Donald Trump speaks after he accepted the nomination for president of the United States at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, July 21, 2016.
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But Vice President Joe Biden, who on Monday hit the 2016 campaign trail with Clinton for the first time, trashed Trump as unqualified for the White House and accused him of endangering the lives of USA troops. “But he does not represent the radical Islam we are dealing with today and that Trump is talking about”.
Nevertheless, the content of his address served to reiterate the more nationalistic and belligerent aspects of Trump’s campaign platform: his proposed restrictions on immigration, willingness to use brutal tactics to achieve his foreign policy goals, and a doubling down on the angry rhetoric Republicans like to level at “radical Islamic terrorism”. Isis has spread across the Middle East and into the west. “Libya is in ruins”, the Republican candidate declared.
“If we had controlled the oil like I said we should, we could have prevented the rise of ISIS in Iraq, both by cutting off a major source of funding and through the presence of USA forces necessary to safeguard the oil and vital infrastructure products necessary for us to have the oil”.
This sort of fear mongering is par for the course for Trump. His speech Monday referred to regions, with the caveat that he might not name them until after taking office.
When Trump veered outside his apocalyptic comfort zone, his logic became a bit muddled. Now, a different challenge threatens our world: “Radical Islamic Terrorism”, he said.
It was another night of the Trump Train going off the rails, which appear, these days, to lead through Siberia.
Trump’s contradictions didn’t end there.
Trump says he would have used money from the sale of Iraqi oil to pay for the care of wounded soldiers and the families of those Americans killed in the war. He also praised North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, saying that since calling the alliance “obsolete” earlier this year, the organization had created “a new division focused on terror threats”; he neglected to note, of course, that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has had an Emerging Security Challenges Division since 2010. Perhaps outflanking liberals to the left, Trump said the fight against Islamic radicalism will help gays, women and other minorities.
Mostly, though, Trump’s answer to terrorism goes back to immigration, the defining issue of his disastrous presidential campaign.
Donald Trump on Monday laid out a U.S. blueprint for defeating global terrorism in partnership with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Middle East allies, demanding extreme restrictions on immigration and likening the fight to the Cold War.
Anyway, Trump says that “extreme vetting” is needed for anyone entering the country. “It’s hard to see what more the government could really do to weed out potential terrorists”, said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. “Those who do not believe in our Constitution, or who support bigotry and hatred, will not be admitted for immigration into our county”.
Kelly at the Center for American Progress agreed.
What are existing U.S. immigration requirements?
That proposal raised numerous questions that the campaign never clarified, including whether it would apply to citizens of countries like France, Israel, or Ireland, which have suffered recent and past attacks. Trump also listed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as an ally, perhaps doing some damage control regarding the criticism he received when he said North Atlantic Treaty Organisation states will have to pay more for their defense if they want the US’s help.
Hillary for America Senior Policy Adviser Jake Sullivan released a statement Monday, saying, Trump’s “so-called “policy” can not be taken seriously. We will partner with King Abdullah of Jordan and the president of Egypt, President [Abdel Fattah] Al-Sisi”, Trump said. She added, “It’s so divisive, and it’s really tearing the country apart”.
When Melber pressed Cortes as to whether the plan would affect all immigrants, which previous year totaled nearly 189 million, the campaign surrogate said it would mostly affect those who want to stay long-term.
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Trump, in return, has been attacked throughout the campaign for a perceived lack of foreign policy chops, with Clinton accusing him Monday of being “all over the place on ISIS”.
