Disclaimer: This text is written by someone who profoundly dislikes US foreign policy, US militarism, and the American way of thinking, as represented by US mass media and Hollywood. If you believe, that the USA is a beacon of democracy, a role model for the world, a shining city on the hill, you should not read this text because it will only annoy you.
Proceed at your own peril.
As stated before, US President Donald Trump is not an intruder, not an “Manchurian Candidate,” not an outsider to challenge the US political establishment, he is himself a member of the establishment, a member of the ruling class of billionaires.
The turmoil which at the moment engulfs the White House, various US agencies, and the whole Washington DC political scene results from the fact, that President Trump belongs to the faction of the establishment, which prefers economic conquest to military conquest.
The faction which favors military conquest is represented in public by Robert Kagan, Victoria Nuland, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, John Brennan, James Clapper, Ashton Carter, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Michael Morell, John Allen, Bill Kristol, the Clinton clan. These people are commonly known as Neocons or war hawks.
The main power bastion though of the Neocons and war hawks are the CIA and parts of the NSA and other security agencies, also parts of the military and the State Department. This is quite logical because the CIA and the other named entities depend on military conflict, interventions, wars to justify their existence and continued generous funding.
The Matrix revealed: There are informal personal networks and cliques of high-ranking bureaucrats in all the mentioned organizations who can with some reason be called “deep state,” “permanent government,” or “shadow government.” Some legislators, retired officials, media people, and other persons who are influential or rich (George Soros) are also considered to be part of the deep state.
Though deep state and Neocons are not the same, they concur and correspond well enough to resist united against President Trump. Bureaucrats, challenged and threatened by Trumps attempt to install his confidants in crucial positions, provoked by his inimical and brash style, and instinctively resisting any kind of change, heartily join the resistance.
The goal is to either subdue Trump and bring him in line, paralyze the Trump administration, or remove him from office in one way or the other (impeachment, incapacitation, assassination).
What can the “deep state” do against President Trump?
The White House and other important buildings are bugged (with hidden microphones), every conversation is recorded, all communication lines are surveilled. CIA and NSA look for information bits which can be turned against Trump. Such information is then leaked to the press. Leaking has been made easier by President Obama, ordering the NSA a few days before he left office to distribute gathered evidence to all other intelligence agencies.
In January the CIA publicized via news channel CNN and BuzzFeed a 35-page dossier alleging that Russia has compromising information on Trump, including corruption and despicable personal conduct (sexual perversion). The dossier was compiled by Christopher Steele, an ex-MI6 agent and founder of Orbis Business Intelligence; it was available both to spy agencies and the press because its author had been shopping it around broadly for publication. In the meantime the dossier has been discredited.
In February National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had to resign after a report about five phone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was leaked to the press. In his resignation letter Flynn said he had given President Trump and Vice President Pence incomplete information about his contact with Kislyak. Before that newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times had voiced concerns about Flynn’s longstanding relationships with Russia.
Other leaks included details from phone calls between President Trump with Mexican President Pena Nieto and French President Francois Hollande, a phone conversation between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, where Trump complained about a “dumb” refugee swap deal and abruptly hang up, a call with Russian President Putin, where Trump was unsure about the 2010 New START arms-reduction treaty, had to ask aides, and then declared the treaty a bad deal.
There are leaked reports about animosities between senior counselor Stephen Bannon and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, while various rumors are also spread about counselor Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump tweeted: “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?”
Former counterintelligence officer John Schindler warned in an op-ed, that the spy agencies withhold gathered intelligence from a White House which they do not trust and that vulnerabilities and wrong political decisions could result from that.
How can Trump defend himself?
Trump ally and New York billionaire Stephen Feinberg will be leading a sweeping review of US spy agencies. Feinberg has close ties to Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Top intelligence officials fear that Feinberg is being groomed for a high position in one of the spy agencies, and that posts which are normally reserved for career officials will be filled with Trump confidants.
Trump handed over the full CIA Torture Report to courts. Obama had refused to give away the classified report.
Lt Gen Herbert Raymond McMaster has become the new National Security Advisor. McMaster is a military strategist who criticized the Vietnam War.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was handing out pink slips on the 7th floor of the Harry S. Truman building (the 7th floor was known to house a group of high-ranking officials who met every Wednesday afternoon to discuss politics in support of Hillary Clinton). Counselor of the State Department Kristie Kenney was among the dismissed. The White House warned State Department officials that they should quit if they disagree with the President.
