'I-Neocon', Foreign Policy of Emperor Trump

Not many observers believe that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will survive as the most-neutered US Secretary of State since the days when Richard Nixon’s national security adviser Henry Kissinger called the shots on foreign policy to the chagrin of Secretary of State William Rogers. Rather than lead like a constitutionally-mandated president, Donald Trump has emulated the Roman emperor Claudius in many ways.

With this article’s title’s paraphrasing credit to the 1934 novel by Robert Graves, “I, Claudius,” Trump, like Claudius, entered politics later in life – although in Claudius’s case, he became the co-consul to his brother, the tyrannical Emperor Caligula, at the age of 46. Trump entered US presidential politics from the world of real estate, casinos, and entertainment, in his late 60s. Claudius, like Trump, spent most of his pre-political life mired in games of chance and womanizing. Claudius had four wives, Trump three. Claudius, like Trump, was an avid fan of violent sports. Claudius liked Roman gladiator duels-to-the-death and chariot races, Trump his “professional” wrestling and boxing.

Trump, like Claudius, does not possess a keen intellect. However, both took on dangerous military adventures. Claudius invaded and annexed Britain in the 1st century AD. Although initially triumphant, Claudius’s extension of Roman rule into the British Isles eventually overextend the empire, which would lead to its collapse. Trump, although eschewing “regime change” conflicts encouraged by his two immediate predecessors – George W. Bush and Barack Obama – wholeheartedly embraced them after succumbing to the influence of neo-conservative policy advisers.

Claudius eventually fell victim to the political designs of his fourth wife, Agrippina, who is believed to have engineered a plot to poison the emperor. Upon Claudius’s death, Agrippina succeeded in having her son, Nero, placed on the throne. Claudius’s demise is where the similarities to Trump generally end, although, the Trump White House internecine internal political warfare is worthy of any palace intrigue through history.

Trump follows the advice of a dangerous cabal he has established around himself. On issues of West Asia and relations with Muslim nations, Trump’s cabal possesses a toxicity never seen before in a US administration. This cabal revolves around the troika of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law with many portfolios; Jason Greenblatt, former chief legal officer for the Trump Organization and now Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiation; and David Friedman, formerly with Trump's law firm of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman and now US ambassador to Zionist regime. They, along with Trump, have succeeded in reversing 70 years of US policy in West Asia by ensuring America's recognition of al-Quds as Israel's capital. The decision will also see the US move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Quds originally seized by Israel from Palestinians.

The Quds decision sends a stark warning to Muslims everywhere, who regard it as the third-holiest city in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. It also throws a gauntlet down to the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern and Coptic Orthodoxy, and mainstream Protestantism, all which regard Jerusalem as not only Christianity's most-revered city but an international zone. By rewarding Israel with US recognition, Trump's action was a slap in the face to Christians in Quds who have been forced to contend with hundreds of vicious Jewish hate attacks on Christians, such as the scrawled words in Hebrew, "Death to the Heathen Christians, the enemies of Israel" and "Christians to Hell," painted on the Benedictine Monastery in the Old City of Quds, the revered site of Jesus's Last Supper. The Zionist regime has taken no action to find and punish the perpetrators of these anti-Gentile attacks by Jewish hate mongers.

Trump also tossed aside campaign promises to avoid plunging the US into Bush and Obama-era "regime change" debacles abroad. No sooner had economic protests broken out in Iran, Trump borrowed from Israeli propaganda barrages by tweeting out his support for an end to Iran's "regime." This came after Trump said he wanted to scrap the 5+1 nuclear agreement with Iran, something urged by Israel's Crime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It is all but certain that Trump's CIA director, Mike Pompeo, ordered CIA assets in Iran and on its periphery into action against the Iranian government.

Trump wasted no time at the outset of 2018 in not only engaging in a tweet storm aimed at Iran, but choosing to criticize Pakistan. Trump ordered $255 million in US assistance to Pakistan halted, accusing the country of providing safe-havens to terrorists active in Afghanistan.

Trump's denunciation of Pakistan illustrates the influence that his UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, maintains over Trump's pro-India and anti-Pakistan foreign policy. Haley’s neo-conservative stance also ensured that Trump approved the sending of lethal military equipment to Ukraine, in contravention of the current Republican Party foreign policy plank, demanded by the Trump campaign during the 2016 GOP convention in Cleveland, that stands in opposition to such a move.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif responded to Trump's Twitter tantrum by declaring that, "Trump has tweeted against us and Iran for his domestic consumption." But it was not merely generic domestic consumption for Trump. Trump's anti-Iran/Pakistan rhetoric, coming soon after his al-Quds decision, was aimed at pleasing Zionists like casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, as well as his trio of ultra-Zionist advisers - Kushner, Greenblatt, and Friedman. It was also a milksop to Trump's far-right conspiracy fringe, consisting mainly of Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, and Mike Cernovich, to placate their anti-Muslim xenophobia. It has not dawned on these conspiracy fringe-minded Trump acolytes that Trump, just like Bush and Obama, has adopted the very same regime change policies honed by CIA street themed protest guru Gene Sharp and the themed revolution mastermind George Soros. Jones, for example, once railed against Soros and themed revolutions. But now, Jones and others of his ilk wildly cheer on Trump's moves to topple governments using Sharp and Soros tactics.

Unlike Claudius, Trump has no strong political Praetorian Guard to ensure his ultimate survival. Trump has created more enemies than friends within the establishment Republican Party, not to mention in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the CIA, and the military services. Already, Republican presidential hopefuls are planning to challenge Trump for the presidential nomination in 2020. These efforts will gain full steam after the 2018 mid-term election that could see Congress flipping to Democratic Party control.

In the end, Trump, like Claudius, suffers from neuro-psychiatric disorders that prompt him to engage in socially inappropriate obsessions and compulsions. When Trump’s neocon policies achieve their desired results, the neocons will discard Trump like some lame old workhorse and promote some new vapid tool to carry out their policies. Enter Nikki Haley, Vice President Mike Pence, and Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton.

Those were excerpts of a feature authored by Wayne Madsen, investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist.

RM/SS