Trump — ‘Give Russia everything they want’ (2)  

Last week, I hope you found the time to read the first part of my write up on John Bolton’s book – THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED. If you didn’t, please find the link here – https://www.thecable.ng/trump-the-three-year-old-king-of-america-1 

If you have been following The Three-Year-Old King of America, you will definitely not be surprised at the title of today’s write up as there is absolutely nothing beyond that baby man’s impulse. If he thinks it, he says it. If he says it, there are at least many two – for – a – penny clowns empowered by the laws and traditions of America to make his wishes come true.

If you are looking for the John Bolton’s reference to the title of this article, you can find it on Page 128 of the book. Per Bolton, Trump’s exact words were “Whatever they (the Russians) want, tell them we’ll do whatever they want”

So when Angela Merkel (the German Chancellor) tells Three Year Old King Trump point blank at the NATO Summit in July 2018 that “We (meaning Germany) are not yet completely controlled by Russia”, she probably was insinuating in line with Bolton’s reference that Trump & America were completely controlled by Russia. Come to think of it, Bolton’s book is littered with several references of how adept Vladimir Putin was in playing Trump psychologically.

Bolton told the story of the Helsinki Summitt to emphasise the influence Putin has on Trump. For someone with a legendary reputation for not listening to anybody even his intelligence advisors, Trump did all the listening in Helsinki. This has to be a sign of an awe-struck good boy who knows his boss. The boy king pressed all his advisors not to be critical of Russia publicly. He is so beholden to Russia and also to China, it is unbelievable. He stopped his government from issuing a statement criticising the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia. He stopped another statement on the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre.

To be fair to Trump, Putin was not his only master. President Xi of China was another. According to John Bolton, in a telephone call on June 18, 2019, Trump told Xi that what was happening in Hong Kong was a domestic China issue. The American King told his advisors not to discuss Hong Kong publicly in any way, shape or form (so as not to annoy President Xi). During the Three-Year-Old King’s 2017 trip to China and at the opening dinner of the Osaka G20 meeting, he also gave the Chinese President his blessing on the building of concentration camps for the Uighurs. So please forget all the later day posturing by America on China’s response to the pro-democracy demonstrations / activities in Hong Kong. America’s posturing is all for the forthcoming election.

Once the Americans entrust their liberty to the Three-Year-Old King for the second and final time, their eyes will be open. His master in China has already made it clear during their meeting in December 1, 2018 at the Buenos Aires G7 summit that he (Xi) wanted Trump to win the 2020 US elections. King Trump himself asked for this exact favour during his telephone call with President Xi on June 18, 2019.

According to Bolton, there wasn’t one authoritarian leader Trump didn’t kow tow to. His numerous engagements with President Erdogan of Turkey are hilarious. King Trump’s December 1, 2018 meeting with Erdogan has to be one of the most bizarre meeting between two people supposedly on opposing side. Trump either has a severe comprehension problem or the bar to persuading him is set very low. There clearly has to be a reason other than his mental age that makes Trump change his mind every time he speaks with Erdogan. You might think he has no backbone and you will be right or perhaps his backbone has been bent out of shape by who knows what. Bolton’s narrative of how the supposed leader of the free world undermined his own country on the criminal case the US had against the President Xi’s Chinese telecommunication company, ZTE is unbelievable. Jaw dropping stuff even. There has to be more to his actions.

Another leader who apparently played Trump like the drum was Kim Jong – Un. According to Bolton, all Kim wanted was his photo opportunity with Trump and to stymie any talk of US action on the North Korea threat to South Korea and Japan. Kim got both in abundance. Despite the buffoonish characterisation of Kim Jong Un by the Western media, some of the steps he took to manoeuvre Trump into a meeting and some of his actions during their summits and its preparations actually shows he is a savvy operator. Guess who the real buffoon is. According to Bolton, Boris Johnson was another world leader who was adapt at playing Trump like a fiddle. We all know three-year olds love their clowns.

It wasn’t just about kow towing, or being played like a drum though, it was also the numerous examples of Trump having childlike conversations with World Leaders and they in turn treating him like a child. Bolton references a May 2018 chat between King Trump and China’s Xi on the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and other conversations to buttress his point. While it is terrible for a world leader to have childlike conversations with his contemporaries, what is unfathomable is the same leader making up conversations with fellow world leaders. King Trump claimed that Japan and South Korea told him they don’t impose sanctions on North Korea. These conversations never happened but it didn’t stop Trump using these lies as a basis for US policy. This is not really surprising as three year olds are adept at making up imaginary conversations.

To be fair, Bolton inadvertently explained why Trump rarely got anything right. His characterisation of Trump is unbelievable. He portrays Trump as very lazy. A leader whose day started at lunchtime. On that score, Trump is a lot better than General Sani Abacha. The dark goggled Nigerian Maximum Ruler’s day started at night time like an armed robber.  Not only did Trump wake up late, he fell asleep at meetings with world leaders. Bolton references one of such Trump meetings in May 2019 with Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Trump was legendary for poorly preparing for meetings with world leaders and not fully understanding his brief. He was also quick to give national and bilateral interests away. He agreed to cancel US / South Korea military exercises because Russian and China complained about them.

Trump’s inability to properly prepare for his meetings and to master his brief have grave real-life consequences, potentially the death of US soldiers and allies and the civilian population as demonstrated in the Trump / Erdogan / Syria withdrawal drama. To Bolton, the death of thousands mean nothing to Trump. The only lesson Trump apparently learnt from 911 is that America would have been better of rebuilding The World Trade Centre than pursuing the terrorists who attacked the country. Bolton placed Trump on record as not given a damn if ISIS came back to Iraq. Unimaginable.

To further demonstrate how life meant nothing to him, he wanted to execute journalists who publish leaks from his government. Considering he has no jurisdiction over the Press, maybe he should consider executing members of his administration who leak instead. His terribly poor management of the Covid19 pandemic in the US is also another example of how little he values life. Bolton insinuates that the desire to finalise the US – China trade deal led to the poor response to the outbreak of Covid19 in the US. Bolton claims that the soul of the executive branch of the US government was gutted and the system failed at multiple levels all because of the trade deal and all because of the re – election campaign of Trump.

This governance style wasn’t a one off. Bolton claims that The Trump administration has designed a breath-taking policy work around to manage Trump’s tantrums. Government decision making is deliberately not communicated to the public in case the King changes his mind. For a three-year-old, it is not surprising that something like that happens often. For someone who runs this shit shower of an administration to then label President Bush 43 as the worst US President ever is ironic. A shame three year olds don’t have a sense of Irony. They can however look in the mirror.

As with all three year olds, Trump loves his yes men except when they are authoritarian world leaders. Try saying no to a three-year-old and all you get back is a tantrum. Bolton recounted how Trump told him he prefers Vice President Pence’s National Security Adviser Keith Kellogg. Trump claimed that Kellogg was his favourite as he (Kellogg) always kept schtum except when instructed to open his mouth. He was also never on TV to upstage Big Baby Trump. Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State was another yes man. He says YES SIR to Trump in a subservient way. There is not one record of Pompeo attempting to stand up to Trump.

Pompeo is not alone in not standing up to him. The list of his enablers is long. I will outline this in the final and concluding part of this three-part article next week. I will also present a number of nice to know facts from the book.

Baba Grumpy works in financial services in the United Kingdom. He blogs mostly about football at http://babagrumpy.blogspot.co.uk. His Twitter handle is @BabaGrumpy