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White House Survivor

Darth Rotor said:
The issue of transgender is, in the context of what matters to national security, a red herring; why you added it to the discussion is unclear.
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I didn't. Craig4 added it to the conversation as an example of Mattis' good works in restraining The President.

Darth Rotor said:
On the national security policy side, Kelly's too busy putting out helmet fires that Trump starts. Quite frankly, that's his job.
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Kelly was hailed as a restraining influence on The President and was supposed to curtail his tweeting and put the White House back in order. I have yet to see any evidence of this - indeed, the thing which has so far caused the most damage to the Trump Presidency, The President's comments regarding Charlottesville happened on Kelly's watch.

Darth Rotor said:
Both McMaster and Mattis had to polish the policy turd in Iraq that the Bush Administration laid for them. That will make them less hawkish, not more.
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If they're less hawkish, I'd hate to see what more hawkish looks like :confused:

Obama's ISIS policy seems to have been continued (which may be no bad thing - who knows) and if anything escalated.

The US is upping the ante in Afghanistan.

The US' position on North Korea has changed from one of diplomacy to one based on sabre-rattling.

Darth Rotor said:
As to your paranoia regarding "right wing agenda" you are tilting at windmills. Trump continues to alienate the GOP, which is no surprise to me at all. A major voice in Trump's ear regarding said agenda is now gone: Bannon. Good riddance. Maybe the president can get down to business. (It would be nice ...)
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The GOP has been quietly getting on with business as usual whilst President Trump has been providing a distraction. On both a federal and state level, environmental regulations have been gutted, programmes have been defunded, financial regulations binned and Obama's legacy (modest as it is) has been eroded. The anti-immigrant legislation is rapidly being put in place and even if the "Muslim Ban" is only partially implemented, the other key platforms have carried on as before.

Sure healthcare repeal has been an omnishambles but that IMO has nothing to do with President Trump and everything to do with the GOP not having a viable plan B.

If the GOP can get "tax reform" (aka huge tax cuts for the wealthy) through then they'll have got most of their "to do" list sorted. It doesn't matter whether The President and congress are at war with each other, each seems unwilling to countermand the other when push comes to shove.
 
Craig4 said:
I don't think it's exclusive to the military. It's just that it's retired military types are the only ones left in senior levels of the administration motivated by a desire to protect the nation. Mattis and Kelly were the only two at the cabinet round table who managed to escape with their dignity intact. The rest of them are just trying to push private agendas.
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But are they? That is a self serving narrative to promote. It is only because of their military background that this gets suggested, yet the very first firing in this administration was a general.
 
Darth Rotor said:
I know a number of people who've worked for Mattis. All reports are that he's a solid player, in contrast to the people I know who worked on Wesley Clark's staff; to a man they admired his intelligence and wouldn't vote for Clark for dog catcher. (I got to meet General Clark once when he was a 3 star, but I did not work for him).
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Those who worked with Kelly say much the same thing.
 
@ponderingturtle
Are you referring to the comparison to Clark or Mattis?
Clark once tried to run for president. That didn't go too well.

@ theDon
If they're less hawkish, I'd hate to see what more hawkish looks like
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How short memories are these days. Do you not recall the chickenhawks of Bush 43's administration?
My worry about Trump is that he so easily trolled. (My worry about Kelly is that his liver won't be able to handle the amount he'll need to drink to deal with Trump, but he's the one who signed up for that job).
 
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