From pandering to Putin, abusing allies, ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm staff

[Dennis Donovan]

Last edited Mon Jun 29, 2020, 06:31 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html

By Carl Bernstein, CNN

Updated 5:48 PM ET, Mon June 29, 2020

(CNN)In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.

The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often "delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders. The sources said there was little evidence that the President became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with most heads of state over time. Rather, he continued to believe that he could either charm, jawbone or bully almost any foreign leader into capitulating to his will, and often pursued goals more attuned to his own agenda than what many of his senior advisers considered the national interest.

These officials' concerns about the calls, and particularly Trump's deference to Putin, take on new resonance with reports the President may have learned in March that Russia had offered the Taliban bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan -- and yet took no action. CNN's sources said there were calls between Putin and Trump about Trump's desire to end the American military presence in Afghanistan but they mentioned no discussion of the supposed Taliban bounties.

By far the greatest number of Trump's telephone discussions with an individual head of state were with Erdogan, who sometimes phoned the White House at least twice a week and was put through directly to the President on standing orders from Trump, according to the sources. Meanwhile, the President regularly bullied and demeaned the leaders of America's principal allies, especially two women: telling Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom she was weak and lacked courage; and telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel that she was "stupid."

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Link to tweet

southpaw @nycsouthpaw

oh well. https://cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html



6:11 PM · Jun 29, 2020

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[dewsgirl]

2. K and R

[CountAllVotes]

3. Time to

Lock him up and throw away the damned key!

[lpbk2713]

4. Wait about six months.

The market will be flooded with "now it can be told" books authored by former
Trump stooges hoping to make a buck before they go to federal prison.

[Mike 03]

5. This is a major report. Many new details.

The calls with Putin and Erdogan were particularly egregious in terms of Trump almost never being prepared substantively and thus leaving him susceptible to being taken advantage of in various ways, according to the sources -- in part because those conversations (as with most heads of state), were almost certainly recorded by the security services and other agencies of their countries.

[soothsayer]

8. That Turkish thing and Berman's firing ...

Let it all hang out, baby

[soothsayer]

6. Holy cow

K&R

[FirstLight]

7. Wow...all kinds of things will be coming out this week methinks

Wow

[smirkymonkey]

9. K&R

The floodgates are opening. He's toast.

[Cha]

12. I hope to hell so, smirky!

Excellent reporting from Bernstein!

[underpants]

10. inordinately solicitous of Putin's admiration and seemingly seeking his approval

This whole thing is one bomb after another. Bernstein no less. That gives it real gravitas.

[Cha]

11. And, this is the Treasonous ASSFACE that SSarandon said "Hillary was More

Dangerous than trump.."

And, how's that " .. trump looking Presidential.. " working out for you Van Stupid Jones?

Thank you, Carl Bernstein.. excellent reporting!

[Dennis Donovan]

13. Kick

[tanyev]

14. They thought he was delusional, but they continued to enable him.

[Skittles]

15. BUT HER EMAILS

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[underpants]

16. Second response. This is astounding piece. It meets the theme I've seen

I’m not saying that this didn’t surprise but the depth of the reporting (Bernstein) amazing.

The theme that I’ve seen is that he thinks the Presidency is lucky to have HIM. There is no sense of respect for the office or the responsibility. No sense of respect for those who preceded him. Oh and he’s a moron and he needs a rooting section.

[onecaliberal]

17. He needs to go now.