And now, for the first time since WWII, we find ourselves in a nuclear arms race. And he’s not even president yet.
Last week, President-Elect Trump said he was planning to expand the United States’ nuclear arsenal . In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated with his own saber rattling: “The Russian Federation is stronger than any potential aggressor,” he said. “It’s very important to note that it’s not a coincidence that I put it that way. What does aggressor mean? That is the one who potentially could attack the Russian Federation.”
Trump tweeted his response: “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
Noting that “every president since Ronald Reagan has tried to reduce the world’s atomic stock pile,” CBS foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan, reminds us on This Morning, December 23, 2016, that, as recently as 2010, President Obama signed a treaty with Putin pledging additional nuclear reductions. President-Elect Trump has essentially, in Brennan’s words, “upended with a single tweet,” the past efforts that presidents of both parties over four decades have made to reduce rather than increase the world’s supply of nuclear weapons.
Jason Miller, Trump’s transition team communications director, tried to minimize widespread alarm over his boss’s apparent threat by saying, “President-elect Trump was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it.” Unfortunately, the president-elect thwarted Miller’s efforts to temper reactions when Trump corrected him, saying he meant just what he’d said earlier.
Either way, how would the world to come to its senses regarding nukes by the US strengthening and expanding our nuclear capabilities? Putin’s response seems instructive. Wouldn’t it cause other nations to increase add to their nuclear arsenals as well?
Besides the global impact of Trump’s promised policies, there is another disturbing aspect to his pre-inaugural rhetoric. And that is his continued pattern of departure from accepted protocol with what amounts to interference with the incumbent president’s efforts to take care of the people’s business before he leaves office. His telegraphing of future nuclear policy violates the time-honored practice of not starting to perform his job as president prior to his being sworn-in on January 20, 2017. The last president to do that was Ronald Reagan when he entered into negotiations with Iran before his inauguration for releasing American hostages at the US Embassy there, but not until after his inauguration. That arms-for-hostages deal continues to plague Reagan’s legacy by not endearing him to history.
These so-called niceties not only show respect toward an outgoing president and the office itself, but they are the foundation upon which a peaceful, democratic transfer of power, the hallmark of a successful democracy, is based. Trump’s ongoing tweeting of his foreign policy, which just happens to be opposite to current foreign policy, without attending daily intelligence briefings or consulting with the White House, shows disrespect for still-acting President Barack Obama as well as for the Office of the Presidency itself. This is cause for alarm.
He is also engaging in policy disputes with the president and foreign governments prior to his inauguration. He was contacted by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, sidestepping President Obama completely, to urge him to intervene in the United Nations vote to disallow Israel’s support of the building of settlements on the West Bank, which Samantha Powers, ambassador to the U.N., points out is illegal under international law. Nonetheless, Israel continues to settle its citizens in the West Bank, making an Israel/Palestinian peace agreement impossible to occur.
Coincidentally or not, a vote delay was requested and granted, in an effort by Israel to garner enough votes against the passage of the U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. Trump used his Facebook account and stated, “The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed…” However, the opposite happened. The current administration abstained, allowing the Security Council, for the first time in nearly five decades, to adopt a resolution condemning those settlements.
Trump responded on Facebook, “As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20.”
He is referring of course, to Inauguration Day, once again departing from the longstanding tradition of partisanship ending at the nation’s borders. Doesn’t he know that a unified and cohesive foreign policy is critical to national security and global stability? At least that has been the prevailing view until now.
Well, what should we expect from a man who appears to show many of the signs and symptoms of a classic narcissistic character disorder, with his most glaring symptom an inability to show empathy toward others, whether they’re ordinary citizens or presidents of the United States. Like a child, he seems by all accounts to think, believe, and consistently act as though the world revolves around him. Does anyone really expect him to instantly start thinking and acting like a grownup once he’s declared the president and commander-in-chief of the most powerful country in the world on January 20, 2017? He certainly hasn’t been able to maintain that stance for any extended period of time so far. Does choosing his daughter to be acting first lady indicate a trend in the right direction? No, we will have a loose cannon in that position. And it’s not going to be pretty.