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Donald Trump has been suspiciously busy the last two weeks — from firing a election director that disagreed with him, to auctioning off Alaska, to ordering soldiers back to the US, it seems like Trump has been doing more now than before the election was called. Trump made big moves earlier this week by ordering the reduction of 2,500 personnel from Afghanistan.
Back in 2016, Trump promised his supporters he would end the “forever wars,” or the wars in the middle east by bringing all the soldiers back home. So far, Trump has brought back less soldiers than Obama. After Trump was elected, there wasn’t much talk about this and he took no action towards bringing back soldiers, so many wondered if this was just a campaign promise. Apparently, it seems as if it’s not just a promise — despite voiced warnings by many top officials, such as the NATO secretary general, and even Trump’s closest allies, such as Mitch McConnell, Trump is delivering this promise and has pushed forward in the steps to making this a reality. If everything goes to plan, these 2,500 personnel will be out of Afghanistan by January 15 — 5 days before Biden takes office.
So why does this even matter? Take it from Mitch McConnell: “The consequences of a premature American exit” from Afghanistan “would likely be even worse than President Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, which fueled the rise of ISIS.” If Mitch McConnell, Trump’s right hand man in the Senate, is saying that something Trump is doing is worse than something Obama did, then something is seriously wrong. Trump’s removal of US support will leave the Afghan army vulnerable to attacks from the Taliban (the Afghan army is not strong enough to defend themselves on their own, which is why the US troops were there to train them in the first place). To top it all off, the inspector general from the pentagon released a report saying that al-Qaeda, the terrorist group, supports Trump’s plan.
In the last 2 weeks after the election, Trump has done more than he has in at least the last 6 months. It’s hard to imagine what he has in store for his last 8 weeks in office. As to why he’s doing all this, I think it’s because Trump knows his presidency lives off his supporters, not on his policies. By refusing to concede, embracing the anti climate change values of his base, and keeping his promise to bring soldiers back, Trump is letting his supporters soak in all the maga-ness they can. So why is Trump rallying his base now? Is he trying to keep up the support for a different Trump presidency in the future? I think it’s because Trump knows that in a matter of months, reality will kick in and it’ll be all gone.
9 comments:
There is no doubt that Trump is currently in a deep state of denial about the election, and so far his plan seems to be to just ignore what people tell him and enjoy his remaining time as president like there's no tomorrow (which hopefully will be the case soon). Trump's recent activity definitely has something to say about his effectiveness during his presidency -- that he can do so much to worsen the country in such a little amount of time. Trump knows that this is the weakest he's been in four years, and he's clinging on to the support of his devout voters for the possibility of retaining some of his power. As the first president to not concede since that tradition began, Trump isn't doing himself any favors by portraying himself like this for the history books. Biden is already inheriting a broken country, so let's just hope that Trump doesn't make it worse in the short time he has left.
Trump has publicly announced his opinion about the outcome of the presidential election, and perhaps him doing all these new things are his way of trying to hold onto his lesser and lesser amount of supporters. However, his actions have only caused more harm than good if even his own administration has said that it's worse than what Obama did. It is embarrassing to see our president act out in this way and not peacefully concede, especially when the U.S. needs as much help and guidance as it can get. I agree with Nathan that Trump's acts do not help his image and that hopefully Trump will not cause even more damage than he already has. The removal of 2,500 troops can only cause uncertainty and danger even if that is what his supporters want. Overall, Trump should have listened to his advisors about this because pleasing his following should not be his main priority right now.
I think that since the election results Trump has felt discouraged and is trying to hold on to his powers and his supporters while he can and thats what hes doing here. I think as of now he is not accepting of the results, and he may never accept them but while he is still in power, he is going to do things like this to show that he is still holding the power, at least for a few more months. I think that his actions in the next few weeks are going to furter show that his need for control and power, however it's clear that right now he is slowly losing that and the things that he is trying to achieve before Biden is sworn in are simply to try and grasp at power. If the troops are removed that just puts our country in an unsafe position and with a switch of power in January this could really hurt this country. I think Trump needed to listen to his advisors rather than firing them, and then maybe his last few months in office could be productive and helpful towards the next candidate.
