Trump allegedly revealed sensitive info about nuclear submarines, according to reports

[Pommer]

It's not the first time Trump exposed secret documents to others.

Trump tweeted an image from a spy satellite, declassified document shows​

After he tweeted the image, Trump said that he did nothing wrong. "We had a photo and I released it, which I have the absolute right to do," he told reporters at the time. The president has ultimate authority over what material is classified, and Aftergood says that he was probably within his legal rights to publicize the image.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/02/756673481/amateurs-identify-u-s-spy-satellite-behind-president-trumps-tweet

This one is spurious: it is in the purview of Presidents just what information is classified or what should be disseminated to the public. Was it foolhardy? That’s matter of political opinion. But Trump did no “crime” by doing this. Unwise? Maybe. Criminal?, not by a country mile.

And now the Iranians (and everyone else) know how good our satellite imagery can be. Oh, and they also know which satellite it is:
Amateur satellite trackers say they believe an image tweeted by President Trump on Friday came from one of America's most advanced spy satellites.

The image almost certainly came from a satellite known as USA 224, according to Marco Langbroek, a satellite-tracker based in the Netherlands. The satellite was launched by the National Reconnaissance Office in 2011. Almost everything about it remains highly classified, but Langbroek says that based on its size and orbit, most observers believe USA 224 is one of America's multibillion-dollar KH-11 reconnaissance satellites.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/02/756673481/amateurs-identify-u-s-spy-satellite-behind-president-trumps-tweet

I’m pretty sure that other nations have an inkling they the USA is watching them (because we CAN).

 

[The Barbarian]

This one is spurious: it is in the purview of Presidents just what information is classified or what should be disseminated to the public. Was it foolhardy? That’s matter of political opinion. But Trump did no “crime” by doing this. Unwise? Maybe. Criminal?, not by a country mile.

It's not a criminal act for a president to expose top secret defense information, since he can legally decide to do so. The point is, he did so, and caused damage to American defense because he wanted to troll the Iranians over their launch failure.

That's the point; he can't help himself. Whenever he feels the need to feel better about himself, he'll disclose secret information to do so.

 

[USincognito]

Yet Biden abandoned American soldiers in Afghanistan

Citation needed.

with a botched withdrawal,

I don't know how old you are, but I'm old enough to have an awareness of March 1973 was like in Saigon.

including hundreds of allies that had helped us as well -

We had been telling everyone we were leaving in September of 2021. Those who waited until the last minute did so of their own choosing.

That said, the policy that prevented many of our Afghan allies from emigrating was put in place by the former guy.

As America Shuts Its Doors, Afghan Refugees Are Stuck in Turkey

The Trump administration has made it nearly impossible for Afghans who aided U.S. troops to claim asylum in the United States. Instead, thousands who aided…

foreignpolicy.com

and left billions in weapons for the Taliban.

You mean we left weapons WE GAVE to Afghan National Security Forces. The one's we'd been training for nearly 20 years. The one's who negotiated directly with and capitulated to the Taliban?

 

[The Barbarian]

You mean we left weapons WE GAVE to Afghan National Security Forces. The one's we'd been training for nearly 20 years. The one's who negotiated directly with and capitulated to the Taliban?

When Trump surrendered to the Taliban, he shut the Afghan government out of the negotiations. The commanders in the field did just what you'd expect from such a betrayal; they negotiated their own surrender to the Taliban, providing them with billions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment. On the other hand, the Taliban says they feel "betrayed" by Biden, who had our troops destroy any weapons systems they could not remove from the country.

Apparently Trump, during the surrender negotiations, promised them we'd leave all of it for them.

 

[The Barbarian]

I don't know how old you are, but I'm old enough to have an awareness of March 1973 was like in Saigon.

THIS is a botched withdrawal:

I have a friend who was an ARVN helicopter pilot who fled the country on a copter running on kerosene. Like many others, he landed on a U.S. carrier offshore. After they offloaded, the copters were tossed over the side.

Ironically, the one event that killed US troops during the Afghanistan withdrawal, killed more Taliban troops. It was a bomb set off by ISIS, which is the sworn enemy of the Taliban (and incidentally of the United States).

 

[USincognito]

When Trump surrendered to the Taliban, he shut the Afghan government out of the negotiations. The commanders in the field did just what you'd expect from such a betrayal; they negotiated their own surrender to the Taliban, providing them with billions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment. On the other hand, the Taliban says they feel "betrayed" by Biden, who had our troops destroy any weapons systems they could not remove from the country.

Apparently Trump, during the surrender negotiations, promised them we'd leave all of it for them.

