Trump Wanted to Shut Down Every U.S. Embassy in Africa, Former Defense Secretary Says
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The revelations keep on coming from Mark Esper's new book about his time in the Trump administration. Politico on Monday morning published a new excerpt from A Sacred Oath, in which the former defense secretary expounds on the unhinged ideas Trump incessantly pushed and the efforts of those around him to convince the president to pursue more reasonable options. One such idea was to shut down the U.S. embassies in Africa.
"Shut down the embassies in Africa," Esper writes that Trump said said, noting that he did so regularly. "Bring our people [U.S. diplomats] home."
Trump hasn't exhibited very much much affection for Africa's 50-plus countries since entering politics. He famously described African nations as "shithole countries" during an immigration debate in 2018, drawing widespread condemnation. Michael Cohen, the former president's former attorney and fixer, alleged during testimony, as well as in his own memoir, that Trump had previously asked him if he could name a country run by a Black leader that wasn't a "shithole." Trump also, of course, largely launched his political career on the racist idea that Barack Obama was secretly born in Africa.
Esper writes the A Sacred Oath excerpt published by Politico on Monday that he tried to rebut this and other "outlandish" ideas with "facts, data and arguments," but that this only irritated Trump. He notes that Trump also wanted a "complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea," the nation that abuts the dictatorship run by Kim Jong-un, whom Trump has praised repeatedly.
Esper is in the middle of an extremely busy promotional tour for A Sacred Oath, which is out Tuesday. He recently sat down for an glossy interview with 60 Minutes during which he spoke at length about the "bad" and "dangerous" moves Trump was pushing ahead of the 2020 election, and how he and others in the Trump administration had to work to convince the president to reconsider. He listed Trump's desire to take military action against Venezuela, to strike Iran, and to blockade Cuba.
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"It seemed every few weeks something like this would come up and we would have to swat him down," Esper told 60 Minutes.
Mark Esper says that Cabinet members had to keep Trump from doing "bad things, terrible things" that would have taken the country in a "dark direction."pic.twitter.com/NOetdrsrpl
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 8, 2022
During his extended media tour, Esper has positioned himself as a check on Trump's excesses and madness. That may be true, but he could have spoken out about Trump well before the summer of 2020. It's also true that Esper willingly agreed to serve in the Trump administration despite the former president's history as an erratic racist with authoritarian ideas.
Speaking of which, The New York Times reported last week that Esper writes that Trump suggested in the summer of 2020 that Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrating outside the White House should be shot. The Times reported a few days later that Esper also wrote that Trump wanted to launch missiles into Mexico to destroy "drug labs."
60 Minutes sent a list of questions to Trump about Esper's claims. He responded to most of them by alleging "Fake News" and attacking Esper as a fake Republican who is "incapable of leading." He refrained from making any such allegations or attacks in his response the question about whether he suggested launching missiles into Mexico.
"No comment," the former president wrote.
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Hard to imagine a more blatant example of racism by a president.
He didn't want to support the white NATO countries either.
Show us something related to Trump wanting to close every US embassy in Europe.
Your wish is my command.
Sorry, leaving NATO is not the same thing as closing every embassy on a continent. An embassy is an official recognition that a country exists.
You sure do make a lot of excuses for this guy.
So countries that we have no embassies in means we don't think it exists?
Pretty sure we know Iran, Somalia, Antigua, Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines and North Korea exist.
I'm not going to waste my time looking the rest of them up.
Don’t be sorry, you’re right, closing embassies isn’t the same thing as walking away from our largest military commitment to our oldest continuous Alliance.
Excuses?
What part of “He didn't want to support the white NATO countries either”, didn’t you understand?
Why would I care?
Besides, I am sure Trump is occupying a lot of your time.
I understand that every October 25, the people of Grenada celebrate Thanksgiving, as it marks the anniversary of the Reagan military liberation of 1983 in that country.
Grenada ... the setting for Eastwood's worst film.
Did you know that Obama and Company negotiated a deal with a country they didn't even recognize?
Isn't that the craziest shit you ever heard?
LMAO!
You're right. Not in this world but possibly in some alternate existence.
You got that right, the Army blew it and wouldn’t support the script so a 82nd ABD story became a USMC one.
Huh?
No one recognizes Quebec and 'nous-de-chez-nous' make deals with everyone. We even let Donald park one of his planes here as a tax write-off.
Quebec is a country of its own now?
Besides, the US Consulate General has an office in Quebec, which to me signifies recognition. At least that is the argument presented by JR.
I can help clarify. I see you're confused.
I am, please help. I look forward to reading your clarification.
They're in love!
I'm not sure that you know it when you see it.
[Deleted]
You've probably been to busy, but when you find some time, I'll appreciate your clarification.
That's 'too' busy
Thanks, at least you have time to edit if not to clarify.
It's a pet peeve of mine.
You have many pet peeves, that explains why there is no time to clarify.
No, that would have been Space Cowboys or Firefox.
Wanting to and doing remain two different things.
How many more tales of woe will be rehashed Trump Administration dealings while in office, all signifying nothing newsworthy?
How much more time can Trump expend in liberal head?
You have utterly no defense for this, so spare us the blabbering.
Since I didn't say it, why would I defend it?
Blabbering to you is anything which disagrees with you.
I am not impressed.
You have no defense for your fascination and obsession with all things Trump.
Clearly dirty Donald's supporters take that to the extreme by not even caring about the fact that he has admitted to wanting to sleep with his daughter on multiple occasions.
“Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?” - Donald Trump
“Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father….” - Donald Trump
“Ivanka posing for Playboy would be really disappointing… not really. But it would depend on what was inside the magazine…I don’t think Ivanka would [do a nude shoot] inside the magazine, Although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” - Donald Trump
“You know who’s one of the great beauties of the world, according to everybody? And I helped create her. Ivanka. My daughter, Ivanka. She’s 6 feet tall, she’s got the best body.” - Donald Trump
No one should be arrested or prosecuted for 'thought crime', but is it rational to throw your support behind a political candidate who, by his own words, clearly wants to screw his daughter?
Or for that matter, how could anyone support a candidate who, as former President, wanted to bring the Taliban to Washington so he could meet with them, suggested shooting protesters and wanted to launch supposedly anonymous missiles into Mexico so "No one would know it was us?".
The more we know the clearer it should become as to what a dangerous disaster letting him in the white house for four years was and what insanity it would be to let him in for another four years. Sure, there are some of his die hard deplorables who don't give a crap about him wanting to screw his daughter, no doubt many of them found many of their girlfriends at the family reunion, and they aren't likely to be smart enough to understand the problems with indiscriminately bombing neighboring countries and likely think 'quid pro quo' is some sort of fishing gear...
You also seem fascinated and obsessed with all things Trump.
What's fascinating is how there are millions of Americans who seem enamored with such a vile scum bag and prop him up as some kind of working mans hero which for anyone with more than half a brain knows couldn't be further from the truth. I used to wonder just how so many Germans could have been so enamored with a vile sack of shit like Hitler and were willing to commit genocide at his command. In the last few years its become clear that there is a segment of people who are clearly either sick in the head, monumental gullible morons or outright viscous bigots who care nothing for anyone but themselves and sadly they are all easily led by the nose by self serving despots who make false promises to the weak sniveling stupid masses. It's just sad to watch it happening here in America.
Equally fascinating is that many were previous Obama voters.
Not true.
Trumpism has degraded America. It is an open question if we can get back what once was.
True:
" In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, many observers understandably focused on the numerous places that swung from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. Because many of these areas congregated in swing states within the Rust Belt and Midwest, they played a pivotal role in Trump’s victory, as shown by the movement toward the GOP in Map 1 below. But how many total voters really switched from Obama to Trump in 2016? Different data sources tell a different story, but the answer is certainly in the millions."
If you prefer the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/upshot/the-obama-trump-voters-are-real-heres-what-they-think.html\
Or Balletpedia for a breakdown by county:
"' President Donald Trump (R) won 2,626 counties nationwide, while Hillary Clinton (D) won 487 counties. [1] Of the 2,626 counties Trump won, Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Trump in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. [2] Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes, and had an average margin of victory of 11.45 percent. These counties are sometimes referred to as swing counties by media and political observers. The political shift in these counties could have a broad impact on elections at every level of government."
Still not true.
Well, you are welcome to all the angst you choose to put yourself through by obsessing over Trump. I am sure that is a positive use of your time and won't result in your blurting "Trump" out more than 5-6 times per day. No worries!
The biggest blow to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign came from voters in the Midwest who previously backed former President Obama but switched over to President Trump , progressive strategist Ruy Teixeira said on Wednesday.
They all lie, but you know the truth. Please show us the numbers that you analyzed.
Still not true.
We know the biggest blow to the campaign was Comey and little putin.
No decent sane liberal/progressive/democrat would ever vote for trumpturd, NEVER.
They must be, because Hillary lost because of:
Misogyny, sexism, Comey, Russians, emails, investigations, the DNC, Obama, Democrat being in the WH prior to her running, Benghazi, the press, Wikileaks, Putin, and her own failed campaign which kept her away from some swing states are the real reasons she lost!
I can't recall the last time I actually spoke the Cheeto Benito's name, he rarely comes up in conversation and I stay far from politics when speaking with clients. Only here where we clearly have some of his sycophant loyalists constantly spouting his bullshit rhetoric do I patiently point out his plethora of faults and failures. Your assumptions of others appear to be about as valuable as a handful of used toilet paper.
You do realize that everyone here can read your posts and know how often you bring Trump up, right?
Obsessions CAN be cured.
It will take some work, though.
I'm here for you.
You left out that she was more despised than Donald Trump!
Which is saying a ton.
There weren't as many Obama supporters that switch as the data suggests. Lots of Obama voters didn't turnout and vote in 2016. And many voters who had not previously voted turned out for Trump. Think Trump managed to alienate some people during his first years as President and by the end of his term only about 70 million racists wanted a Hitler style genocide. Fortunately Herr Trump was defeated in 2020 in a FAIR election.
If Trump wins in 2024, that may be the last real election in the US. Remember what he said about the 2020 election?
“Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transferal of power after the election?” reporter Brian Karem asked Donald Trump , who didn’t even attempt to give the impression he cares whatsoever about preserving democracy. “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said. “You know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.” Pressed again to “commit to making sure that there’s a peaceful transferal of power,” Trump responded, “Get rid of the ballots and...we’ll have a very peaceful—there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it. You know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know better than anybody else.”
What numbers are you looking at?
Hilary got virtually all the votes Obama did at not quite 66 million compared to Trump at 63 million. His were just in the right places and she depended on the coasts and not much else. So with the electoral counts as they turned out, Trump had to have gotten a lot of Obama's I key areas
I don't dispute that.
Trump also wanted a "complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea," the nation that abuts the dictatorship run by Kim Jong-un, whom Trump has praised repeatedly.
Trump wanted to give his lover a gift.
He had a thing for Lil’ Kim.
Esper indicated that Trump wanted to start a war to get re-elected.
From this seed:
He listed Trump's desire to take military action against Venezuela, to strike Iran, and to blockade Cuba.
He even wanted to launch missiles into Mexico.
I wonder if he thought Mexico would pay for the missiles?
I don’t think so because he thought that we could deny launching them and keep it a secret.