We Have No Foreign Policy Direction
(00:00.458)
We have no zero, zip zero, zilch, nada, no foreign policy direction here in the United States. And this is where I really miss Donald Trump. This is where I really, really miss Donald Trump. At least we knew, we weren’t rudderless. We knew what direction we were heading. It wasn’t a situation where we were floundering around all over the place. It was an American.
first ideal that he was putting forward and changing. Looked like we had some sort of changing from the forever wars and the again, the completely compasslessness. Is that a word? Compasslessness. Yeah. Directionless, rudderless foreign policy that we’ve had for a very, very long period of time. You know, it’s interesting is that.
Again, you get the globalists out there, you know, they’ve got the vapors are worried about Trump coming back in. And they love their alliances and they love their NATO and they love their meetings. And this is from the editorial board in the Wall Street Journal. US alliances are more important than ever in an increasingly dangerous world. Yeah, like the coalition of the willing member George W. Bush coalition of the willing. I neck great Montenegro sent two soldiers.
to Afghanistan and Albania sent one time. I mean, it’s just so stupid. But anyway, so Congress actually, this is interesting. Congress actually looked to take out a Trump insurance policy. Yeah, that’s basically what it is. It’s a policy that might prevent a president from withdrawing from NATO on his own authority.
In the annual defense policy bill that passed last week, Congress included a provision requiring a US president to consult Congress before withdrawing from NATO. I was bipartisan. You got Tim Kaine from Virginia and you got Marco Rubio. It would require a sent from two thirds of the Senate or an act from Congress. The enforcement mechanism is withholding funds for such a withdrawal. And again, they’re pointing this.
(02:20.542)
at Trump because Trump gave him the vapors when he actually threatened NATO nations for not paying their bills. Again, Trump, he doesn’t like these military deployments like South Korea. Money was charged. He went against NATO. He tweeted this out in 2018. The US is paying for 90% of NATO with many countries nowhere close to spending 2%.
of their economy on defense. And that tweet ended obviously in all caps with an exclamation point. No. Now this is the opinion again of the globalists over at the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Trump is right that the Europeans have allowed their defenses to atrophy to the point of embarrassment.
though the picture is improving. Barely improving, 11. We got 31 countries in NATO, 11, meet their required alliance goal. That’s what they’re supposed to do, paying their bills of spending 2% of GDP on defense, 11.
And I like how they write this, it’s interesting. In any case, American defense isn’t charity. American defense spending isn’t charity. A stable Europe is a core US strategic interest, a lesson Americans learned twice in the 20th century at tremendous costs. The risk of abandoning NATO have compounded since Trump left office with Russia’s Vladimir Putin launching a land war on the European continent.
Hold on a second here. Okay, no, it might not be charity, but it’s welfare.
(04:15.87)
It’s most certainly welfare, is it not?
And again, they’re upset because they don’t like Trump’s bend toward isolationism. And again, you know, as Trump went off on NATO Secretary General, Jen Stoltenberg, that NATO was egregious, complaining that Spain, he had just met with the king, only spent point nine percent of its GDP on defense. And I guess John Bolton talked Trump out of pulling back from the alliance. And again, Trump said, he is why do we just withdraw from the thing?
entirely. Again, was Trump, was Trump not right about Europe having to ante up and arm up to protect themselves? He was spot on. He was 110% right on this. And I’m going to be honest with you. I think it’s a question. Do you think that Vladimir Putin would have moved on the Ukraine if Trump was in the White House? I don’t think so.
I don’t think so because quite frankly, a deal could have been had. Again, going back a couple of years, almost two years, we talked about it here on the program. A deal could have been had and it should have been had. And now I’ve gone into other areas. Talking about, you know, some of the things that were accomplished, Abraham Accords under Donald Trump in the Middle East and the direction that was heading. And now it’s, Dan, I hate you, I’ve been using the phrase too often here, but it’s a dumpster fire.
Now you gotta defend the Red Sea, you gotta get countries on board there. You’ve got an absolute, it’s got no leadership here out of the United States. Do you know where Joe Biden stands when it comes to Israel? Cause he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth. He’s saying that Israel, he support Israel 110%. We’re going out there, you can do it. But on the other side, he’s saying, well, no, you’re gonna have to pull back from this. We don’t like this too many civilian cash. Which is it?
(06:21.19)
It doesn’t make any sense. You need some, right now is the opportunity where somebody could actually go out there and lead and try to negotiate some sort of peace deal here. What are we doing right now?