The Art of the Deal.

 

[Pommer]

It's not a criminal act for a president to expose top secret defense information, since he can legally decide to do so. The point is, he did so, and caused damage to American defense because he wanted to troll the Iranians over their launch failure.

That's the point; he can't help himself. Whenever he feels the need to feel better about himself, he'll disclose secret information to do so.

Candidate Trump asked why (since we have nuclear weapons) can’t we use them?

Donald Trump asked a foreign policy expert advising him why the U.S. can’t use nuclear weapons, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said on the air Wednesday, citing an unnamed source who claimed he had spoken with the GOP presidential nominee.

“Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump. And three times [Trump] asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked at one point if we had them why can’t we use them,” Scarborough said on his “Morning Joe” program.

Three times, like he had a button that he wanted to push and needed to know what conditions would have to be met so that he could use it.

Trump2024: One trip to Crazytown isn’t enough

 

[Bradskii]

Candidate Trump asked why (since we have nuclear weapons) can’t we use them?

Go to stop those pesky hurricanes somehow.

I've got this picture in my head of the aide who holds the nuclear football slowly backing out of the room when Trump suggested that.

 

[FireDragon76]

How is this not basically treason? If this guy's really sharing American military secrets with whomever, how's this any different than someone like Robert Hanssen (the CIA's most infamous turncoat during the Cold War) sharing military secrets with the Soviets, and later the Russians (Hanssen didn't stop spying for them until he was arrested in 2001)? He did it for capitalistic reasons, too (they paid him a boatload of money over the years). He was also sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Well...?

It isn't really different. It reflects the failures and double standards of American politics and law, where we allow elites with money to abuse power.

 

[Pommer]

It isn't really different. It reflects the failures and double standards of American politics and law, where we allow elites with money to abuse power.

Well one really cannot let the indigent to hold power either; the rich call the shots so long as “we the people” allow ourselves to be convinced that “money” is “real”.

 

[Ceallaigh]

If the witness accurately describes any portion of what he was shown, it can be deduced that he got that information where he says that he got it: the former President.
I understand wanting to ward off facts with the notion that “they’re just all against Him!”, but come now.

When Trump first announced he was considering running for president, everyone on the left was laughing and making jokes about it. And were hoping he'd go through with it. So it starts off with him just being a clown who would give them some laughs.

And laugh they did until he trounced all of the other republican candidates and won the nomination. Then all of a sudden he started becoming a dangerous threat. But they were still sure he didn't have a chance.

Then when he actually won, the left went bananas. He then became this dangerous mastermind who was in collusion with Russia. The election was sabotaged by sinister foreign forces at his disposal.

And it totally snowballed out of control from there and he was guilty of this that and the other. And he was going away for sure. And Mueller was going to put him there. And since then there's been so many repeats, it's practically impossible to keep track of them all. And it keeps shifting from one to the other like a juggling act.

So anyways that's why many folks, even those who aren't Trump supporters, are skeptical that any of it is legitimate at this point.

 

[A2SG]

When Trump first announced he was considering running for president, everyone on the left was laughing and making jokes about it. And were hoping he'd go through with it. So it starts off with him just being a clown who would give them some laughs.

And laugh they did until he trounced all of the other republican candidates and won the nomination. Then all of a sudden he started becoming a dangerous threat. But they were still sure he didn't have a chance.

Then when he actually won, the left went bananas. He then became this dangerous mastermind who was in collusion with Russia. The election was sabotaged by sinister foreign forces at his disposal.

To be fair, I don't think anyone considered Trump the mastermind behind that.

And it totally snowballed out of control from there and he was guilty of this that and the other. And he was going away for sure. And Mueller was going to put him there. And since then there's been so many repeats, it's practically impossible to keep track of them all. And it keeps shifting from one to the other like a juggling act.

So anyways that's why many folks, even those who aren't Trump supporters, are skeptical that any of it is legitimate at this point.

The Mueller report detailed many contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as several potential instances of obstruction of justice by Trump. So the evidence was there. What the report doesn't maintain is that there is sufficient evidence for criminal prosecution. It doesn't claim there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, only that collusion isn't a legal term.

However, in the four indictments Trump is currently under, there is sufficient evidence for the 91 felony charges. Whether or not he's guilty of all or some of these charges, remains to be seen, but it's far from a juggling act.

Well, not on the side of the prosecution, anyway. Trump has already been ruled guilty on one charge, at least.

-- A2SG, so, there's that.....

 

[Bradskii]

When Trump first announced he was considering running for president, everyone on the left was laughing and making jokes about it. And were hoping he'd go through with it. So it starts off with him just being a clown who would give them some laughs.

