Saturday, October 14, 2017

The Daily Beast soon to be tweeted at

And both National Security Adviser General HR McMaster and Chief of Staff General John Kelly are soon to issue statements (the second in rapid succession for Kelly) praising the Twit in Chief.
In a meeting with Senate Democrats last week, President Donald Trump’s top national security aide had a message for those worried that the administration may scuttle the Iran nuclear deal: If Trump doesn’t have to see it, he won’t be able to kill it.

[...]

McMaster was more subtle and careful in his words when he hosted a group of roughly 12 lawmakers at the White House, conspicuously timed with the president out of town. But that was the impression he left, three sources familiar with the briefing tell The Daily Beast.

[...]

In his meeting with Senate Democrats, he implied that it would not be a bad development if they didn’t re-introduce sanctions on Iran even after Trump said the nuclear deal had been violated. Multiple sources familiar with the briefing said that McMaster made a point of never explicitly saying this, for fear that it would leak to the press that he was undermining the president’s preferred policy.

[...]

“What he was also trying to tell us is that every 90 days this is going to be an issue if we don’t figure it out,” said the source. “His point is this is always a thing that I have to deal with.”

[...]

At the request of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, [neocon John] Bolton had drafted a plan for how Trump could back out of the Iran deal. But he was never able to formally present the document to the president after Bannon was ousted and John Kelly became chief of staff. While Bolton has not been able to visit the White House to advise the president lately, Trump still asks aides about Bolton, wondering where he is and what his advice would be on Iran, according to a person familiar with the situation.

[...]

Despite the pressure to remain in the deal, however, Trump is poised to try and impair it while keeping it alive. His policy will effectively kick major decisions to Congress.

  Daily Beast
And then he can tweet all manner of insults at them, baiting his base and satisfying his need to be nasty.
Even removing the 90-day certification provision runs some risk, aides warn. While it may remove the need for Trump to have to weigh in, reluctantly and petulantly, on the overall accord, it too could be interpreted by Iran and others as a sign of bad faith.
Nobody anywhere is going to work with the US if this goes South.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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