http://www.dailywire.com/news/5314/simple-donald-talks-foreign-policy-ben-shapiro#pq=VpsgopSimple Donald Talks Foreign PolicyBY: BEN SHAPIRO APRIL 27, 2016
On Wednesday, 2016 Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump delivered a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. His speech was well-received by those who now file his toenails for a living, keeping the clippings in a hope jar beneath their beds. They were duly impressed by the fact that he pronounced the word “America” correctly:
Newt Gingrich ✔ @newtgingrich
Washington elites mock Trump for mispronouncing Tanzania. They don't get it. He said the most important word correctly: America. He gets it.
Newt Gingrich ✔ @newtgingrich
This was a serious foreign policy speech by Trump. It is worth reading and thinking about. It will be ridiculed by Washington elites.
1:07 PM - 27 Apr 2016
We may have fallen a few ticks from Lincoln when your definition of success is pronouncing the name of your home country. And when it comes to “Washington elites,” one wonders whether Gingrich owns a mirror of any sort, or even a shiny reflective object.
It wasn’t just Gingrich, of course. Ann Coulter grabbed a pair of pom-poms to celebrate Trump’s genius:
Ann CoulterVerified account
@AnnCoulter
GREATEST FOREIGN POLICY SPEECH SINCE WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.
Laura Ingraham even started comparing “Mr. Trump” with miracles of nature:
Laura Ingraham ✔ @IngrahamAngle
If Mr Trump were a flower....
1:19 PM - 26 Apr 2016
To be sure, the speech was impressive in the same way that Keanu Reeves reading Shakespeare is impressive: it’s not good, but you’re taken aback that he can do it at all. After all, the speech wasn’t written by Trump, and he had to read words of more than three syllables.
But that didn’t mean that Simple Donald had anything coherent or decent to say. Instead, Trump rattled off a series of isolationist aphorisms combined with nativist aphorisms combined with basic truisms. This is what passes for genius in Trumpworld, where Mr. Trump is always right.
Trump began with the same slogan as isolationist Charles Lindbergh: America first. “My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security above all else. It has to be first. Has to be. That will be the foundation of every single decision that I will make. America first will be the major and overriding theme of my administration. But to chart our path forward, we must first briefly take a look back. We have a lot to be proud of.”
Now, such language would be fine were it not that Trump appears to follow Lindbergh’s line generally. After pumping up our victories in World War II and the Cold War like Regis Philbin (“guess what, we won and we won big!”), Trump moved on to his real message: since the Cold War, America hasn’t had a decent foreign policy. “Logic was replaced with foolishness and arrogance” – hey, isn't "Foolishness And Arrogance" Trump’s campaign slogan? – and this “led to one foreign policy disaster after another.”
What were these disasters?
Trump rattled off Iraq (even though he wanted HW to oust Saddam Hussein and sided with W on the Iraq War), Libya (even though he sided with Hillary Clinton on ousting Muammar Qaddafi) and Egypt; he added that he didn’t like President Obama’s “line in the sand on Syria” (even though Trump backed giving control of Syria to Vladimir Putin, Obama’s ultimate policy there). In other words, virtually everything Trump backed he now considers a rotten idea. “Very bad!” he concluded, in typically eloquent fashion.
Trump continued by stating that he opposes the idea of democracy-building. Good for him. So does virtually everyone else. But he slandered the troops lost in Iraq as “lives, lives, lives wasted.” Our veterans – still waiting for the rest of their Trump check, by the way – will certainly be happy to hear that they left their comrades and blood on the battlefield for nothing according to a man who somehow avoided the Vietnam draft.
All of this was prelude, however, to his list of five weaknesses in American foreign policy.
First, Trump said, “our resources are totally overextended.” Trump correctly noted that Obama’s economy has been rotten, but wrongly blames that on free trade, as always. “We’re rebuilding other countries while weakening our own,” Trump said – a ridiculous talking point, given that the vast majority of our budget is spent on precisely the entitlement programs Trump wants to maintain and grow, and given the fact that the United States hasn't rebuilt Mexico or China, both of which are stagnating. Trump concluded that tariffs will somehow build the military – a moronic notion thoroughly debunked. “I am the only person running for the presidency who understands this and this is a serious problem. I’m the only one — believe me, I know them all, I’m the only one who knows how to fix it,” Trump stated.
He’s certainly the only one with a solution this dumb.
Second, said Trump, “our allies are not paying their fair share, and I’ve been talking about this recently a lot.” Trump then threatened to end our alliances with countries failing to pay what he deems enough money for their own defense: “The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense, and if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves. We have no choice.”
Actually, we do have a choice. Foreign aid amounts to less than 1 percent of our federal budget. We can certainly exert leverage on our allies to assume more of their own defense burden. We should do that. But preparing to let these countries “defend themselves,” as Trump puts it, means widespread nuclear proliferation, as well as expansion of our enemies’ spheres of influence. China and Russia must be licking their chops thinking about a Trump presidency.
