President-Elect Donald Trump’s euphoria after the greatest upset in U.S. presidential history has begun to wear off. Faced with the “Never Trump” crowd in the U.S. Senate, Trump must let his newly minted Chief of Staff Reince Priebus try to create some good will as Trump anticipates pushing his agenda in the first 100 days. Before making the wrong picks for Defense Secretary and Secretary of State, Priebus needs to figure out if any of Trump’s critics plan to filibuster the picks. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of Trump’s vanquished GOP rivals, threatens already to block the nominations for Secretary of State of former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani or former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. Other GOP Senators led by Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also look to stop Trump from resetting relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s only two weeks out from his big victory but already face nearly certain opposition in the narrowly GOP-controlled U.S. Senate [51-48]. Looking to advance his immigration agenda, including the controversial border wall, Trump faces the same opposition by his own party that faced during the primaries and general election. Priebus walks a fine line trying to placate Republicans and convince skeptical Democrats to vote for Trump’s agenda. With protests in the streets decrying racism and xenophobia, Trump’s got some explaining to do after appointing Nov. 13 campaign chairman Stephen Bannon as chief strategist. Bannon got himself into hot water calling his former employer Breitbart News a “platform for the alt-right.” Holding a racist rally of neo-Nazis and White Supremacists in the Ronald Reagan Building International Trade Center Nov. 19 didn’t help Bannon.
Watching video of Arlington, Va..-based National Policy Institute 38-year-old leader Richard Spencer “Sieg Heil” Nazi salutes his fellow conference participants should have been enough to warrant a strong condemnation from Trump’s transition team. It’s one thing for Bannon to deny racism or anti-Semitism at Breitbart News, still another to watch hate groups spew disgusting rhetoric. Had Spencer’s haters spoke in Germany, they would have been charged and jailed for hate-crimes. Only in American can the lunatic fringe get a platform under the First Amendment, despite offending every American value. Congressional leaders would be well-advised to look carefully at Germany’s anti-hate laws, banning neo-Nazis from spewing their hate in private or in public.. Saying “Heil Trump” at the rally warrants the strongest condemnations from Trump’s transition team.
Trump’s got enough trouble on key parts of his agenda than to get swept up in the outrageous publicity stunts from racist groups like the National Policy Institute. Spencer’s part of the lunatic fringe but finds himself getting plenty of publicity from today’s left wing media. Left wing media groups, like the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN, gave Spencer excess publicity over the weekend but for the wrong reasons. Left-leaning media outlets used Spencer’s hate-gathering to lambaste Bannon for his work on Breitbart. Bannon isn’t responsible for Neo-Nazis or white supremacists liking the content on Breitbart. What Bannon’s responsible for is denouncing hate-groups seeking to usurp his name or the Trump presidency to advance their deplorable agendas. Trump officials would be well-advised, like Trump did with the KKK, to denounce Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist groups.
Trump’s got more problems on the horizon keeping the U.S. out of more Mideast wars, avoiding a military confrontation with Russia. Trump’s campaign promises to reset relations with the Kremlin prompted Hillary to call Trump a Russian “puppet” at the Oct. 19 debate. “I’m going to be a kind of a hard ass,” on Russia, Graham told reporters. “We can’t sit on the sidelines,” letting Russian cyber attacks “go unanswered.” Graham once called Trump a “jackass” during the 2016 race before he was forced to drop out Dec. 21, 2015 before the Feb. 19 South Carolina primary. McCain and Graham pushed President Barack Obama to back Saudi-funded Syrian opposition groups to topple the Shiite government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. McCain and Graham oppose any attempt by Trump to ally with Russian President Vladimir Putin, someone McCain called and untrustworthy KGB agent.
Winning the White House was no easy feat. considering Trump was opposed by his own party, Democrats and the mainstream media. Now Trump faces tough sledding in the U.S. Senate where MeCain continues to push for more foreign wars, including a military confrontation with Russia. Calling for a no-fly zone Oct. 12, McCain urged President Barack Obama to shoot down Russian or Syrian warplanes if they violate the zone’s airspace. With the foreign policy establishment committed to interminable Mideast wars, Trump won’t have an easy time with what’s left of the Neocons looking for more military confrontation. With the GOP having a narrow majority and with McCain and Co. pushing a militaristic agenda, Trump’s going to have problems advancing his foreign policy agenda. Unless Reince can pull a rabbit out of his hat, Trump’s got tough sledding ahead.
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