EXCLUSIVE. TIT FOR TAT? White House Official Floated Withdrawing U.S. Forces to Please Putin

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast



A member of Trump’s National Security Council staff had a radical notion: to pare back American troops in Europe as a way to curry favor with the Kremlin.

SPENCER ACKERMAN
01.09.18 7:00 PM ET

A senior National Security Council official proposed withdrawing some U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe as an overture to Vladimir Putin during the early days of the Trump administration, according to a former administration official in the room with him.

While the proposal was ultimately not adopted, it is the first known case of senior aides to Donald Trump seeking to reposition U.S. military forces to please Putin—something that smelled, to a colleague, like a return on Russia’s election-time investment in President Trump. The White House did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment.

The official who offered the proposal, a deputy assistant to Trump for strategic planning, mused in February 2017 about withdrawing U.S. troops close to Russian borders as part of a strategy proposal to “refram[e] our interests within the context of a new relationship with Russia,” the former official told The Daily Beast, who heard this directly from the official, Kevin Harrington.

Harrington is the NSC’s senior official for strategic planning. He had neither military experience nor significant government experience before joining the White House. But he had an influential credential: as a managing director for the Thiel Macro hedge fund, he was close to Trump patron and ally Peter Thiel. Trump’s first national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, announced Harrington’s arrival in early February as part of a “talented group” ready to bring “fresh ideas to the table.”

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-official-floated-withdrawing-us-forces-to-please-putin?ref=home

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[gademocrat7]

1. WTF

The incompetence and stupidity of this cabal is galling. Treasonous bastards.

[LiberalFighter]

2. I'm getting fed up with these Trump people.

They should lose everything they have. It is treason.

[kairos12]

3. Drumpt reinstalling the Iron Curtain.

[Corgigal]

4. Why are any of these people allowed to make any decision?

Everything needs to freeze until we know Trump and Pence are surviving the investigation.

If they can hold up a Supreme Court pick because of bullshit, this needs to stop. They may not be working for the best interest of the country, close it down until we know that we actually did consent to be govern by these people.

[getagrip_already]

5. I am physically ill....

Of all the crap this admin has pulled, this is the most galling. Why not just surender the country and be done with it?

[BigmanPigman]

6. Where can a person purchase some plutonium?

Just asking.

[Kristofer Bry]

7. The Treason--not Trump--Administration

[keithbvadu2]

8. Putting money into Trump Inc. is the best investment Putin ever made.

[Historic NY]

9. This guy would sell out the country for thirty pieces of silver....

appease Russia? WTF