Trump Watch 20180715

Today's Episode: America's Foes

So, during an interview with CBS, Trump was asked who he saw as "America's greatest foe."  It turns out that Trump thinks that America has a lot of foes, and the first one he mentioned was the European Union, because of trade agreements they have in place with the United States.  Russia was the second country he mentioned, calling them a "foe in certain respects," and finally China as a foe "economically."

Now the question is a leading one, but still, Trump called out the EU first, for economic reasons.  Now I'm not sure what a "foe" really means, and Trump does stake out the position that current trade agreements are detrimental to the United States, and that Trade Wars are easily won.  The few specifics that he does call out are generally pretty narrow, and most analysis of his positions tend to say that his positions aren't well supported overall.  Here we go to a problem of who you want to believe though, and Trade Agreements are pretty much the definition of "wonky."  but I really am not very clear on what Trump's overall trade philosophy is.  I'm not even sure just what he thinks is generally wrong with existing trade agreements, other than the fact that he didn't sign off on them.

Honestly, I wish they would have asked the flip side of the question.  Who does Trump think are America's greatest allies?  Do we have good trade agreements with anyone?  What examples, either current or historic of good trade agreements are there?

I'll be watching to see if this is ever addressed.  But if the EU is at the top of the list of America's foes, does America have any allies?

• Stormy Daniels
• Trump Charity lawsuit by New York Attorney General
• FBI investigation (it keeps being called a Russian Collusion investigation, but I'm pretty sure more to it than that at this point)
• North Korea
• The Space Force
• The Border Wall
• Alien Children Detention/family separation
• Presidential Pardons
• Civil War Monuments
• Muslim Travel Ban
• China Tariffs/Trade
• Canada-G7 Tariffs/Trade
• NAFTA
• Puerto Rico response
• Military Parade in Washington
• World Trade Organization
• Covfefe Syndrome
• NATO
• Russia/Putin relationship

Giuliani still there as Lawyer
John F. Kelly still there as Chief of Staff - 6-29-2018  Trump says "Things Happen."
Jeff Sessions still there as Attorney General
Sarah Huckabee Sanders still there as Press Secretary, rumors continue to be denied.
Mike Pompeo - Secretary of State

John Bolton - National Security Advisor

Marc Short - White House Legislative Affairs Director - no denial of plans regarding his departure prior to the 2018 midterms.

Kirstjen Nielsen - Homeland Security Secretary

Joe Hagin - White House deputy Chief of Staff is resigning.- reported June 19th

Scott Pruitt - EPA Director - Resigned 7-5-2018