- michael flynn resigns/fired as head of national security council.
- jeff sessions forced to recuse himself from all russia inquiries.
- steve bannon kicked off the national security council.
- devin nunes steps down from intelligence committee investigation on russia.
- "repeal and replace" healthcare bill can't even get to a vote.
- multiple russia inquiries underway.
Two days before, the Syrian regime killed at least 80 of its own citizens with a poison gas attack. On television, Trump saw video clips of people suffering and dying. Some were children.
This viewing apparently caused the president to abruptly change American policy from one of hands-off the Syrian civil war to deliberate intervention against President Bashar al-Assad.
Indeed, Trump binge-watches cable news channels and reacts impulsively and viscerally to how the pictures and the words make him feel. When he applies this method to foreign policy, it worries even the intellectual commentators on his sanctuary network, Fox News Channel.
One of them, Charles Krauthammer, spoke with trepidation about this a couple hours before the attack began when it was clear what was to come.
“The whipsaw here is quite remarkable,” Krauthammer said on Special Report. “Now, we have an emotional response.”
At that point, anchor Bret Baier interrupted to say Trump changed only after the hideous attack.
“I understand,” Krauthammer replied, with admirable restraint. “But if you’re going to announce a policy and then you revoke it three days later because of the President’s emotional reaction to pictures—remember, Assad has been at this for seven years.”
If this atrocity is a reason to go to war now, Krauthammer asked, why not years ago when President Barack Obama was in power and people like Trump warned him not to fight in Syria, despite previous chemical attacks?
“When a superpower changes its policy radically because the President is moved by pictures,” Krauthammer said, “you’ve got to wonder about the stability of the foreign policy.”
Once upon a time, there was a dictator who had a daughter. The dictator, who came to power vowing to make his country great, enacted a series of repressive policies under the guise of nationalism. He persecuted the media and the opposition, used “war on terror” rhetoric to justify a clampdown on civil rights, maintained a close but complicated relationship with Russia, and built a kleptocracy that ensured the country’s riches lined his pockets.
The daughter seemed different – or at least, she wanted to be seen that way. She was an Ivy League-educated cosmopolitan socialite who married into a powerful business family before making her mark as a fashion designer and businesswoman. Like her father, she encouraged an avid personality cult; and like her father, she hid her own brutal practices under the pretext of a soft “feminism”, claiming to represent the ideal modern woman of her country.
I’m talking, of course, about Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov and his daughter Gulnara Karimova.
He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is.
President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House.
"I loved my previous life. I had so many things going," Trump told Reuters in an interview. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."