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Even by Donald Trumps chaotic standards, the comprehensive peace agreement for Afghanistan signed by the US in Doha in February 2020 was a huge own goal.

The pact posited no binding ceasefire, no power-sharing requirements, and no political roadmap. In return for some mumbo-jumbo about al-Qaida, Trump pledged total, unconditional US and Nato withdrawal within 14 months.

This was not peacemaking. This was capitulation. The Taliban could hardly believe their luck.

Trump hoped to benefit politically from bringing the troops home, even though the vast majority had already left. He was otherwise wholly indifferent to the fate of the Afghan people.

Military men in the US and UK were aghast. So, too, were diplomats, politicians, aid agencies and analysts familiar with Afghanistan. But their warnings of looming catastrophe were ignored.

Despite being hobbled by official secrecy, two damning reports this month, one by a US public watchdog, the other by the UK parliaments foreign affairs committee (FAC), lay bare the almost unbelievable incompetence of the two governments.

Boris Johnson and the then British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, failed to effectively challenge the Doha pact, then failed adequately to prepare for the 2021 withdrawal, the FAC report said.

On 8 July 2021, Johnson blithely told the Commons there was no military path to victory for the Taliban. On 15 August, Kabul fell. Chaos reigned. Evacuees died. Dogs were saved. But many UK-employed Afghan staff and workers were not.

Twenty years of nation-building, at a cost of tens of thousands of US, British and Afghan lives, were blown away in a few shameful days. Johnson and Raab should have resigned then, but didnt. Theres still time, guys.

The report of the US special inspector general (Sigar) blamed the calamity on Trump as well as his successor, Joe Biden, and the then Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani.

Biden was certainly at fault. He should have insisted on renegotiating Doha and kept some US forces at Bagram base, outside Kabul. European Nato allies should have voiced their misgivings more forcibly.

But responsibility lies primarily with the man who set this lethal geopolitical car crash in motion. While boasting of his prowess as a dealmaker, Trump caved to a gang of feudal warlords, who promptly defaulted to tyranny.

Todays ongoing Afghan tragedy is but one aspect of Trumps toxic legacy. The negative impact of his presidency is still being felt around the world and time is running out to dispel its noxious after-effects.

In two years time, Trump or a Trump-endorsed Republican clone could win back the White House. His reactionary, disruptive America First agenda may once again dictate the way the US deals, or fails to deal, with the big global challenges of the day.

This dire prospect is rendered more likely by Bidens apparent inability, seen in Afghanistan, to fundamentally shift the dial on a range of key international issues.

Its little wonder, for example, that occupation-related violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and elsewhere is at its highest level since 2014, according to the UN.

Trump abandoned peace efforts and the internationally preferred two-state solution, ignored the Palestinian Authority, and promoted the business-focused Abraham Accords between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.

Since neither Gulf state threatened Israel, this was hardly the historic breakthrough he claimed. But it did further marginalise the Palestinians while helping legitimise the apartheid crimes, as characterised by Human Rights Watch, of successive Israeli governments.

Biden recently condemned yet another expansion of illegal West Bank settlements. But he has done little to revive the peace process. Maybe this will change when he visits Israel later this year. Maybe not.

Biden also appears to have bowed to Israeli pressure over Iran. Trump stupidly reneged on the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. Since then, Iran has reportedly moved steadily closer to acquiring nuclear weapons capability.

Trumps blunder, coupled with repeated Israeli and US assassinations of prominent Iranians, has increased tensions. Yet despite a firm promise, Biden has been unable to revive the deal. Now it seems hes giving up.

Trump made a fool of himself trying to charm the nuclear-armed North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. His photo-op summitry boosted Kims prestige for zero return. Kim has lately been firing off ballistic missiles like theres no tomorrow. The way hes going, there may not be.

Yet North Korea is another tinder-box issue on which Biden has nothing new to say. His visits to South Korea and Japan last week underlined how much he has neglected China and the Indo-Pacific region, ostensibly his top overseas priority.

Trumps attempts to pressure China punished America. He picked trade fights that hurt US exporters and boycotted the Trans-Pacific Partnership more own goals.

Now Biden is belatedly trying to pick up the pieces, reassuring Taiwan of US military backing, strengthening regional alliances, and launching a multi-country an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to counter China.

While some of his problems are self-inflicted, Bidens struggle to repair the global damage wrought by Trumps four-year rampage has been made infinitely more difficult by Russias war in Ukraine.

Trump obsequiously courted Vladimir Putin. He obligingly trashed Nato and the EU. And he clashed with Putins arch-foe Ukraines leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy whom he notoriously (and impeachably) pressured in a bid to discredit Biden.