Trump knows that he has very little time left in office and he wants to do ask much as he can and do what he promised he was going to do while he is still in office. Seeing that he is doing more in the past two weeks than he has in the past six months, this may perhaps be an acknowledgment of Trump that he has already lost the election even though he publicly denies it. If he plans to run again in 2024, I can see why he is trying really hard to please his supporters by fulfilling what he said he was going to do in office. He doesn't want to lose any more supporters since he has already lost a lot.
I think most presidents step up their workload once they know they will be out of office. Also, presidential race campaigning is over now so president trump definitely has more time to spend on the job. One tradition I hate is presidents leaving trouble for other presidents when they leave the office. This kind of spiteful tradition has continued on far various presidency's. Trump's Afghanistan action seems more like the I am just gonna fulfill my last promise to the voters and leave Biden to deal with the consequences of it. I think that there should be laws to prevent this sort of behavior of presidents in the future.
I agree with Zion, the amount of change that can occur in a few weeks can be quite scary. It's even worse with Trump because he has pushed his presidential powers much further than any previous president. As citizens, we go from "he can't do that can he?"to "Oh wow, he actually did it". From the NYT, people have assumed that Trump is withdrawing because of his views on military spending: "Taken together, the cuts reflect Mr. Trump’s longstanding desire to stop shouldering the cost of long-running military engagements against Islamist insurgencies in failed and fragile countries..." (Eric Shmitt). To me, these actions are reflective of the saying, "Too little and too late". Accordingly, whether you agree or disagree with the policy, Trump made the campaign promise of withdrawing from Afghanistan a few years ago. Not only do I feel it is the wrong time to do so, but even if he had wanted to, it should have been years ago. Putting this much pressure while undergoing a presidential change seems foolish and spiteful.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/us/politics/trump-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan-somalia-iraq.html
Trump, the truest definition of a narcissist, is on an ego run right now. He wants to be proclaimed a hero by the soldiers he brings home. Named a hero by national heros--the meta for the ultimate narcissist. Possibly, his seemingly deranged rhetoric and actions are an effort to overshadow Biden's installment into office and detract from his major loss. His short sighted actions align with his America-first mentality. If Afghanistan becomes complete anarchy with the lack of troops to maintain order, that's on them. Not to mention that the US is partially responsible for their condition in the first place, that's arbitrary. Under Donald Trump, Americans can wash their hands of the conflict they initiated with no mind of how that would effect the people in the surrounding area. However, I do think that troops should be removed in a carefully planned and organized fashion. The issue isn't that he's pulling out, it's the way in which he's doing it. According to the New York Times, "Taliban officials have implied that the February deal would collapse if the incoming Biden administration prolongs the presence of American forces in the country, including any counterterrorism forces." On the other hand. many Afghans believe that this statement indicates that the taliban is trying to subvert the peace process. This is a delicate process that needs to be handled by someone other than a brute.
I have seen a lot of things over the past few weeks following the election results saying and hoping for "Trump 2024." To answer your question regarding why President Trump is doing a lot of things right now, while I do not want to deem "Trump 2024" an impossible occurrence, I also think that it is a likely possibility that he has decided to finish off his presidency full-filling aspects of his agenda, most likely because he knows a Democrat with a different agenda will be in office now instead of him for another 4 years. I read an article from the New York Times that basically advocates for the idea that President Trump is doing these things to make President-elect Biden's plans "more difficult." This idea does not shock me because the article also details how some of the last plans are "plans to act just days — or even hours — before Mr. Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20" (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/politics/trump-biden-transition.html?searchResultPosition=5). This leads me to wonder what Biden will have to undergo when he comes face to face with some of these last minute actions of President Trump.
Although Trump is in denial of losing the election, his term is coming to an end and I think he is doing as much as possible in order to please his supporters. Tiffany brings up a good point that if Trump runs again in 2024, he wants his supporters to remember what he did at the end of his term serving as President. If he can be successful with his promises, then Trump supporters will have more respect for him and are more likely to vote for him in the future. I also agree with Zion’s idea that by the time Trump leaves office, Trump could be leaving Biden with his consequences and Biden will be forced to solve Trump’s late decisions. It is hard to say what will happen, but I do think Trump making all these changes with only a few months in office is a tactic in order to keep his supporters loyal to him.
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