’t Rogan per se but just the fact that Trump’s appearance there absolutely, finally kicked MSM to the curb for everyone to see. But the real tell is the content. 3 hours of unscripted, un-edited ( the biggie, unedited ) get to really know the candidate and more importantly the issues. We HAVE to get back to where the issues are 80% of the conversation we need to get totally away from this cult of personalities we now “enjoy”. From now on, any voter actually engaged in the electorate will demand such appearance where pols can’t dodge hard questions, these podcasters won’t stand for all the BS the MSM does. Last election where a biden or kammie hides in the basement while the hordes carry their water for them, Uh uh. Not gonna happen. Yeah, they created the internet to help control us, but it is back-firing bigly, the SOC has the best weapon to self-organize. Information. Information not nukes is the weapon of now and the future.
According to Conservative Treehouse, Trump is appointing pro-Israel people. I.E. Mike Huckabee. A Christian Zionist to be probably the Ambassador to Israel. I’m not Israeli. I’m not Jewish. I see too much interest in Israel’s survival and not enough interest in the survival of my people. White Westerners. There will be no peace in the middle east. War is on the agenda. War by the US for Israel. Price tag?
Agree.
The ONLY REASON why Trump picked Gov. Huck to be ambassador to Israel is to placate the evangelical (Israel first at all costs--even to the total demise of the USA) domestic crazies. As a former preacher, Huck fits that bill. Is Israel going to get its war with Iran. I highly doubt it. In fact you can practically kiss this idea off, even though nut-jobs like Boy-Butter-Graham has a constant pro-war monkey-spanking chubby over this idea. It’s not going to happen.
A protracted war with Iran (and Russia) would literally cost upwards of 100 trillion dollars (with the cost of modern weapons), which the USA does not have--and the outcome would be in doubt as Russia would assuredly come into play with this.
A war with Iran and Russia would mean the end of your lifestyle as you know it and not merely from economic collapse and bankruptcy, but from kinetic attacks on North America. President Trump can see the bottom line of such a war--and it’s not pretty. First thing Trump is going to do is wind-down the war with Ukraine as Ukraine has lost. At the same time I believe he is going to unleash heavy diplomacy with Israel and Iran to cool down the tensions. Iran has not counter-attacked Israel as of yet if you haven’t noticed--and there’s some reason behind this, most likely diplomatic efforts to avoid a massive war.
Another Harbard posted article. One can always predict which way the content will veer.
You have a problem with different points of view? Does anyone pointing out the obvious evil of the Israeli regime and the dual-citizen Zionists in our own government receive your scorn? You hate me because I’m the messenger? I didn’t write the piece, I only offered it. You don’t like what I post don’t read it. The nit-picking is becoming really tiresome. No, I don’t support Israel. No, I’m not an evangelical Christian. No, I’m not a Muslim lover, either. I have no dog in their fight. And no, I’m certainly not a Jew. I love my country. I love my people (white, heterosexual, European descended, regardless of their spiritual leanings). It would seem we could at least coalesce around that commonality.
I doubt that the ad-hominem attacks I receive in these comment sections would be made to my face. Easy to bitch when one is safely ensconced behind their keyboard. Why some at this site seem to be so intolerant from a religious perspective amazes me. I didn’t even bring up religion and the post here only refers to it tangentially. I thought we had freedom of religion here. It’s in the Constitution. That said, I’m sure you and others here would love nothing better than to burn all the heretics at the stake, including me. Well, bring it. I’m not going away. I live here too.
Sorry to go off on you Quartermain, but your snide comment was just the last straw for me with the “hate Harbard” because he’s not an Evangelical. We have common enemies and a common secular bond, I just don’t see how the constant attacks and digs do anything but aide the enemy.
None at all, I appreciate different points of view and your right to have them. I correctly noted which way your narrative will always swing. Just like I can be sure CNN and MSNBC will always go :Russia, Russia, Russia! That was the sum of my content, nothing more. You appear to be a one trick pony..
Speaking of religion and intolerance . I cannot enter secular Isreal because I am a rabbi who has accepted the Messiah. That is a fact!
Well the main thing you are possibly noticing is that there are no ‘men in dresses wearing lipstick, pretending to be women, or women with butch hair cuts pretending to be men being nominated. There’s no openly (militant in your face degenerate) homosexuals or lesbians being picked. And these types are being shoved back into the closet where they belong FYI. There’s no Marxist/Leninists being picked. There are no ‘America haters’ on President Trump’s agenda here out… if you haven’t noticed.
Everyone President Trump is selecting is on his agenda of ‘burning down the deep state system’ and the complete opposite of individuals like Liz (the post-menstral nut-case) Cheney, John McShame, or that boy-fool who stabbed Trump in the back at every step, Paul Ryan (uber ponce).
Don’t rule out civil war one bit.
Why would one even say that? In what possible way could a CW result in a good outcome at this point?
Actually, Palestine is a country, not a state. Israel is the invader seizing property it is not entitled to.