Trump Doctrine is Bush Doctrine Without the Foreplay

0:00Irreverent news talk, opinion, satire. It's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. The situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return, and the United States found it intolerable, in my opinion, based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me, Marco was so involved, that I thought that they were going to attack us. I thought they would, if we didn't do this at the time we did it, I think they had in mind to attack us. Why does it sound like Trump is talking about his war in Iran in the past tense already? Did I miss something here? And why does it sound like he's throwing his crew under the bus already, like he just realized what a giant mistake he made in attacking Iran?

0:39I'm not even claiming that's what's actually happening here. I'm sure our military is giving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard a run for their money, but the tone of what Trump just said is so completely off, because it sounds like he's already trying to cover his big orange butt. my opinion and my opinion since when does Donald Trump ever find the need to carefully couch his words like this? Why all the confusion? Because Trump prefers it that way since it keeps everybody guessing and it allows him to get away with more than anybody else. No other president can do some of this shit I'm doing. No other president.

1:17The things I'm doing, nobody else was going to do. I say, they say it all the time, sir, could you do this? You're the only one can do it. The problem is that when people become capable of doing anything they want, power corrupts in absolute power, corrupts absolutely. And this is when people like Trump want to have everything given to them both ways, just like Trump and Iran right now. He wants to claim victory and continue the war at the same time. He just said so himself. Mr. President, you've said the war is, quote, very complete, but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning.

1:50So which is it? And how long should Americans be? Well, I think you could say both. We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here. I could call it or we could go further and we're going to go further. We're going to go further, even though we've already declared mission accomplished. Gee, does that sound familiar? My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended in the battle of Iraq. The United States and our allies have prevailed. The war in Iraq only continued for more than eight years after Bush gave that speech. We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here, I could call it, or we could go further and we're going to go further.

2:34At least Trump admitted that he actually wants it both ways. I wanted both ways might actually be the perfect way to sum up and encapsulate what is quickly developing into the Trump doctrine. The Bush doctrine promised short surgical wars that morphed into long occupations once the dust settled. The Trump doctrine just skips the buildup entirely. Declare victory immediately, insist the job is done, and then keep the conflict simmering anyway. In other words, the Trump doctrine is just the Bush doctrine without the foreplay. And you just know that J.D. Vance has been against this to his core as a human being, right?

3:08I mean, the fact that Trump even acknowledged that there was even a hint of some sort of rift between these two men? You just know there's a serious fight brewing right on schedule if my theory about J.D. Vance turning on Trump holds out to be true. As far-fetched as I realize that probably is in real life, I just cannot shake the idea so I'm running with it. Try to keep up. Here's what Trump had to say. He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going. Oh, you know it's bad when Trump starts talking like this. Yes, he was less than enthusiastic.

3:49I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going. Please, Trump doesn't talk like that unless he's bluffing. If we didn't do it, they would have done it to us. I felt based on the negotiations that were being had by Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner and Marco and Pete and everybody was involved. I felt that they were going to that they were looking to tap us along before they hit. And I thought they were going to hit. Yeah. Call it what it is. That's that's a preemptive strike, Mr. President. Good Lord. Give me a break. People like Trump don't talk like this about nothing. Maybe less enthusiastic about going.

4:27less than enthusiastic suggests to me that some pretty strong words have been had between Trump and his VP. I can't prove it, but these are exactly the kind of signals that Trump has always given before he turns on somebody close to him or they turn on him first. The same exact model that brought us the Apprentice TV show that we all loved at the time. I mean, I did anyway, before I knew what Trump was or what he stood for or what he would become. We all stood up and cheered when he fired Omarosa. And I think it's the same inevitable fate for J.D. Vance, especially now that it's clear that Marco Rubio has now risen to the role of ultimate ass-kisser of the Commander-in-Chief as teacher's pet and heir apparent to the GOP throne after Donald passes.

5:09Please, J.D. Vance is going to flip and join forces with Marjorie Taylor Greene as his vice president. You watch. And they're going to ride Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly like surfboards into an independent super ticket that might just be dumb enough to work. Yeah, it just might be dumb enough to work, and if I know that, they know that. And I've got to admit, it would be interesting. The big problem is the America First splinter of the conservative movement has a bit of a Nazi problem. And I'm not talking about your basic isolationist who simply thinks that we shouldn't be sending so much money to Israel.

