Trump Is Being Un-American at G-20 in Europe

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Hamburg, Germany, attending G-20. It is an international forum of nations with the world’s largest economies. It was founded in 1999 to discuss mostly economic policy. Seven hours ago, President Trump delivered a speech in Poland in which he criticized the American press and U.S. governmental intelligence agencies. As I said in a recent post, President Trump is a disgrace to America for doing such things. Well, he’s doing it again, now in Europe, our main ally.

President Trump also spoke critically of his predecessor, President Barak Obama. Of course, that isn’t anything new. He’s been doing that throughout his presidential campaign last year and now this year during his tenure as president. In the past, U.S. presidents have exercised courtesy in not criticizing their predecessors. But it is much more of a disgrace to America for its president to do that abroad, especially in Europe.

All U.S. governmental intelligence agencies claim that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by trying to get Trump elected. Trump is scheduled to have his first face-to-face meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin tomorrow. The U.S. media reflects the desire of the majority of the American people in wanting Trump to talk to Putin about this alleged Russian governmental meddling in U.S. elections.

After Donald Trump was elected president on November 8th last year, the next month President Barak Obama informed the American public that U.S. governmental agencies told him in August, over two months before the presidential election day, that the Russian government had meddled in our presidential election campaign trying to get Donald Trump elected. President Obama was faced with the decision whether or not to make this information known to the American public. Since that regards domestic affairs, it is the jurisdiction of the FBI.

The protocol of U.S. intelligence agencies, thus including the FBI, is that they do not inform the American public about investigations. They only make it known when they finish the investigation and announce their conclusion. President Obama apparently decided not to make this information public due to the ongoing election campaign. So, in December, President Obama punished Russia by expelling 35 Russian diplomats and establishing economic sanctions against Russia. Of course, this was done near the end of his term as president.

Due to this alleged Russian meddling, certain committees in both branches of Congress began investigating this issue. Trump eventually fired FBI Director James Comey for not discontinuing his investigation of it. The Justice Department then selected former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to head up the investigation. Through out this ordeal, President Trump was calling these investigations “a witch hunt” and the alleged Russian meddling “a hoax” without providing any evidence.

In recent days, President Donald Trump has changed his position about the possibility of Russian meddling. In doing so, he has criticized President Obama for keeping the matter secret until after the election. In President Trump’s speech in Poland hours ago, he repeatedly criticized Obama for not doing more about this matter. Trump kept saying, “He did nothing about it.”

But Trump didn’t say what more Obama should have done. He implies that Obama should have at least informed the American public of this allegation of Russian meddling when the U.S. intelligence agencies informed him about, which was last August. But if Obama would have done that, Trump would have yelled his head off about it. Why? If Americans had known that the Russian government was meddling in their president election campaign in an effort to get Donald Trump elected, that would have caused many voters to not vote for Trump.

Ever since Trump’s inauguration as president, Barak Obama has continued in the tradition of past American presidents and remained quiet about his successor. But it seems obvious that President Obama did not inform the American public about this alleged Russian meddling until after the election simply because Trump would have cried foul ball. I think if he had, Trump would not be president. Thus, President Trump is way out-of-bounds to criticize Obama about how he handled this matter. I’d say Trump is being hypocritical.