Rachel Maddow Smartly Exposes Trump’s Afghanistan Speech As Empty Hot Air

Rachel Maddow pointed to the obvious contradiction between Trump’s rhetoric on using non-military tools in Afghanistan, and the reality that the State Department is woefully understaffed and Trump is dissolving offices central to dealing with Pakistan.

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Maddow said:

He also said a couple of times that he wants to use all elements of US power, not just US military power in terms of moving forward in Afghanistan. It should be noted I think when he says that is the other elements of US power that are brought to bear in a situation like Afghanistan obviously include things like the State Department, which is understaffed and underpowered to an extent that has never been true in decades.

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Also, crucially in June, the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, a job that had originally been held by Richard Holbrooke, several other people have held that job. The most recent person to hold it was Laurel Miller. That office, the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan that was just dissolved by the Trump presidency, the Trump administration with no announcement. They didn’t even tell the people who worked in that office that their jobs were going away. They just closed the office in June without saying a word about it.

Maddow’s point was that Trump’s talk about using non-military options doesn’t match what his administration is doing. The Trump White House is weakening non-military options while adding more troops in Afghanistan. Trump has been gung ho about spending huge sums of money to build up the military.

When a president takes resources away from diplomacy while advocating for a military build up, it is easy to see what his policy priorities are.

There are several good reasons not to believe a word that came out Trump’s mouth as he read a speech that didn’t reflect his true beliefs. Trump is a president who doesn’t believe in victory through diplomacy. Trump wants war, and all of his talk about love and diplomacy was nothing more than empty hot air.



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