Trump, in office, seemed inexplicably beholden to the Kremlin mafia boss. He still does.

Now Putins brutal imperialism threatens in turn to damage Trumps arch-foe Biden by derailing his international and domestic priorities and, if Russia wins, discrediting American global leadership.

The symmetry is striking. Horror in Ukraine, directed from Moscow, nobbles Joes chances in 2024. Its almost like the Don and the Donald are working together. Perish the thought!

Read more:
The Donald and the Kremlin Don: how Trumps toxic legacy helps Putin - The Guardian

Conway served as Trumps 2016 campaign manager and was a counselor to the president in the White House. She has remained close to him since she left the administration at the end of summer 2020.

For all their years working together, Trump has seldom criticized Conway even as hes attacked her husband, attorney George Conway, who helped start the anti-Trump organization the Lincoln Project and has been an outspoken critic of the ex-president. In her book, Heres the Deal, Conway writes about the challenges that came with her husband publicly feuding with her boss.

I had already said publicly what Id said privately to George: that his daily deluge of insults-by-tweet against my boss or, as he put it sometimes, the people in the White House violated our marriage vows to love, honor, and cherish each other, Conway writes.

But it was Conways admission that Trump lost the election that stood out most in the books 506 pages. In stating the obvious, Kellyanne Conway became one of the few, currently close Trump allies to implicitly reject his false claims of a stolen election. Trump has continued to deny he lost in 2020 and has propagated that false notion among his millions of supporters.

Claims from Trump and his allies about widespread, coordinated fraud, of which there has been no conclusive evidence, motivated a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to overturn the election results.

In her book, Conway mainly points her finger at the Trump campaign for the loss in 2020, and says Trump and his over $1 billion in campaign funds were mismanaged in the final months of the election. But she also writes that voters have every right to question the election process.

What happened in 2020 can never fully be understood, Conway writes. There has been no silver bullet that proves Donald Trump was the rightful winner as many have claimed.

See the article here:
Trump hits back at Kellyanne Conway for admitting that he lost in 2020 - POLITICO

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) bucked the former president by stumping this week for Rep. Mo Brooks in his bid for Alabamas GOP Senate nomination the same congressman that Trump unceremoniously ditched after initially endorsing. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu openly mocked him in front of a Washington dinner audience, joking about Trumps sanity.

Few in the party doubt that Trump still maintains an iron grip on his base. They acknowledge the former presidents endorsement in primary contests remains influential. But to many, Trumps habit of rolling grenades into Republican primaries is getting old, and fears that he might damage the partys promising prospects for gains this fall appear to be opening a new chapter in the GOPs relationship with him.

We have to be the party of tomorrow, not the party of yesterday, Christie, who campaigned for Kemp in Georgia, told POLITICO. But more important than that, what we have to decide is: do we want to be the party of me or the party of us? What Donald Trump has advocated is for us to be the party of me, that everything has to be about him and about his grievances.

Christie added: Trump picked this fight.

Never was it more obvious than in Georgia, where Trump was the proximate cause of the loss of Republican-held Senate seats in 2021 and then ignited a civil war within the party, all because top state officials refused to overturn the 2020 election results there.

The result was a thrashing at the polls for several Trump-endorsed candidates. Kemp won by a landslide and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another target of Trumps ire, also emerged victorious.

I think the former president has been poorly advised because hes made a lot of endorsements in an effort to showcase his formidability, a Pence adviser said, and that has the counter-effect that actually shows the endorsement doesnt carry the same weight it once did.

Gregg Keller, a Missouri-based Republican strategist, said its essential for an ideologically and culturally diverse party to have politically countervailing forces against some of Trumps ill-advised endorsement picks.

It shows that while people realize Donald Trump is virtually, in every way, still the leader of the Republican Party, people are willing to stick their necks out and support good candidates opposite of Trump when they see them, Keller said.

In some of the most contentious Senate primaries this year, top Republicans have found themselves supporting a different candidate than Trump because he waited months to get involved after allegiances had already been pledged.

In Ohio, for example, Trump endorsed J.D. Vance two weeks before the May 3 primary. In Pennsylvania, he threw his support behind Mehmet Oz just over a month before the election.

