Trump Cannot Do Job of Commander in Chief

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/4/23/121024/288

Trump Cannot Do Job of Commander in Chief
by BooMan
Mon Apr 23rd, 2018 at 12:10:24 PM EST

snip//

There’s one more part of Patrick Radden Keefe’s piece that I want to share with you. It’s on the subject of how the National Security Strategy paper was crafted last year under McMaster’s guidance. There are a variety of things you can take away from this excerpt, none of them good in my estimation.

In December, the White House unveiled its “National Security Strategy,” a sixty-eight-page document in which the N.S.C. staff laid out Trump’s official view of the world. McMaster’s aides proudly claimed that this was the first time a national-security-strategy document had been published within the first year of a Presidential Administration. The document had conspicuously Trumpian lacunae; there were no references to climate change as a national-security threat, for example. But it seemed to be an effort to domesticate some of Trump’s bellicose rhetoric, emphasizing the importance of competition among the great powers but also of American leadership. Trump had mocked NATO as “obsolete”; the document described the alliance as “one of our greatest advantages.” It explicitly named Russia and China as malign influences, and declared that the Russians had used technology “to undermine the legitimacy of democracies.” Such language was in sharp contrast with Trump’s strenuous avoidance of blaming the Kremlin for election interference. An N.S.C. official told me, “The fundamental question is, can you divorce Presidential rhetoric from American foreign policy?”

Composing the document was a challenge, because Trump did not have many concrete views on foreign policy beyond bumper-sticker sentiments like “America first.” When McMaster requested Trump’s input, the President grew frustrated and defensive, as if he’d been ambushed with a pop quiz. So staffers adopted Trump’s broad ideal of American competitiveness and tried to extrapolate which policies he might favor in specific instances. McMaster touted the resulting document as “highly readable,” and as a text it seems reassuringly plausible. But nobody on McMaster’s staff could confirm for me with any conviction that the President himself had read it.

What sticks with me is the image of McMaster coming to the president to get his input on what should be in the nation’s statement of national security policy and discovering that he’s just making Trump feel stupid and defensive and inadequate, like he’s been given a pop quiz for which he hasn’t prepared.

It’s related to Trump’s anger at being provided reading materials, like it’s unwanted homework or asking a fourth grader to do trigonometry before he’s allowed to play with his Xbox.

It’s not just that Trump cannot perform the duties of commander in chief. He doesn’t want to even make an effort to fulfill those duties. When confronted with them, he is apparently is overcome with feelings of inadequacy that make him lash out or shut down.

And it’s not just that he can’t consume or process a bare minimum of the information he needs to make decisions, but that he doesn’t listen to the little information that does make its way into his brain. This is also obviously the case with his lawyers, but that’s largely a problem confined to Trump and his future prospects of remaining president and out of prison. When his shortcomings involve our national security, it’s a problem for all of us and the people of every nation.

In the end, Trump’s removal from office could be justified on the same kinds of grounds that forced Spiro Agnew out, which was basically corruption that preceded his run for federal office. Or it could be justified on the grounds that forced Nixon out, which was basically a break-in of the Democratic National Headquarters followed by a massive coverup. But it’s his inability to do the job of commander in chief that is really the primary reason he should be removed from office, and the reason his own cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment.

[democratisphere]

1. Not fit to serve as Commander-In-Chief.

Roll out the 25th Amendment!

[Achilleaze]

2. The republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief* is unfit for duty

* aka Comrade Casino

[Orsino]

3. Counterpoint: the little that Trump can do has been redefined as the job of CinC.

Our military has been partially neutralized or hampered. This may be a good thing, with a twitchy Bolton eager to take it out for another spin.