Yes, Trump called himself "Russia's worst nightmare" with a straight face then proceeded to advocate for their reinstatement into the G-7. You might want to invite India or Brazil if you are truly concerned about involving the worlds largest economies. It should be noted that according to the IMF Russia is no longer in the Top 10 on the list of worlds largest economies.
I'm sure we're all gobsmacked.... He could not act more like they have blackmail material on him if he tried.
He could cut our military presence in Europe to its lowest level since before WWII like the previous Administration did.
To be fair, wasn't that shift prior to the Crimea invasion? What is the measurement for "military presence" these days? The manpower of the US military has been reducing for years as technology takes over.
It has been reducing since the 1980s mostly because of the end of the Cold War, and that was justified. We don't need 300,000 troops and a big nuclear arsenal in Europe anymore, but most of those moves happened in the '90s when Russia was cutting its military and had good relations with the West. What made the Obama Administration moves particularly bad is that they were done in the face of Russian aggresion and a big military buildup. I remember hearing military officials sounding the alarm back in 2011 - saying the drawdown had gone too far and was dangerously short-sighted. In spite of this, the Administration was pushing to reduce the levels down to around 30,000 and of course, did remove all tanks from Europe. Had the Crimean invasion not taken place, we would have cut to 30,000 and probably would have gone further. And this is why the Democratic calamity about Russia seems contrived and self-serving. Prior to 2016, they didn't care much, even though the threat was clearly there. (Yes, as Paul Begala has admitted, Mitt Romney was right in 2012.) We've heard talk from them about diplomatic retaliation which is good, but military power backs all that up. If Russia truly wants to annex Lithuania, he's not going to care that he got kicked out of the G-8. He will care if there's a big military presence in Europe.
To be sure, Romney was correct. Geven that we were mired in multiple conflicts in the ME, a surging China (economically and militarily in South China Sea) it's understandable that the US needs to priortize. Putin took advantage of how stretched we were militarily. If there is one thing I do agree with Trump on (strategy, not style) its the NATO members increasing their forces. I continue to believe the Iraq War 2 was the worst strategic military decision since the Vietnam War.
Yes, but we weren't particularly assertive with China either. Furthermore, priorities isn't how the issue was framed or treated. Romney was treated as an idiot for taking Russia seriously at all. People laughed at the joke, and the cutbacks went on. Agree, and agree that he's mishandling it. He should be making it politically easy for them to increase their forces, not harder. Undoubtedly.
Revisiting Trump's lambasting of Canada for their 230% tariff on Milk, I learned today that the US has a 350% tariff on tobacco. Agricultural products are very common to have tariffs. As I understand it, nearly every country in the world "protects" its ag producers.