This article appears in the January 11, 2019 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
Trump Opens the New Year in Profound Dialogue with the American People and Collaborating Heads of State
[Print version of this article]
Jan. 5—President Trump has taken the most dramatic initiatives of his Presidency during the closing weeks of 2018 and the opening of the New Year. Helga Zepp-LaRouche used her 2019 New Year’s address to remind the world that she had designated 2018 as the year to destroy geopolitics, the British Imperial policy of unending conflict for the purpose of maintaining their power. With the removal of inept geopoliticians ex-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, ex-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and ex-Chief of Staff John Kelly from his cabinet, as well as the soft-on-Mueller-gate Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump has begun a new level of honest and direct communication of his views on the necessary future course of the nation freed from the commitment to permanent warfare.
At the same time, other heads of state, including China’s Xi Jinping, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump has established close ties of cooperation, have made complementary contributions to educating the peoples of the world on how sovereign nations can cast aside geopolitics and collaborate to achieve peaceful economic, cultural, and scientific progress in pursuit of the common aims of mankind.
Trump’s Initiatives for the New Year
Last August, Trump negotiated a totally unexpected and seemingly improbable new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, to replace the Clinton Administration’s North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He has recognized that the economic growth he is planning is an essential part of addressing the migration crisis, as has newly elected Mexican President López Obrador, who has spoken of his reverence for the methods of Franklin Roosevelt, and who organizes daily 7:00 a.m. conferences to broadcast his intentions directly to Mexico without interference from the sleeping journalists. Trump has vigorously renewed his campaign to establish a wall to shut down the open border that now includes unwatched and unprotected segments of lengths of more than 1,000 miles.
On December 19, the President announced that the U.S. would withdraw its troops from Syria, and, eventually, Afghanistan, leaving these nations to settle their affairs through sovereign and agreed collaboration with neighbors, including Putin’s Russia. Defense Secretary Mattis submitted a defiant letter of resignation the next day. In confessing that he had always disagreed with Trump’s consistent promise that he would end these and the other Bush/Obama “forever wars,” Mattis revealed that he had been a geopolitical traitor. He arrogantly announced that he would continue in office through February to make sure that his views, rather than the President’s, were presented to the annual Congressional review and the NATO Ministerial Meeting. Trump ordered his removal from the Pentagon within eleven days and triggered an avalanche of Congressional and news media attacks demanding a return to the permanent war policy.
In response to Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address that the geopolitical media interpreted as a threat to renew nuclear weapons development, Trump tweeted, “Kim Jong Un says North Korea will not make or test nuclear weapons, or give the [technology] to others— & he is ready to meet me anytime . . . I also look forward to meeting with Chairman Kim who realizes so well that North Korea possesses great economic potential!” He has reiterated this hope on several occasions since.
Campaigning to Engage America & the World
To secure the successful implementation of these policies, Trump has launched a new approach to engaging the nation in discussion that supersedes the confusing swirl of tit-for-tat tweeting and other nonsense that has eliminated real understanding.
On January 2, Trump launched this campaign from the White House. From Noon until 2:00, the President conducted a cabinet meeting with news media present. Each cabinet member presented a prepared statement on his or her concerns, focusing on border security. Trump intervened at will to present his views and explanations. After the presentations, the press asked questions for about 20 minutes.
At 3:00, Trump met privately with the Congressional leadership to discuss border security, beginning with a briefing by Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Kirstjen Nielsen. After the session, Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Whip Steve Scalise reported that Nielsen was prevented from completing her briefing by repeated interruptions from Democratic Senate Minority leader Charles Schumer. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Schumer then emerged to report that their only interest was in introducing what they called Republican bills to re-open the government. Clearly, the bills they called “Republican,” did not include the President’s plan for border security. Trump asked the Congressional leaders to return on Friday, January 4. After that session, Pelosi and Schumer announced that the only thing they had said there was that nothing could be accomplished with the government shut down.
Trump then presented a one-hour press conference on the White House steps. He carefully reviewed his concerns and patiently answered all questions, no matter how ridiculous or repetitive, from the unusually congenial and appreciative press corps. His language was sharp at times, but he went well beyond the “One question, one follow-up” rule which is standard at these events, to try to make sure that his intentions were clearly understood. As he explained it, “I’m not into names, I’m into production. I’m into something that works.” He, by contrast with the media, had his evidence at hand if not in his head. Citizens should inform their understanding of this presidency by weighing Trump’s actual performance against the idea of the boorish know-nothing promoted by the twitterverse.
Immigration and International Trade
Trump’s primary concern was the issue of border security, and he said he would persist for “as long as it takes” to reach an agreement and was considering announcing a national emergency if Congress did not agree.
Things that may be surprising to CNN enthusiasts include the President’s concerns about the cruelty experienced by those induced to attempt illegal crossings, emphasizing the threats to unaccompanied children and women (a third of whom report sexual assaults in the course of their approach to the border). He insisted that with hundreds of miles of open border in wilderness areas, it was impossible to keep drugs, terrorists, human traffickers, and other unwanted intruders out of the country without an effective wall or fence. He explained that knowing a barrier would be in place to stop border crossing would deter many from the dangerous and sometimes deadly attempts they are making. He also described in general terms how the border areas DHS does not control, are actually controlled by the violent organized crime networks running drugs and prostitution, including child prostitution, among other criminal operations.
Trump presented his views on DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order) to explain his approach to immigration policy. (DACA was an Obama executive order which allowed some immigrants who were illegally brought here as children, to avoid deportation and eventually get work permits.) He said DACA participants had a long history in the United States, and some never learned the language of their birth nation. The U.S. needs these and other capable immigrants. He said he hopes the Supreme Court will pave the way for negotiations on this issue by overturning the extra-legal Obama executive order on which DACA now is based, “Because, frankly, if they rule the way it is, it gives the President too much power. Can you imagine me saying that? But I would be entitled to the same power.”
It’s Up to the People Now
This article has only communicated in small part the efforts the President has made to make his concerns and intentions understood, but exactly what the President and Congress will do, when and how these plans are refined and implemented, and how effectively they function, is our responsibility. While Democrats and Republicans argue over who “owns” the shut-down and who “owns” our other failures and successes, never forget that our Constitution assigns ownership to no party, no official, no department, but to “We, the people.”
