[Salon] Was a Trump Doctrine Unveiled in Poland? | RealClearDefense



Forgive the length of my emails but bear in mind that “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” wasn’t a short piece either, and my emails are on a related subject, the “Rise of American Fascism.” The “Fall” is inevitable, and rapidly approaching, with Trump’s/Heritage Foundation’s “Common Plan” inevitably accelerating that (see below)! You’d think that Biden would have discredited Trumpism, given he has so closely adhered to it in eagerness to incite and promote “Warfighting,” and how much that has failed already, as fellow “Goldwaterites!” 

The saddest thing I’ve seen since 2015 is the “Triumph of Hope Over Reality,” in so many people actually believing Trump was sincere in his propaganda meme of “Ending the Endless Wars.” And refusing to see that Trump took Cheney’s “U.S. Global Military Domination Doctrine” to its logical extreme. “Peace Through Strength,” as it's deceptively called, as if China, Russia, and Iran would be intimidated into giving up their sovereignty to a U.S. Global Hegemon, one even willing to use nuclear weapons to maintain such Imperialist Hegemony, and “Call It Peace!” 

Maintained according to Trump and Trumpites by “U.S. Full-Spectrum Domination" of the world, to especially include subjugation of Eurasia: Russia, China, and Iran, and any allies they might have. 

As “laughable” as that failure was, was some people being duped as well because of Trump’s practice of dropping misleading comments as “misdirection,” into believing that Trump might actually have allowed Julian Assange to go “Free,” even though it was Trump who charged him under the Espionage Act! And it was Trump who would obviously have given the go-ahead to Britain to invade the Ecuadorean Embassy! 

So now, we have Trump “disavowing” Project 2025, per the headline here and elsewhere: https://nypost.com/2024/07/05/us-news/trump-disavows-abysmal-hard-right-project-2025-agenda-for-second-term-pushed-by-conservative-think-tank/, as explained below:

"Former President Donald Trump blasted a prospective policy agenda put forward by the conservative Heritage Foundation Friday, calling their plans “abysmal” and saying he has “nothing to do with them.”

"Project 2025, a collaboration of dozens of right-wing groups organized by Heritage, says it is meant to “get into the business of restoring this country through the combination of the right policies and well-trained people.”             . . .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        "Roberts has said that the project is “on pace” to have recruited and trained 20,000 conservative applicants who could fill a future Trump administration. STOP

Lower echelons of younger right-wing fanatics are being recruited by another favorite here, Saurabh Sharma, dual-hatted as President of American Moment, and Executive Director of the National Conservative “Edmund Burke Foundation, as explained here in part:                                                    https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-4-2024/presenters/saurabh-sharma/.   And here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/03/american-moment-conservative-00124178

BLUF: "Their host was American Moment, a small but scrappy organization that’s quietly reshaping the conservative establishment in Washington. Founded in 2021 with the backing of now-Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the group is part of a broader movement that’s underway in Washington to recruit right-leaning staffers to help the next Republican president — whoever that may be — wage war on the “deep state” and entrench the populist political revolt that began with the Trump administration.”                  . . .                             "Saurabh Sharma, the group’s bespectacled president and co-founder, told me that his long-term goal is to nurture a new class of Beltway elites who are steeped in an explicitly reactionary worldview — and who have the institutional knowledge and political acumen to translate that philosophy into policy. “The loaf has to go in the oven and bake for 10 years so that the class of credentialed experts — the people who know the system and know where the levers of power are — are your people,” said Sharma, who, at 25 years old, serves as the notably youthful public face for American Moment. “The way you make senior staff is by making junior staff 10 years earlier.”

What is its “objective? "Instead, it is militantly focused on pumping out true believers in the sort of populist-nationalist conservatism that came into fashion during the Trump years: hawkishness on China, skepticism of neoconservative foreign policy interventionism . . .

How stupid are people who can’t see how fallacious this is, when, signing onto Project 2025 (see attached file) are both prominent, so-called “NeoCons,” like Foundation for Defense of Democracies,” and so-called “Traditional Conservatives,” represented by The American Conservative magazine, and their supposed “bête noire,” the Straussians of the Claremont Institute and Hillsdale College, all busily inciting war against China, Iran, and, against Russia! With the Straussians (who are always for war, as are the other two) now celebrated and “welcomed into the fold,” by no less of a Traditional Conservative than Claes Ryn in his book “The Failure of American Conservatism,” (not the failure I see in it!) as attached, and quoted below: 

"In recent years, increasingly threatening social and political circumstances have also made ahistoricist ideology look more and more distant from historical reality. Wbat is the relevance of formulaic notions of "the American founding" for facing the collapse of American institutions, the fragmenting of America, and precipitous cultural decline? These acute challenges have prompted many anti­historicists, especially of the so-called West Coast, Claremont variety, to frame responses. Straussians appear to be pushing their old formulas to the side as incidental to pressing needs.”

Attachment: Contributors to Total War-Authoritarianism .pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

 

Attachment: Heritage Foundation Total-War Militarization of America Plan.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

  

Attachment: West Coast Straussianism .pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Here is a better explanation of Trump’s “disavowal”: https://newrepublic.com/post/183493/trump-tries-fails-distance-project-2025                                                                              

Quote: "How can Trump both know nothing about Project 2025 and “disagree” with it? He doesn’t say. But it’s clear that he recognizes that the plan is a growing political liability.

"The public severance came two days after Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts issued an ominous warning for leftists, ahead of what he called a “second American Revolution.”

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room, celebrating the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this week on presidential immunity.

