WHAT DICTATORS DO
Trump Just Canceled a Scheduled Meeting With a Top GOP Senator – Who Was Sitting in the White House Waiting
Among the top (and astonishing) stories today is that President Donald Trump just announced he is pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria. Part of this huge story is that Trump literally just announced it. He did not, according to multiple reports, consult with any of his advisors, including Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
Deputy defense editor at Politico, Dave Brown, explain what happened:
Trump and Erdogan talk last Friday. Since then:
– US clears the sale of Patriot missiles to Turkey
– US starts pulling troops out of Syria
– US gives State personnel 24 hours to leave SyriaThat’s one hell of a phone call
— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) December 19, 2018
Erdogan of course is the leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an authoritarian dictator – exactly the type of leader Trump reveres (see: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un.)
But here’s where the story gets even stranger.
Let’s let the senior national security correspondent for Defense One explain:
Corker says he just got off a classified phone call with Mattis and says he is now headed to a preciously-scheduled meeting with the president and will now discuss Syria. He says there does not appear to have been any interagency process to the withdrawal decision.
— Katie Bo Williams (@KatieBoWill) December 19, 2018
Corker is U.S. Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who just happens to be the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Someone President Trump might have wanted to talk to before deciding and announcing he is pulling out of Syria.
Williams adds that Sen. Corker “also says he’s certain no one in the Senate was informed.”
Oops.
A little over two hours later:
Corker just returned from the White House, which canceled his meeting w/ Trump: “I don’t know that there’s any way to reverse it. I understand from talking to people who are close to it that he’s made his mind up,” he says of Syria decision. “It’s obviously a political decision.”
— Katie Bo Williams (@KatieBoWill) December 19, 2018
You read that right. The Republican Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations was in the White House waiting to talk with the Republican President for a previously-scheduled meeting and was told to go home.
Meanwhile, Corker just told Manu Raju, CNN’s Senior Congressional Correspondent, “I’ve never seen a decision like this,” referring to pulling out of Syria. He calls it a “massive decision … where nothing is communicated in advance.”
“For all involved, this was a major shock,” says Corker. “It’s obviously a political decision.”
This tweet from before Corker was at the White House sums up how people are feeling, including Senators and administration officials:
CORKER told me GOP senators are giving Pence an “earful” about Syria in lunch right now.
“It doesn’t feel to me there was any interagency process” in deciding to pull out.
“I’m not sure even the principles knew,” referring to agency heads, adding Trump just “woke up” and did it
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2018
CNBC reporter suggests why:
As we suspected, the Pentagon was not informed in advance that Trump would announce an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Syria.
Bigger picture: Trump got bored with the shutdown crisis he had created, so he manufactured a new, bigger crisis to take its place. https://t.co/oVIRRepe5I
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) December 19, 2018
Just how screwed up a decision is it to pull out of Syria the way Trump just did?
State Dept yesterday: “We’ve made significant progress recently in the campaign, but the job is not yet done.”
Trump today: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria.”
DOD today: “The Coalition has liberated the ISIS-held territory, but the campaign against ISIS is not over.”
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 19, 2018
Meanwhile, the news that Trump ghosted on a GOP Senator is getting a lot of attention on Twitter:
Remarkable to cancel on a chairman of a Senate committee who was at the WH for a scheduled meeting when Trump didn’t have anything on his schedule til an evening Christmas party. Seems Corker’s criticism of late – over Saudi Arabia and now Syria – got under Trump’s skin https://t.co/aGyrgoxgDx
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2018
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