Third, Trump explained, “our friends are beginning to think they can’t depend on us.” Yes, he said this directly after threatening to leave them to the wolves if they don’t pony up the dough.
The stupidity. It hurts.
Trump is right when he said that Obama “dislikes our friends and bows to our enemies, something that we’ve never seen before in the history of our country. He negotiated a disastrous deal with Iran, and then we watched them ignore its terms even before the ink was dry. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, cannot be allowed. Remember that, cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”
But Trump is the only major Republican candidate who said that he would not repudiate the Iran deal on the first day in office. Trump rightly ripped the Obama administration for lacking “moral clarity” about Israel – but it’s Trump who has said that he wouldn’t take moral sides between Israel and the Palestinians. “We’ve picked fights with our oldest friends, and now they’re starting to look elsewhere for help. Remember that. Not good,” said Trump.
Of course, under Trump, that will continue.
Fourth, Trump said, “our rivals no longer respect us. In fact, they’re just as confused as our allies, but in an even bigger problem is they don’t take us seriously anymore.”
Again, true. But nobody takes Trump seriously.
Finally, Trump said that America “no longer has a clear understanding of our foreign policy goals.” He rattled off a grocery list of Obama failures – all true.
Then he got to his solutions: handing him power, and believing in fairies.
“This will all change when I become president,” Trump blathered. “To our friends and allies, I say America is going to be strong again. America is going to be reliable again. It’s going to be a great and reliable ally again. It’s going to be a friend again. We’re going to finally have a coherent foreign policy based upon American interests and the shared interests of our allies.”
Trump worshippers began wetting their pants as he spouted platitudinous nonsense phrases: “focusing on creating stability in the world,” “politics ended at water’s edge,” “a new rational American foreign policy informed by the best minds,” “we will win if I become president.”
If you believe this, you are a rube.
First, Trump said, he would issue “a long-term plan to halt the spread and reach of radical Islam.” He offered no specifics, other than a repeat of his reassessment of Muslim immigration. Here was Trump’s master plan on defeating ISIS: “Their days are numbered. I won’t tell them where and I won’t tell them how. We must as a nation be more unpredictable.” There, Trump will certainly fit the bill, given the fact that he doesn’t know what’s coming out of his very good brain next.
Second, Trump said we would “rebuild our military and our economy.” He criticized President Obama’s military cuts, but again gave no specifics as to how he would better fund the military. He just trotted out the tired old fact-free bromide that he would eliminate waste and abuse: “Not one dollar can be wasted. Not one single dollar can we waste.” How would he revitalize our economy in order to pay for the military? By erecting economically illiterate trade barriers, which would heighten the chances of global conflict while simultaneously impoverishing American consumers.
Third, Trump said that America must reshape its foreign policy “based on American interests.” As opposed to the interests of the evil Micronesian cabal, presumably. What would that look like? Trump wants “to defeat radical terrorists and promote regional stability, not radical change.” Given his wildly nonsensical Syrian, Iranian, and Israeli policy, trusting Trump to achieve regional stability seems risky. Trump also wants to be friends with the Russians: “I believe an easing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia from a position of strength only is possible, absolutely possible.” Why not? After all, Vladimir Putin flattered Trump’s pride, so he must be a solid fellow. Trump would also start a trade war with China – not on the basis of anti-communism, but on the basis of protectionism: “We have a massive trade deficit with China, a deficit that we have to find a way quickly, and I mean quickly, to balance.” That won’t set off security bells all over the world at all, obviously.
Trump concluded with a lofty series of Obama-esque truisms: “I will never sent our finest into battle unless necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital V…Our goal is peace and prosperity, not war and destruction….Our friends and enemies must know that if I draw a line in the sand, I will enforce that line in the sand. Believe me.”
Trump said that he would rely on new voices: “We have to look to new people because many of the old people frankly don’t know what they’re doing, even though they may look awfully good writing in the New York Times or being watched on television.” Reminder: this is the man who says he gets his information from the TV shows.
This is Foreign Policy For Dummies – which, coincidentally, Trump may have had read to him by one of his sycophants while gobbling from the fondue table at one of his garishly luxurious palaces. But because standards for Trump are so low, this foreign policy vomit has been hailed as some sort of intellectual godsend. “Yes!” his supporters cry, “He says he’ll be for America! If you oppose him you must hate America!”
No. There are those of us who merely hate stupidity – unprincipled Lindbergh-esque nativism, isolationist numbskullery, economic imbecility, incoherent vacillation between wild threats and unearned flattery – and the violence such stupidity brings in its wake. The world is full of capable, brutal enemies of the United States. They must be drooling looking at the bloated asininity of Donald Trump and the fawning support of his loyal bootlickers.