In both cases, national Republicans had already offered their support to other candidates months earlier: Cruz, for instance, had endorsed Josh Mandel in Ohio and David McCormick in Pennsylvania. In the months leading up to Trumps endorsement of Oz, McCormick had assembled a team of former Trump advisers and officials like Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks, Mike Pompeo, Larry Kudlow, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

I cant imagine that somebodys been running for office for a year, a whole bunch of people take positions on the race, then Trump decides to endorse somebody, and that means you cant be for them anymore? Fuck that, said a national Republican strategist involved in Senate races, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

GOP strategists say this post-primary moment following Trumps bitter defeat in Georgia isnt a low-water mark of Trumps influence, but rather an acknowledgment that he is not the alpha and omega of every political calculation that will unfold from now until 2024.

Im not sure he has a clipboard and says, Well, Tom Cotton didnt follow my endorsement here and here hes banished, the national strategist added. Mike Pompeo didnt do it here, so hes against me, and Ted Cruz didnt do it here. You have a decision to make, whether you want to lean in or lean back. In politics, theres no reward for leaning back most are making the decision to lean in and try and win.

Now, GOP strategists are turning their attention to Missouri, where the next front in the battle between Republican heavyweights and Trump may unfold.

With an Aug. 2 primary, Missouris safe GOP Senate seat could become more competitive if former Gov. Eric Greitens becomes their nominee, party leaders have warned. Greitens resigned from office mid-term in 2018 amid a criminal case and allegations of sexual assault. Greitens, though, has long remained at or near the front of the pack. Republican and Democratic polling has shown an uncomfortably close general election race if Greitens were on the ballot.

Trump has yet to endorse in the primary, but some state and national Republicans fear he might weigh in for Greitens.

Is President Trump going to endorse Eric Greitens? Keller asked. I think that observers believe that that would be a very bad decision for the Republican Party in this situation, and I think its important to have people like Sen. Cruz who are willing to come in and say, I dont know what the president is going to do, but there are some other good conservatives running in this race.

Cruz earlier this year endorsed Eric Schmitt, the states attorney general who is using the same campaign consulting firm as Cruz, Axiom Strategies.

Prominent interest groups in the Republican universe also appear to be increasingly comfortable stiff-arming Trump. The Club for Growth, the anti-tax organization headed by David McIntosh, whose super PAC has been one of the top outside spending groups on Senate races this cycle, doubled down on its support for Mandel after Trump endorsed Vance. The Club went so far as to increase its ad buy featuring old clips of Vance disparaging Trump, a decision that reportedly angered the former president and put Trump and McIntosh squarely at odds.

Weeks later in Pennsylvania, the Club defied the former president once again. Its endorsement of Kathy Barnette the week before the primary election including spending more than $2 million on ads supporting her could be interpreted as a clear sign of rebuke to Trumps endorsement of Oz. Barnettes last-minute momentum likely ate into Ozs lead, leaving him and McCormick in a tight recount more than a week after the election.

The Club also stood firm in its Senate endorsement of Brooks in Alabama after Trump rescinded his support in March, continuing to buy television ads on Brooks behalf and releasing a statement in which McIntosh called Brooks the only principled, pro-growth conservative in the race.

After Trumps decision to yank his endorsement of Brooks a move the former president made as Brooks was floundering in the polls, but blamed on the congressman going woke for wanting to move on from the 2020 election other prominent Republicans stepped in to lend their support.

Paul, who, like Cruz, backed Brooks in the Alabama Senate primary, also reiterated his support.

Earlier this month, the National Rifle Association endorsed Brooks support the congressman promptly announced in a television ad that ran across the deep-red state, where Second Amendment rights remain a top priority for voters.

On Monday, both Cruz and Paul stumped for Brooks, Cruz coming to Huntsville and Paul holding an election eve tele-town hall with 13,000 Republican voters.

If you get into the runoff, Im looking at my calendar I think I might want to come down to Alabama and help if you make it into the runoff, Paul said to Brooks at the end of the call Monday.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, left, waves during a campaign appearance with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in Huntsville, Alabama, on Monday, May 23.|Kim Chandler/AP Photo

After the Brooks event in Alabama on Monday, Cruz said he was pleased when Trump had initially put his support behind Brooks, but that he was ultimately endorsing the congressman because he believed Brooks was the most conservative candidate in the race and one who could win, regardless of Trumps endorsement.

Listen, Donald Trump has made a lot of endorsements across the country, Cruz told reporters. A lot of them have won, not all of them. And on the vast majority, President Trump and I have agreed and weve endorsed the same candidates. Sometimes we havent. Everyones got to make their own choices.

Brooks campaign, it turns out, wasnt finished when Trump pulled the plug. A late surge took him to second place in Tuesdays primary and he will compete against Katie Britt in a June 21 runoff.

Christie didnt tiptoe around some of Trumps endorsement missteps.