. . . 

"Regardless, senior Trump advisers have warned news outlets against reporting on the connections. In statements to both Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita pointed to Agenda47 as the official platform of the Trump campaign, noting that “unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official.”

So what does “Agenda 47” say? Basically the same as Project 2025, as can be seen below with Trump’s articulating former (and future?) SecDef Chris Miller’s “Plan" for the military. More “Peace Through Strength,” as they call it, which Miller and Roberts, and all other “New Rightists, promote, along with promoting Israeli Fascism!


Below is more information on Trump’s ”Doctrine” of war against Russia, and for “fascist governance": 



Was a Trump Doctrine Unveiled in Poland?

Was a Trump Doctrine Unveiled in Poland?

The dominant theme of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was America First. This trope implied that successive administrations had weakened this country economically, politically and militarily, putting the interests of allies, friends, trading partners and the global economy ahead of the American people. Thus, it was necessary to reverse this decline and “make America great again.” Completing the circle, the U.S. could only become great again if the Trump administration focuses on America first.

But how was a policy agenda based on America First to be reconciled with global commitments, relationships and interests and the importance of U.S. leadership to ensure the safety and progress of the current international order? The answer was to frame the challenge as a single, seamless fight for the preservation and extension of Western civilization’s core values. In essence, the argument is that America can be great again only if Western civilization is preserved and strengthened. A policy of America First must be conducted within a framework of Western civilization first.

In his speech on Thursday in Warsaw, Poland, President Trump did more than merely reassure our European allies of America’s commitment to NATO and Article V. What he presented could be called the outlines of a Trump Doctrine, one unlike any articulated by previous presidents.

Based on his remarks, there appear to be eight key principles of the Trump Doctrine.

  1. American security and well-being are inextricably linked to the health and security of Western civilization and a willingness to assert and defend Western values. The U.S. can be great again only if Western civilization is secure, prosperous and self-assured.

“Our adversaries, however, are doomed because we will never forget who we are. And if we do not forget who we are, we just can't be beaten. Americans will never forget. The nations of Europe will never forget. We are the fastest and the greatest community. There is nothing like our community of nations.”

  1. Shared values and common culture must be understood, appreciated and even celebrated. This is true not only because of what Western culture has produced over the centuries but because of what it offers in terms of personal liberty and economic opportunity.

“We reward brilliance. We strive for excellence and cherish inspiring works of art that honor God. We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free _expression_.”

“We empower women as pillars of our society and of our success. We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives. And we debate everything. We challenge everything. We seek to know everything so that we can better know ourselves.”

  1. The importance of alliances based on shared values to the fate of the U.S.

“Americans know that a strong alliance of free, sovereign and independent nations is the best defense for our freedoms and for our interests. That is why my administration has demanded that all members of NATO finally meet their full and fair financial obligation.”

  1. Threats to our security and way of life are increasing in both complexity and severity. These threats are not only physical but also ideological. But threats also arise from within, from a failure to cherish and support core Western values.

“Americans, Poles, and the nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty. We must work together to confront forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the South or the East, that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith, and tradition that make us who we are. If left unchecked, these forces will undermine our courage, sap our spirit and weaken our will to defend ourselves and our societies.”

“Our own fight for the West does not begin on the battlefield -- it begins with our minds, our wills, and our souls. Today, the ties that unite our civilization are no less vital and demand no less defense, than that bare shred of land on which the hope of Poland once totally rested. Our freedom, our civilization and our survival depend on these bonds of history, culture, and memory.” (TP-actually, referring to false, planted memories, through right-historical revisionism in the fascist tradition!)

  1. The West must meet new threats to its physical security and its values by modifying Alliance structures as well as adapting the ways and means employed to conduct the struggle.

“Today, the West is also confronted by the powers that seek to test our will, undermine our confidence and challenge our interests. To meet new forms of aggression, including propaganda, financial crimes, and cyberwarfare, we must adapt our alliance to compete effectively in new ways and on all new battlefields.”

  1. Adversaries will assess the strength of Western defenses not only in terms of capabilities but also of political will. Hence, the latter must be strengthened. (TP-the essence of fascist thought, as with Hitlers Will to Power: https://elenchusphilosophy.com/2022/03/02/hitlers-philosophy-nietzsches-will-to-power%EF%BF%BC/)) “We have to remember that our defense is not just a commitment of money, it is a commitment of will. Because as the Polish experience reminds us, the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail and be successful and get what you have to have. The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”
  1. Give adversaries like Russia a choice to either be the enemy of the West or temper their efforts to undermine the international order and instead find a place in it. President Trump’s brief comments on energy policy vis-à-vis Poland were a dagger pointed at the heart of the Kremlin.

“ . . we are committed to securing your access to alternate sources of energy, so Poland and its neighbors are never again held hostage to a single supplier of energy.”

  1. Last, in true Trumpian style, the President called on the peoples of the West to push back against the danger of statism and the accretion of power by government bureaucracy.

“Finally, on both sides of the Atlantic, our citizens are confronted by yet another danger — one firmly within our control. This danger is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles: the steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people. The West became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies.”

The challenge for the Trump Administration now is to translate these principles into policies and program. This will begin with the publication of key guidance documents such as the National Security Strategy. But it also must be reflected in statements by key administration officials.

Daniel Gouré, Ph.D., is a vice president at the public-policy research think tank Lexington Institute. Goure has a background in the public sector and U.S. federal government, most recently serving as a member of the 2001 Department of Defense Transition Team.



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