Squirrel-Hair's foray into foreign policy

He had a meeting with the editorial board of the WaPo today and unveiled his team of foreign-policy advisors: Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares, and Joesph E. Schmidt.

We'll look at these men more closely in future posts, but S-H's own remarks at the gathering show a disturbing similarity to the "free riders" remarks with which, it was recently revealed, the Most Equal Comrade talked to the UK's David Cameron and other European leaders:

"Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we’re doing all of the lifting," Trump said. "They’re not doing anything. And I say: 'Why is it that Germany’s not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of Ukraine, why aren’t they dealing? Why are we always the one that’s leading, potentially the third world war with Russia.' "

Trump said that U.S. involvement in NATO may need to be significantly diminished in the coming years, breaking with nearly seven decades of consensus in Washington. "We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore," Trump said, adding later, "NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we’re protecting Europe with NATO, but we’re spending a lot of money."

Trump sounded a similar note in discussing the U.S. presence in the Pacific. He questioned the value of massive military investments in Asia and wondered aloud whether the United States still was capable of being an effective peacekeeping force there.

“South Korea is very rich, great industrial country, and yet we’re not reimbursed fairly for what we do," Trump said. "We’re constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games — we’re reimbursed a fraction of what this is all costing."

Of course, Squirrel-Hair puts his own "these-are-bad-deals" spin on it, but it's basically the same message.

The stable - and, of course, that's a relative term, if one looks at the entire sweep of history - world order that American leadership has ensured over the last 70 years was not predicated on America getting paid for its efforts. Presidents of the right and left - up to the point at which the Most Equal Comrade became the dictator of post-America - understood that moral obligation went hand-in-hand with unrivaled military might and economic power.

S-H is a baffling fellow. He talks quite gruffly about China when it comes to trade, and acknowledges Russia's hegemonic designs, but then goes all pull-in-our-horns - almost echoing Rand Paul - when it comes to the basic security of our allies.

He did nothing at today's announcement to give me any new indication of seriousness. He thinks "winning" consists of post-America somehow "getting paid for" its role as a guarantor of order ("peace," if you'd like).