When hes wrong, Christie said, hes wrong.

Read this article:
'Trump picked this fight': Why heavyweight Republicans no longer fear Trump - POLITICO

The 2011 race also augured some of the next decades personalities and conflicts. Pence was at the track, and he had just recently announced he wouldnt run for president in 2012 but would pursue the governors residence instead. Pete Buttigieg, then a candidate for South Bend mayor, attended the race for the first time that year. The two Hoosier foes met that day. We exchanged some pleasantries, and I didnt think much of it or expect to see him anytime soon, Buttigieg wrote in his memoir, Shortest Way Home.

Trumps looming presence, though, had cast a shadow over the race. After news broke that Trump would drive the pace car, Wallack created a Facebook page calling on the IMS to Bump Trump. I have no problem if Trump dislikes President Obama or his policies, Wallack wrote on the page. But to step over the line into the realm of conspiracy-mongering is not good for politics or for America. And it should not be rewarded with the honor of driving the pace car at the Indianapolis 500.

Within days, the page had garnered more than 17,000 likes.

Reporters peppered IMS officials with questions about how they would respond to the controversy Trump had created. We are certainly aware of the Facebook page, and we have certainly received complaints, Boles, then the IMS vice president of communications, told reporters. But we have also received comments from other folks in support of Donald Trump driving the pace car.

Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Baptist Ministers Alliance called on IMS to rescind its invitation to Trump. Organizers of the 500 Festival, which hosts race-adjacent events such as the Indy 500 Festival Parade, weighed whether to have Trump featured in the parade through downtown Indianapolis. Weve always traditionally extended this invitation to the pace car driver, said Megan Bulla, who was in charge of public relations for the parade at the time. At what point do you kind of step in and say, no, because of politics, or no, because of peoples stances? It was kind of this uncomfortable, like, well, weve never said no in the past, so at what point do we draw the line or make a statement?

Jane Jankowski, spokesperson for then-Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, told reporters that Daniels was in favor of whatever sells tickets. Pence, who would stay quiet through most of Trumps biggest controversies as vice president, doesnt appear to have made any public comments about Trump at the time.

You could see and hear and feel how divisive this was even in our town, recalled Bulla, referencing the blue citys overall somewhat buttoned-down and conservative bent. Maybe it was the start of cancel culture.

The controversy even made it into the pages of POLITICO. Ben Smith, himself a one-time reporter for the Indianapolis Star, published a May 4 item headlined Indy 500 weighs dumping Trump. The reason many of us started to take the notion that Donald Trump would actually run seriously is that hes begun doing real harm to his brand, which is his main asset, Smith wrote, with a hat tip to his colleague Maggie Haberman. No cautious corporation is going to pay for rights to his name if theres a headache attached.

Read more from the original source:
The Time the Indy 500 Almost Canceled Donald Trump - POLITICO

Former President Donald Trump warned Wyoming rally-goers that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia could turn into World War III, which "would be like no other."

Speaking Saturday in support of his endorsed GOP congressional candidate Harriet Hageman, who is running against longtime Trump rival Liz Cheney, he told attendees at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper that actions by the U.S. could escalate the situation.

"You may end up with a Third World War because of the stupidity of what we're saying and what we're doing," he said. "And we want to help people because of what's happening to them; they're being obliterated. But you know, we could end up in a Third World War because of the way we're going about it. And I never thought that would be possible."

He predicted it "would be like no other war" due to "renovated and brand new nuclear weapons."

"I completely rebuilt the United States military," Trump said. "I hated to do it because I saw the power. I know the power better than anybody. I know the power. And we are in a position that I never thought we'd be in. We have a major country, every day he mentions nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, and China's doing things that they would have never done with us."

Trump said "a lot" of it started with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

"I don't think our country has ever been in a worse position, in a weaker position, a more pathetic position, and a lot of it started from the way we withdrew from Afghanistan," he said.

When he was president, "we were respected. Nobody was going to war with us."

"We didn't have to go to war for people to know that we were the toughest and we were the strongest. We did it in a much different way," he said.

The former president believes Cheney "is at the front of the parade trying to get us to go into wars with Russia or anyone else that wants to bite."

"Liz Cheney hates the voters of the Republican Party and she has for longer than you would know," he said. "Wyoming deserves a congresswoman who stands up for you and your values, not one who spends all of her time putting you down, going after your president in the most vicious way possible. And loving endless, nonsensical, bloody, horrible wars that never end. They just never end."

Newsweek reached out to a Trump representative for additional comment.

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Donald Trump Tells Rally-Goers Third World War 'Would Be Like No Other' - Newsweek