Tweeting that the U.S. needs to modernize and expand its nuclear arsenal, 70-year-old President-elect Donald Trump caused the latest media hubbub speaking with his new press secretary Sean Spicer on CNBC’s Morning Joe, with former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fl.) and Mika Brzezinski. Mika’s the daughter of former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, a Soviet-era war hawk. “Let it be an arms race, because we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,” Trump told Joe and Mika. Instead to accusing Trump of starting a new arm’s race, Joe and Mika, should discus the context of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s year-end news conference in which he asserted with glee that Russia’s military can repel any world power. Trump’s comments play psychological warfare with Putin, who’s been singing Trump’s praises before and after the Nov. 8 election.
Trump’s comments send a loud message to Putin and the Kremlin that once he takes over, the age of U.S. decline ends. Mika highlighted Trump’s apparent contradiction with generations of presidents since the July 1, 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation, committing the U.S. and Soviet Union to rolling back nuclear stockpiles. Since invading Crimea March 1, 2014, Putin’s been warning NATO about a new nuclear arms race in response to NATO installing anti-ballistic missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin rattled the European Union with annexing Crimea, sewing panic in Eastern Europe, especially Poland the Baltic States where they fear a Kremlin takeover. Trump’s remark sends a message to any potential foe that the U.S. won’t sit idly by while the rest of the world surpasses the U.S. in nuclear and conventional military capability.
Trump’s “American First” foreign policy differs from President Barack Obama’s, preferring to defer U.S. power to international bodies like the United Nations. Most mainstream journalists don’t see the danger of allowing international bodies to dictate U.S. national security. Watching terrorism strike a Christmas market in Berlin Dec. 19, killing 12, injuring 48 gives the best reason why Trump doesn’t go along with crowd, especially the liberal press. Obama bought the Eurocentric view of open borders, leading to security risks on the continent. By the time the driver of semi-truck the semi-truck that mowed down German citizens was caught, he was close to Milan, Italy, having traveled by train from Berlin through several EU countries. EU’s lax borders and security arrangements make it easier for terrorists and criminals to slip through the cracks, eluding authorities.
Overreacting to Trump’s Tweet on nuclear expansion, the mainstream press should be more concerned about Mideast terrorism washing up on U.S. soil. Before Obama leaves office, thousands of Syrian refugees will be granted asylum in the United States, against Trump’s policy of extreme vetting. EU officials don’t have the coordinated security apparatus necessary monitor, track, charge, incarcerate and deport would-be terrorists. ISIS Tunisian-born 24-year-old terrorist Anis Amri was convicted of petty crimes in Italy and Germany, on Germany’s terrorist watch list but somehow stayed just ahead of EU security before his Dec. 19 massacre. Letting thousands of Syrian refugees into the U.S., Obama will have blood on his hands once ISIS strikes again on U.S. soil. White House officials learned nothing from San Bernardino and Orlando where scores of U.S. citizens were massacred.
When you consider all the security risks facing the U.S., the media fixates on Trump’s comments about beefing up the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Whether or not you want to stick to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, U.S. national security requires the Pentagon to keep pace with nuclear-armed states, like Russia. “I think that we’re getting a little too far ahead of ourselves that he’s changing policy in a way that he did not intend,” Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway told CNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “The president making policy happens whenever the president speaks on a national matter,” said Maddow, hyping Trump’s Tweet about modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Conway and Trump’s new Press Secretary Sean Spicer have their work cut out dealing with the media’s pernicious propaganda. Since winning the election Nov. 8, the media’s been on a rampage against Trump.
Trump’s remarks about expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal are nothing more than obvious daily activities of the Pentagon’s job of keep the U.S. up-to-date. Less than a month before Trump’s inauguration, the media can’t control its appetite for yellow journalism, something that fills the dead space in down news cycles. Before the Electoral College certified Trump Dec. 19, the media was consumed by Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein’s recount nonsense and attempts by various Hillary-backed-groups to overturn the Electoral College results. When Trump Tweets, the media attacks. Trump faces an uphill battle “draining the swamp” in Washington but, more importantly, resetting U.S.-Relations with Congress fixated on blaming Putin for tampering with the U.S. election. Before Trump’s sworn in Jan. 20, 2017, you’d think the media would cut him some slack—something that hasn’t happened.