There were serious discussions in my neck of the woods that the actual process of becoming president would sober anyone up. That the sheer importance of the job, the heft, the history, the weight of the position would turn anyone who appeared unfit for the job into someone that at least was reasonably competent. That wouldn't still come across as a clown worth a few laughs.

When we realised that it wasn't going to get any better than what we'd been presented with in the build up (and that was literally from Day One - 'my crowd was the biggest ever'), then yeah. There were no more laughs.

Let me ask you a question. Let's say that you were the guy making the decision as to the next president. You could pick Trump or literally anyone else. What's your call?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Then when he actually won, the left went bananas. He then became this dangerous mastermind

Hahaha, no. That did not happen. He became a dangerous ignoramus [ignorant of how the government actually works and the limits of executive power]

 

[durangodawood]

Speaking of things Trump allegedly said...
Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on Monday confirmed past reports that then-President Donald Trump insulted wounded veterans in private conversations with staff and called fallen troops “losers” for sacrificing their lives for their country.

.....

He despises us. Every veteran, every man and woman who served/was wounded/was killed in action. To him we're suckers and losers.

I think Trump was mainly interested in the presidency for his own glory. "Whats in it for me?" really is his bottom line. Ayn Rand argued so, and lots of people on the right are deeply influenced by her. I cant see Trump defending his stance in depth like she did tho. Its more of an instinct with him, I think.

 

[The Barbarian]

So anyways that's why many folks, even those who aren't Trump supporters, are skeptical that any of it is legitimate at this point.

Comes down to evidence. And it's been showing up by the truckload. Hence the numerous indictments on many counts. And America is watching. Over half already think he's guilty, and about 16% are waiting to see what the trials show.
With former President Donald Trump now formally charged, a majority of Americans (53%) believe he intentionally did something illegal, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.

An additional 11% say he acted wrongly but not intentionally. Only 20% believe Trump did not do anything wrong, and 16% say they don't know, per the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel.

Majority of Americans believe Trump did something illegal: POLL

With former President Donald Trump now formally charged on criminal charges, a majority of Americans (53%) believe he intentionally did something illegal.

abcnews.go.com

And this is what must be really upsetting him:

Of note, the former president is enjoying weaker-than-usual support from his own partisans with only a plurality of Republicans (45%) thinking Trump did nothing wrong, and the rest of the party split among the belief he intentionally did something illegal (19%), he was wrong but it was unintentional (18%) or they simply do not know (17%).

 

[FireDragon76]

I think Trump was mainly interested in the presidency for his own glory. "Whats in it for me?" really is his bottom line. Ayn Rand argued so, and lots of people on the right are deeply influenced by her. I cant see Trump defending his stance in depth like she did tho. Its more of an instinct with him, I think.

Actual glory would involve too much work for Trump.

Renegade Cut, an anarcho-socialist on Youtube, has the best take on "why" Trump ran for president: his ratings were slumping on The Apprentice, and it needed to do something to elevate his brand so he could continue to get favorable business dealings. Trump is basically a conman that never wanted to do the work of an actual president.

 

[Ceallaigh]

Comes down to evidence. And it's been showing up by the truckload. Hence the numerous indictments on many counts. And America is watching. Over half already think he's guilty, and about 16% are waiting to see what the trials show.
With former President Donald Trump now formally charged, a majority of Americans (53%) believe he intentionally did something illegal, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.

An additional 11% say he acted wrongly but not intentionally. Only 20% believe Trump did not do anything wrong, and 16% say they don't know, per the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel.

Majority of Americans believe Trump did something illegal: POLL

With former President Donald Trump now formally charged on criminal charges, a majority of Americans (53%) believe he intentionally did something illegal.

abcnews.go.com

And this is what must be really upsetting him:

Of note, the former president is enjoying weaker-than-usual support from his own partisans with only a plurality of Republicans (45%) thinking Trump did nothing wrong, and the rest of the party split among the belief he intentionally did something illegal (19%), he was wrong but it was unintentional (18%) or they simply do not know (17%).

"This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 566 adults".

 

[Bradskii]

"This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 566 adults".

So maybe he's not guilty. But would you select him or anyone else for the next president?

 

[The Barbarian]

I think Trump was mainly interested in the presidency for his own glory. "Whats in it for me?" really is his bottom line. Ayn Rand argued so, and lots of people on the right are deeply influenced by her. I cant see Trump defending his stance in depth like she did tho. Its more of an instinct with him, I think.

Rand was mainly looking for an intellectual justification for her inclinations.