The education of Donald Trump

Despite his ruthlessness in business, Donald Trump is no sociopath, and it remains to be seen whether he possesses the icy resolve to comprehensively destroy his enemies in Washington. For they are powerful and merciless, and will neuter his presidency, and possibly impeach him and throw him in jail, if he does not act quickly and firmly to crush them all. His skills have brought him unimaginable fame and riches in the private sector, but the government is a different world, and the waters he has waded into run very, very deep. I wonder if he is just beginning to grasp the immensity of what is required of him:

President Trump may have been wounded more badly than he expected by the Flynn affair. Mr. Trump is, after, a rather decent man. He has no military experience, and as far as I know not much familiarity with military history. His instinctual reaction when an enemy is wounded is to stand back and end the fight. This is the civilized way of doing things, and in civil life it is much to be preferred. 

The military know better. Battles may be won by valor; wars are won in the pursuit. When the enemy is down is the time to put the boot in. Relentless pursuit, slaughter of the retreating enemy, kill them all, take no prisoners because prisoners need guarding and care and reduce your strength; wars are won or lost in the pursuit. [...] 

Valor wins battles; wars are won in the pursuit. Mr. Trump’s enemies know that and believe it. Perhaps Mr. Trump is learning it.

Trump will grow in office, I predict. He will learn to give his enemies no quarter, to show them no mercy, to strip them of all power using every legal means at his disposal. He will learn to ignore their lying shows of friendship and their appeals to fair play, "norms" and other abstract concepts they never gave the slightest shit about as he purges them with fire from a vastly corrupt, out-of-control government.

The alternative is Trump in prison or worse; government of, by and for the National Security State; and the extinction of the republic. Simple choice.

This is an encouraging sign. The showdown continues:

President Trump plans to assign a New York billionaire to lead a broad review of American intelligence agencies, according to administration officials, an effort that members of the intelligence community fear could curtail their independence and reduce the flow of information that contradicts the president’s worldview. 

The possible role for Stephen A. Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, has met fierce resistance among intelligence officials already on edge because of the criticism the intelligence community has received from Mr. Trump during the campaign and since he became president. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump blamed leaks from the intelligence community for the departure of Michael T. Flynn, his national security adviser, whose resignation he requested.

Take a deep breath

John Podhoretz in Commentary:

I am myself unnerved by the evidence of high-level lawlessness in the Flynn matter, but a “coup d’etat” refers specifically to a military ouster of a leader, not a leak-driven campaign using the press to nail someone. This is sure to persist, though, if the Flynn-Russia matter accelerates—and if the reluctant House and Senate do begin investigating the matter in earnest. If the language surrounding the investigation remains florid and purple, if Democrats try to please their Trump-hating constituents by screaming impeachment and liberal media tries to garner audience by jumping openly and vociferously on the bandwagon, the Trumpians will respond in kind by stirring the pot through their media and their argumentation.

The result might well be violence. Not rhetorical violence. Actual violence. Actual political violence. Actual conflicts between anti-Trumpers and Trumpers. At demonstrations. In the streets. Of our cities. Political violence of a sort we haven’t seen in 50 years, and maybe haven’t really seen in this country in the modern era. Those who believe Trump is a unique menace whose threat to our democratic way of life will be met with those who believe the elites are using illicit means to oust the legitimately elected president of the United States.

Podhoretz is right about this, and right about the amplifying effect of social media on public hysteria. This situation is getting dangerous, folks.

Time for everyone to take a deep breath and relax...

The Flynn affair

Some noteworthy articles about the Flynn affair:

Eli Lake: The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn

Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are some of the most tightly held government secrets. This is for good reason. Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity. This is what police states do. 

In the past it was considered scandalous for senior U.S. officials to even request the identities of U.S. officials incidentally monitored by the government (normally they are redacted from intelligence reports). John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was derailed in 2006 after the NSA confirmed he had made 10 such requests when he was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control in George W. Bush's first term. The fact that the intercepts of Flynn's conversations with Kislyak appear to have been widely distributed inside the government is a red flag.