(06:40.482)
Again, I saw this and again, this is just how naive some of these political leaders are. This is a commentary. This is a Wall Street Journal today. And again, they’re talking about how we need to make Russia pay to rebuild Ukraine. You get a, you know, basically a congressman from Arkansas and a member of Albania’s parliament here.
how to make Russia pay for the Ukraine. And saying that the world must come together, must come together in order to seize all Russian sovereign assets. They’re saying they could do this here in the United States, but the reality is most sovereign assets of Russia are not in the United States, they’re in other countries. And if you think that Cyprus all of a sudden is gonna cut off, it’s just.
not going to happen. Not to mention the unintended consequences of something like this. The unintended consequences of going, oh yeah, it’s a great idea. Yeah, you took all of those oligarch boats. Ooh, you got them there. You got them there. We did a podcast on this several months ago. How much this is costing all of these individual countries just to maintain these oligarch boats because the oligarchs aren’t paying the bills.
on these boats, which you have to keep the air conditioning on, you gotta keep them running and doing all that stuff. So it’s costing the taxpayers of these countries that have seized these boats for these fancy pants boats just to sit there. What the hell good is that? Did you stick it to the Russians right then? Because right now, I mean, Washington Post, New York Times, myriad of different papers are there in Moscow. And they’re fine. Major concerts taking place. You got European DJs doing shows in Red Square.
Um, they’re okay. The sanctions didn’t work.
(08:44.942)
They didn’t work. So you think that this is gonna fly?
Huh? No, it’s not going to fly. Again, yeah. You know what I’d like to see Trump, I’d like to see Trump as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense combine the two for crying out loud. Because again, you take a look at this and again, this is rehashing, but it’s the latest here. United States Department of Defense has failed. It’s six annual audit in a row.
But doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter whether Republican, Democrat, doesn’t make any difference, okay? They’re gonna push for more defense spending because again, everybody in the world’s gonna invade us tomorrow. Five, four, three, two, one. Gotta spend more. Never enough. Again, the Pentagon’s books would make the folks over at Enron blush. That’s how pathetic they are. 29 sub audits.
of the Department of Defense’s various services. Only seven passed this year. Only seven with zero improvement over the prior year. These audits have only been taking place since 2017. So the Pentagon has never passed an audit, never. Yeah, but you’re required to, if the IRS comes in, you’re required to pass it. I’m required to pass an audit if the IRS comes knocking. But yeah.
God forbid government agencies have to do such a thing. It’s a black hole. $877 billion. 877, that is our defense budget. This is what, again, that would be my first question. First question, you got all these, buy air, we’re not spending up on defense, we’re not doing this. And you ever see a singer, I mean, you’d probably see Rand Paul. Excuse me.
(10:49.57)
Excuse me, be like Tom Hanks in Big, where he’s like, I don’t get it. Excuse me, I don’t get it.
I don’t know. We’re spending eight hundred and seventy seven billion dollars on defense. The next 10 countries below us. Many of them are allies are spending eight hundred and forty nine. Billion. Why are we in such danger? Why is China such a threat? If again.
The next 10 countries, those 10 countries below us, include China, but also a lot of our allies are spending less than we are this year. Yeah, and the Pentagon cannot fully account for $3.8 trillion in assets. Where did they go? And $4 trillion in liabilities. Hey, I don’t know where that…
we spent $4, I don’t know where the money went. Again, they’re looking for what Biden’s looking for $886 billion. Congress wants to add additional $80 billion.
(12:15.85)
Yeah, yeah. Again, you take a look at how the trillions of dollars that we’ve spent in Afghanistan, the trillions of dollars we’ve spent in Iraq. And again, the numbers are so large that people can’t even fathom them anymore. You ever think about, you know, again, if we had not gone into Iraq, and maybe we had just gone in and taken out Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan?
Because again, status quo. Who was running Afghanistan? Who was running Afghanistan in 2001? Who was running it? Oh yeah, that was the Taliban. Who’s running it today? Oh, the Taliban. Anyway, I don’t know if that money was spent, I don’t know, maybe shoring up social security. Anything.
infrastructure here in the United States, our space program. Just think about if that money was actually spent to, this taxpayer money, to improve the lives of the American people. Again, I’m with Trump on the American first foreign policy. I think it’d be a good job for him.
That’d be a dual role. Could save a little money there too. Make Trump Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. Just saying. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.