The world is becoming a much more dangerous place.
Since the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, one thing has been revealed to be true. America’s adversaries, especially North Korea, have grown stronger and been emboldened.
In these perilous moments, instead of a White House focused completely on the threats at hand, President Trump’s staff has been — and continues to be — mired in backstabbing and intrigue. Right wing news site Breitbart has been waging war on National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and some say they see the hand of President Trump’s close adviser, Steve Bannon, who formerly led Breitbart and is reported to be at odds with McMaster.
On Afghanistan and other national security issues, tensions between McMaster and the “nationalist” wing of the White House staff has been increasingly evident, and Bannon is reportedly pushing to restructure the communications staff with Stephen Miller in an elevated role.
In an editorial Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal said, “Policy brawls are routine in any White House, and Lt. Gen. McMaster can surely handle his corner. The issue for Mr. Kelly — and Mr. Trump — is what to do when disagreement inside the White House turns into vilification of his staff from the outside.”
In recent days, Breitbart has run multiple stories that promote McMaster’s firing, highlight a Zionist organization’s plan to investigate him, associate him with a “scheme” to oust the President, question his temperament, tie him to a multinational corporation doing “billions in business with Iran,” link him to George Soros and portray him as “hostile to Israel and to Trump.” The Wall Street Journal and others have rightly pointed out the danger, should this campaign of (to my mind, unfounded) vilification continue. President Trump has expressed some support for McMaster, but in language that is less than passionate.
Is it any wonder North Korea — or any other adversary of the US — isn’t scared by Trump’s threats?
Most regimes do all they can to suppress gossip and prevent stories of disorganization and lack of unity from appearing in public.
Instead, Donald Trump chooses to broadcast the chaos on Twitter.
It’s in his tweets where you see the President attack his own attorney general and the free press.
His entire administration is unstable and throwing punches at one another.
Meanwhile, this year alone, North Korea has launched 11 ballistic missile tests — one of which was conducted on the Fourth of July.
How did President Trump respond to this blatant act of aggression and mockery towards the United States? By asking in a tweet whether South Korea, Japan and China would step up and “end this nonsense once and for all!”
On July 28, North Korea tested a missile that had the capability of reaching California. That day, President Trump replaced his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
In a dramatic expansion of the rogue nation’s nuclear capabilities, it’s been revealed that North Korea has, according to one agency cited in the Washington Post, “successfully produced a miniaturized warhead that can fit inside its missiles.”
Again, President Trump responded with his typical show of bravado and simplicity, warning North Korea that they “best not make any more threats to the United States” or “be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen … fire fury and frankly power the likes of which the world has never seen before.”
You would think that the world’s greatest superpower threatening to unleash something worse than World War III on your country might be cause for fear.
You know what North Korea’s doing right now?
They’re making commemorative stamps celebrating the success of their ballistic missile tests.
Maybe if the President and the White House didn’t spend their every waking moment playing Game of Thrones, North Korea might take the President’s threats a little more seriously.
Then again, all Kim Jong-un has to do is follow @realdonaldtrump on Twitter and you’re right inside the head of the most powerful man in the world.
Because of President Trump’s love of dysfunction and drama (and his appointment of Gen. John Kelly as chief of staff), we currently do not have a permanent secretary of Homeland Security. The national security adviser is under siege from someone on his own team. The attorney general has been publicly humiliated by his own boss. And President Trump’s former campaign manager’s home has been raided by the FBI.
Every second that the President and his staff spend plotting against one another, leaking details about palace intrigue to their platforms of preference, sending tweets attacking one another, etc. is a second not being spent preparing to address the very real and dangerous threats we are facing.
If President Trump and his staff continue down this path, at some point, something horrible is going to happen that could have been prevented had they kept their eye on the ball.