Trump keeps his private security guards, mainly provided by XMark LLC, which is owned by Eddie Deck, a former Marine and FBI agent. Gary Uher is vice president. Trump’s security director Keith Schiller, a retired New York City detective, began work last month as Trump’s director of Oval Office operations. Deck and Uher are said to be considered for Secret Service positions.
US Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy plans to step down on March 4. Clancy’s departure means that President Donald Trump will be able to select his own security chief. The Secret Service has almost 7,000 employees and is charged with protecting the president and his family as well as combating counterfeiting.
It is very clear that the Oval Office and every one of Trumps teams phone calls are being listened to. Though rumors try to implicate Reince Priebus and Katie Walsh with the leaking, electronic surveillance and bugs (hidden microphones) are the most likely sources of the leaks.
As the Trump team tries to avoid being spied on, the West Wing of the White House is still mostly empty. Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner have set up a new organization called the Strategic Initiatives Group, an internal White House think tank which in reality partly resides outside.
Donald Trump spends his weekends in his Florida estate of Mar-a-Lago, first lady Melania Trump and son Barron stay in the New York Trump Tower and show no inclination to move into the White House. The small township of Bedminster, New Jersey, is preparing for the daunting prospect that the local Trump golf course will serve as a sort of northern White House for as many as 10 weekends a year.
This is very costly as the Secret Service has to protect all these sites in addition to the White House.
It is not the first time a US President is at odds with the deep state.
When President Eisenhower made his “open skies” proposal he ordered to halt the U–2 spy missions. But the U-2 flights continued and an U–2 spy plane was shot down in 1960. Eisenhower had to lie and cover up the CIA disobedience.
When John F. Kennedy took office, the CIA had already planned the April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, and as the invasion failed, Kennedy felt the CIA had set him up. He intended to dismantle the CIA and assign its functions to other intelligence units. He reportedly vowed “to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds”. CIA head Allen Dulles resigned along with other senior CIA officers. But the CIA was too deeply involved in operations around the world to be disassembled and Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
To make it clear again, this is not an article in favor of Donald Trump. How could one defend a billionaire who lives in his own skyscraper in New York and has vowed to slash environmental regulations, increase fossil fuel exploration, cut taxes for companies and the superrich, and privatize all public goods?
Yet, as he unyielding and stubborn takes on the deep state, political paralysis and chaos could ensue, the Presidency, the CIA, the whole Washington DC establishment could be damaged, unable to do their job, unable to protect the interests of the US empire and of the global class of 2,472 billionaires.
This blog is mainly frequented by US citizens and they know what is going on. They know that a relentless class war is waged by the superrich who in their limitless greed continue to grab an ever increasing share of the national income at the expense of everybody else. Trumps cabinet of fellow billionaires, CEO’s, Goldman Sachs bankers, and Generals will surely side with the superrich, but Obama took their side too.
US citizens know that infrastructure is crumbling and if it, as promised by Trump, is rebuilt by private companies, that they will have to pay a lot more for utilities than they do now, because the private companies are no charity organizations, they don’t aim to help the population, they want to make profit.
They know that privatized education is not cheap and only the wealthy will be able to get proper education, while children of the less fortunate will be taught in overcrowded classrooms by badly qualified and badly motivated teachers an abridged curriculum. This is the horror-vision of Betsy DeVos (sister of Blackwater founder Eric Prince btw.).
They know that prices will go up while wages go down, health care will become even more unaffordable, retirement will become a distant dream. They also know that the Democratic Party is not an alternative, as Obama and Clinton proved conclusively. They know that they are screwed whoever wins and that a genuine champion of their cause never will have a chance to be elected.
The citizens of the word, brainwashed by Anglo-American culture and mass media, mostly don’t know all that. They still believe in an “American dream,” in unlimited opportunities, in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
The spectacle of a chaotic Trump presidency, mired in trench warfare with the CIA, will teach them a lesson and maybe incite and encourage them to stand up against their national billionaires class before it is too late and before the US system is also installed in their own country.
Even if the deep state prevails and eliminates Trump, the USA will be discredited, disgraced, the big lie will be exposed, while what is left of international good-will and sympathies will be lost. US leadership will not be accepted anymore, will be a thing of the past.
This is the big chance of the Trump presidency and the best we can hope for.
