CRISIS: Trump Doesn’t Know, Doesn’t Want to Know About ISIS

Well, first of all, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas!

If you’re like me, you’re probably wishing for a 25^th Amendment declaration under the national Christmas tree.

Also like me, however, you probably doubt anyone in Congress has the guts to start that ball rolling.

Seriously, after last week, it’s harder to imagine the thought process that is keeping our lawmakers from making a move, but more and more, I’m beginning to hear the whispers that even among gutless GOP leadership, there’s this sense of horror and regret.

An incompetent madman is leading our nation down the path of ruin.

It’s not like there weren’t many of us sounding the alarm as loudly as we could, long before the primaries of 2016 ended.

So, with the government partially shut down, the markets crashing, trade wars taking a toll, allies alienated and enemies emboldened, not to mention a mountain of scandals that grows taller every week, it wouldn’t be completely out of the question to start having the talk about removing the treacherous troll from the White House, as soon as possible.

It would have bipartisan support, I imagine.

Do you need more proof that the man is unfit to be president?

Several things from the past week should have tipped the scales, if you were on the fence before:

First of all, the resignation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis. His resignation letter was a stern and thorough rebuke of Trumpism.

He stressed the need to be reliable and trustworthy partners to our allies in the world. He also pointed out that nations like Russia and China would never be the kinds of partners we needed to maintain stability. We cannot trust them.

Still, Secretary Mattis, even though he knew he had to go, was prepared to stay on until February 2019, to assure someone equally competent could be brought up to speed on the job.

In one of his now-customary temper tantrums, President Trump announced that he would be speeding that time frame up and replacing Mattis at the end of the year.

Apparently, someone pointed out to him that Mattis’ resignation letter was a smack down.

It was only hours later that we learned that President Trump’s decision to pull our troops out of Syria early, leaving our partners, the Kurds, to certain destruction came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had instructed him to tuck his tail between his legs and skedaddle, like the yellow dog he is.

Our allies found out by tweet.

Turkey had a vested interest in getting the United States out of the way.

So while the U.S. begins to pull out, Turkey is building up forces along the border, prepared to go in and slaughter the Kurds – not stop ISIS from reforming, as Trump seems to believe they will do.

Then there is Brett McGurk,  the special presidential envoy assigned to be the point person in the fight against ISIS in Syria.

McGurk announced he would be leaving his position, as well, in protest of President Trump’s betrayal of our allies in the region.

Trump’s announcement came just days after McGurk spoke to the press from a State Department podium, assuring the world and our allies, that the United States was dedicated to winning the fight against ISIS and standing with our partners.

I covered this last week:

“I think it’s fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring.”

McGurk went on to say, “it would be reckless if we were just to say, well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now. I think anyone who’s looked at a conflict like this would agree with that.”

McGurk would be the man to know. He’s on the ground, in the thick of it, getting a close-up look at the fight to defeat ISIS, once and for all.

Now, we’ve simply left the remnants to regroup and hit the region harder.

McGurk was planning to leave in February, anyway, to take a job with Stanford University, but this moved that timeline up to the end of this year.

Incoming “acting” chief of staff Mick Mulvaney appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos in an effort to defend Trump’s ill-advised plans.

Guest host Jon Karl touched on a Trump tweet from the weekend, where he suggested he didn’t know who McGurk was, and blew off his concerns and the work he’d done in Syria, because he was some “Obama guy.”

Brett McGurk, who I do not know, was appointed by President Obama in 2015. Was supposed to leave in February but he just resigned prior to leaving. Grandstander? The Fake News is making such a big deal about this nothing event!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2018

McGurk actually came on board during President George W. Bush’s term.

Yeah. This is more than a “nothing event,” and the fact that you don’t know who he is only means you don’t pay attention and have no idea about the work being done in Syria or the fight against ISIS.

Maybe if you visited the troops on occasion, being the “commander-in-chief” and all that?

As Mulvaney tried to explain how Trump and Jim Mattis never got on the “same page” (How could they? Mattis is reading advanced military manuals and Trump is making his way through pop-up books), Karl brought up McGurk.

“But — but it’s not — it’s not just Mattis. We also saw Brett McGurk, who was top U.S. diplomat for the campaign against ISIS. He’s resigned also to protest the president’s sudden withdrawal from Syria,” said Karl. “He said in an e-mail to his staff, ‘the recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of the policy that was articulated to us. It left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered.’ Is there any chance the president changes his mind about this, reverses course?”

“No. I think the president has told people from the very beginning that he doesn’t want us to stay in Syria forever. You’re seeing the end result now of two years worth of work,” said Mulvaney. “But keep in mind it’s not unusual for a president to lose members of the cabinet over these types of disagreements.” Although Mulvaney said it was not unusual, he could only come up with one other example, an imperfect one in Chuck Hagel, and was unable to come up with others on the other talks shows as well.

Mulvaney is already getting a taste of the worst job in the world, right now, isn’t he?

Jon Karl pressed on. “Well, if you look at what the president – how the president responded to McGurk, he said that he had never met him, he doesn’t know him. McGurk’s title is the ‘Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS’. How is it that the president doesn’t know his point person in the battle against ISIS?”

“You know the answer to that,” said Mulvaney, echoing the President’s dismissiveness of McGurk’s role. “The administration is thousands of – the executive branch of government is millions of people– I have no idea who that person is. Never heard of him–”

“You don’t know Brett McGurk?” Karl interrupted.

“Until yesterday. All I know is that there’s an Obama appointee who saw an opportunity–” said Mulvaney.

“He was a Rehnquist clerk-” continued Karl.

“He was,” said Mulvaney.

“He served throughout the Bush administration, he’s a lifelong Republican. He’s not an Obama appointee. He was tapped on–” Karl said.

“He took that – did he take that position under Obama’s administration?” interrupted Mulvaney.

“He was – he was held over from the Bush administration,” Karl clarified.

“But you see my point,” said Mulvaney.

“This is not a Democrat,” said Karl.

Mulvaney’s point was stupid. There’s no nice way to put it.

His point was that if anyone worked in any government role during Barack Obama’s presidency, then they’ve somehow been “tainted” and couldn’t be trusted to do a good job for a Trump presidency, or that they’re somehow an embedded enemy.

That is the paranoia Trump spreads in his cult followers.

But Mulvaney’s point came next: Trump can’t be bothered with keeping up with the work being done to stop ISIS. I mean, it’s great as campaign trail red meat to the base, but his concern over the matter is minimal.

“I’m certain – I’m certain he’s well-known within the folks who follow this topic, I think the fact that the president of the United States doesn’t know him,” Mulvaney said, drawing a distinction between Trump and the people who follow the topic, “I just don’t think should cause anybody any concern.”

…Within the folks who follow this topic…

Hence the reason we need men like James Mattis and Brett McGurk.

Our current “president” can’t be bothered to remain informed. He’s not being asked to know every single person working within each department, but he should at least know the main point people on the ground.

Donald Trump is unfit to lead. He gives more deference to dictators than his own generals or intelligence community. His myriad personal scandals are a distraction. He lacks the intellect or temperament to lead.

Everything many of us warned about is coming to pass.

You were all warned.