5:39I'm talking about the dark MAGA side who honestly believe the darkest conspiracy theories imaginable about Jewish folks, which is where many of us check out and will not generally do business with these kind of people. I hate to admit it, but Trump was right to finally and perhaps reluctantly denounce Tucker Carlson as he did. Better late than never, and we must give credit where it's due. And while there's nothing inherently anti-Semitic about America First Isolationism, there is something profoundly evil about blaming Jewish folks for all the world's problems, or any other culture or religion for that matter, including Islam.

6:11But personally, I think most religious folks have it wrong, even though their hearts are generally in the right place. It's a confusing planet, and life is too short to worry about people believing whatever they need to believe to get some sleep at night. If we ever truly learn how to coexist and live and let live and treat each other better than we treat ourselves, there wouldn't be any need to cling to the crutches of identity politics, conservative or liberal. It's not a both sides issue. It's a spectrum so vast that almost everyone is guilty of it somewhere along the line. I know I am, but I'm trying to be a better person, a better American.

6:42The real dividing line isn't left versus right, But the endless human temptation to sort ourselves into tribes and then convince ourselves that our tribe is the righteous one. And until that instinct changes, the labels will just keep changing, but the conflict will stay exactly the same. What else is going on in the news? A tax refund update expected this week. Trump has been given a Thursday deadline to tell the U.S. Court of International Trade how it plans to refund the emergency tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court. The ruling didn't address how the funds would be addressed, and it remains an open process with many uncertainties, including when eligible businesses will receive compensation.

7:18The decision put about$166 billion in tariffs collected at risk. Well, let's see, if you divide$166 billion equally around 150 million taxpayers in the United States, that comes out to roughly$1 ,100 per person. Which is chump change when you consider what the government has stolen from you over the last 30 years for allowing inflation to spiral out of control. Yeah, where's our reparations for that, and what do those numbers actually look like? Well, I am glad I asked. Because if you take the average American worker over the last three decades, inflation alone has vaporized something between$300 ,000 to$400 ,000 in purchasing power over the course of their working life.

7:56Now, your paycheck kept going up, sure, but the price of everything else went up a lot faster. Housing, healthcare, groceries, insurance, college, the whole carnival ride. So forgive my lack of enthusiasm when Washington starts cutting$1 ,100 checks like it's some sort of grand act of economic justice. After 30 years of the dollar getting watered down like cheap bar whiskey, the refund barely covers the tip. That's what she said. But sure, I'll take the money. I mean, assuming Uncle Sam doesn't want to take half of it, I should be able to buy a pair of nice concert tickets for my wife and I over the summer if I'm lucky.

8:28But anybody who's been working for the last 30 years in this country is basically owed the value of a three-bed, two-bath home from our government. But the best they can do is more foreign wars. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for that. Let's all remember to take that information with us into the voting booth this November. Because we're going to need a new kind of politician if we're ever going to continue with this archaic system of government that's been outgrown by technology. There's nowhere left for them to hide other than out in plain sight, which has actually been an effective enough strategy to get guys like Trump elected twice.

8:58Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and we won't be fooled again, hopefully. If you fool me, we can't get fooled again. Because this is precisely the intersection where the America First half of the conservative movement has found themselves in an F-around-and-find-out moment. And look, I've got a pretty even split between conservatives and liberals who listen to this show for different reasons. Liberals tend to listen because they like hearing a conservative-leaning host go after Trump, because I loathe that grifter more than they're often able to articulate, and I speak for that part of them that might have never developed.

9:28Now, on the other side, closeted-never-Trump-er conservatives listen to me because they're secretly disgusted by the amount of bullshit that they're expected to consume and publicly digest with enthusiasm just to satisfy other party loyalists. And this is why I think Newsweek Radio has had over 10 million downloads in under two years without a dime spent on promoting the podcast. But oh hey, would you look at the time, we're out of it. So until we get to it again, it's Newsweek Radio, I'm Jesse Edwards, catch you next time, bye. And we say bye-bye! Newsweek Radio is a member of the Trust Project.

9:58I know what the president can do some of this shit I'm doing. No other president. The things I'm doing, nobody else was going to do it. I say, they say it all the time, sir, could you do this? You're the only one can do it.