Mike Cernovich: What General Flynn’s Resignation Means for America

Tonight the fake news media landed a tactical nuke on America. The line has been broken, and the media now knows Trump is far more sensitive to bad press than he seemed to be during the campaign. [...]

When Trump fires or forces someone to resign, he has given power to the media. [...]

Flynn was always a target because only he, Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, and Stephen Miller are in touch with Trump’s base.

Trump should have disbanded the White House Press Corps, as I advised. This lack of access would have put CNN on the state playing field as an ordinary blog. They’d be starved for ad revenue.

Tonight was a major stategic defeat. The fake news media and so-called #TheResistance are inspired.

Vox Day: National Security Adviser Flynn resigns

That's exactly what I said that he should do [resign] if the reports that he had lied were true. And, as I also mentioned, I don't see it as a loss to the God-Emperor at all, because Flynn was heavily influenced by the neocons, and by Michael Ledeen in particular. With him out, and Eliot Abrams being rejected, I anticipate that some of the pressure to instigate trouble with Iran will be reduced. 

The opposition media will consider this a scalp and will try to make the most of it, and they will fail to recognize what I pointed out before the inauguration, which is that the Trump administration is almost certainly going to have record turnover, as the God-Emperor will quickly remove subordinates in whom he loses confidence or trust. It worked for him during the campaign and it will work for him in office.

Vox Day: Curiouser and curiouser

The Saker: The Neocons and the “Deep State” Have Neutered the Trump Presidency, It’s Over Folks!

The Saker: The Anti-Flynn ‘Deep State’ Coup – Spelling It Out in the Clearest Way Possible

And some tweets from John Robb:

The big reason Flynn was the #1 target of the #deepstate : he was rumored to be the point man on plans to reform the Intel Community.

— John Robb (@johnrobb) February 15, 2017

#Deepstate to @realDonaldTrump

"You will die in jail"

Definitely nuclear. https://t.co/LkYVIhcaAD

— John Robb (@johnrobb) February 15, 2017

All of the things we were worried about re: political use of #deepstate surveillance is proving true. The genie is out of the bottle.

— John Robb (@johnrobb) February 15, 2017

Honestly, I can't make heads or tails of this. The situation is far too complex, fluid, and shrouded in secrecy for all but the most informed observers to have a meaningful opinion on it.

My intuition tells me this is a Bad Thing for us Trump supporters. I liked General Flynn and thought he would do a good job of reforming the intelligence agencies and bringing some measure of sanity back to our foreign policy. Also, this is looking more and more like a Deep State coup against the POTUS, in which case, sayonara, America - you were fun while you lasted.

On the other hand, I wouldn't sell Trump short. He has proven himself to be a lot smarter and more strategic than virtually anyone gave him credit for during the campaign, and it strikes me as premature to second-guess every single decision he makes on a daily basis. Trump is playing a long game, and, as Marco Rubio infamously claimed about Obama, he knows exactly what he's doing...

Our president is fighting an array of extremely powerful enemies in the Deep State, the permanent bureaucracy, Congress, the judiciary, the media, academia, the "international community"... it's basically just him and a half-dozen advisers, and his basket of deplorable supporters... versus THE WORLD. He made it this far - let's have a little faith in his judgment and abilities.

And Flynn is problematic, for the reasons Vox points out. I found his neocon growlings about Russia and other alleged enemies in his book The Field of Fight, co-authored by Michael "[Bomb Iran] Faster, Please" Ledeen, disturbing. Also, Flynn apparently misled Mike Pence about his phone call with the Russian ambassador, an offense that I would not expect the God-Emperor to take lightly, much as he may otherwise value Flynn.

The issue with Flynn may simply be that he is a born rebel. As he wrote in his book:

I was one of those nasty tough kids, hell-bent on breaking rules for the adrenaline rush and hardwired just enough not to care about the consequences. [...] 

My rehabilitation was the fastest in adolescent history. I had it coming, and it taught me that moral rehab is possible. I behaved during my term of probation and stopped all of my criminal activity. But I would always retain my strong impulse to challenge authority and to think and act on my own whenever possible. There is room for such types in America, even in the disciplined confines of the United States Army.

But not, perhaps, in the disciplined court of the God-Emperor.