Donald Trump gave a 45 minute foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, earlier today.
Even though Trump has attacked politicians for using teleprompters, saying this only four days ago, "Isn't it nice that I'm not one of these teleprompter guys?" He used one today to outline what his vision would be if he was the leader of the free world.
The result was a flat and boring speech, that yielded nothing new in the form of any real policy prescriptions. He stated he wanted to build up our military to incredible new heights, but then used more isolationist rhetoric on how he would deploy them. He threw out some red meat for his base by using the same old talking points on President Obama and Benghazi. But then in as bland a way as possible, he often contradicted himself on his ideas. Basically, it was the same Trump, only less animated and less alive.
Turning over to Fox News to get their initial sense of the speech, John Bolton said that Trump's speech was "strong and impressive."
Turning over to CNN, I found a very long and detailed segment analyzing what Trump actually said. The best coming from Nick Paton Walsh, a British journalist who is their Senior International correspondent, currently working in Beirut.
BLITZER: Let's talk about what he suggested, suggesting the policies of Obama have laid the groundwork for the establishment of the creation of ISIS and now this threat that now exists in this region and outside the region?
Walsh responded by saying "(Trump's) grasp of Middle Eastern history seems to sort of stop at about 2000, then pick up again in about 2008." Paton Walsh then dismantled most of what Trump said about the middle east and ISIS.
PATON WALSH: "It's interesting. his grasp of history seems to stop in about 2000 and pick up about 2008. If you look at why he thinks ISIS came into being is because of Obama wasn't strong enough...there could be an argument that perhaps a continued presence in Iraq could have helped, but remember, ISIS came into fruition as the Islamic state of Iraq during the insurgency against the American presence that was devised and implemented by George W. Bush, as we we all know, between after 2003 and 2008 when he left the presidency. There is a great deal of design to say that it is Obama's weakness, completely failing to look at the fact that they sprang out of a Sunni insurgence against the American presence there.
He also said that ISIS in Libya are now "making millions by selling oil they got their hands on to parts of Libya"...now that is a huge exaggeration...they may be selling SOME oil on a black market, but its certainly not a million strong daily ...it certainly is a concern.
He went on to say that the US is doing nothing about it. Well that is untrue. We do know that special forces are involved and there is a lot of surveillance going on and there have been air strikes there. It is a great oversimplification. also one very dismissive....
He said "many of the countries that were involved had no desire in becoming democracies." ...that is an oversimplification.
One other quote "the power of weaponry is the single biggest problem we have in the world today.' That was staggering...it was confusing and emblematic of the simplification here...
Contradiction between saying we are going to be less involved and only fight when we know we can win, victory with a capital V, while at the same time not necessarily put ourselves out on the front line. A huge confusion of saying that America was going to get more involved and bring peace but at the same time saying the US would not extend itself of perhaps withdraw itself.
Words like oversimplification, staggering, confusing and exaggeration, are efficient ways to avoid saying that he lied a lot.
And Trump's grasp of ISIS is at the kindergarten level, but since he didn't scream and yell, the corporate media is sure to insist he must be becoming more "presidential."
