>>> DEVELOPING THIS MORNING, NEW REPORTS FROM AXIOS ILUDING AN 11th HOUR PLAN TO THDRAW TROOPS FROM IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, GERMANY, AND THE ENTIRE CONTINENT OF AFRICA. JONATHAN SWAN IS A REPORTER FROM AXIOS WHO BROKE THIS STORY. JONATHAN, THIS IS AMAZING. YOU BEGIN THIS REMARKABLE REPORTING ABOUT JOHN McAFEE, 31 YEARS OLD, PRESENTING THIS TYPEWRITTEN ORDER ON A PIECE OF PAPER THAT BASICALLY SAYS WITHDRAW U.S. TROOPS FROM, GOSH, HALF THE WORLD. WHAT WENT ON HERE? >> YEAH. SO THIS REPORTING, WHICH WE FIRST BROKE LAST NIGHT ON AXIOS ON HBO IS REALLY DOCUMENTING WHAT WAS ONE OF THE TENSEST PERIODS BETWEEN A PRESIDENT AND THE UNITED STATES MILITARY IN MODERN HISTORY. AND JUST TO GIVE YOU A VIEWER'S CONTEXT, THIS IS NOVEMBER 9th. THIS IS SIX DAYS AFTER DONALD TRUMP LOST THE ELECTION TO JOE BIDEN. SO HE'S A CARETAKER LAME DUCK PRESIDENT. AND ON NOVEMBER 89th, A RETIRED UNITED ARMY COLONEL, DOUGLAS McGREGOR, GETS A PHONE CALL FROM JOHN McENTEE, 31-YEAR-OLD FORMER BODY MAN TO THE PRESIDENT. HE INSTALLED THE POWERFUL PERSONNEL OFFICE. HE CALLS McGREGOR INTO HIS OFFICE, SITS HIM DOWN, AND HE'S JUST COME FROM THE OVAL OFFICE, AND HE HANDS HIM HIS HANDWRITTEN NOTES FROM THAT MEETING, AND HE SAID, THIS IS WHAT THE PRESIDENT WANTS YOU DO DO, AND IT'S WHAT YOU JUST OUTLINED. WE'VE TALKED ABOUT AFGHANISTAN, WE'VE TALKED TO SOME EXTENT IRAQ AND SYRIA. BUT HE ASKED HIM ALSO TO COMPLETE AN ENTIRE U.S. TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM GERMANY BEFORE JANUARY 20, AND THAT WOULD HAVE COMPLETELY RESHAPED AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE WORLD, ITS ALLIANCES, ITS RELATIONSHIP TO NATO, AND IT'S NOT SOME FANTASTICAL NOTION. THE PRESIDENT HAD ALREADY ORDERED A SIGNIFICANT TROOP DRAWDOWN FROM GERMANY, SO IT WAS SOMETHING HE WAS ALREADY ON THE PATH OF DOING. SO, ANYWAY, THIS IS WHAT WAS PRESENTED TO McGREGOR, WHICH SET IN CHAIN A PROCESS OF PUSHBACK WHICH WENT RIGHT TO THE TOP OF THE U.S. MILITARY. >> JONATHAN, THIS MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING TO REPORT. I MEAN THIS IS THE KIND OF STORY LINE THAT THE THREE OF US WOULD LOOK AT IF IT WAS A SCREENPLAY AND SAY, THIS IS A POORLY RESEARCHED SCREENPLAY. THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS WORK AT ALL. PEOPLE WOULD NOT, YOU KNOW, DO THESE KINDS OF THINGS AND IGNORE THOSE KINDS OF PEOPLE. YOU DESCRIBE HOW THE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER AFTER THIS ORDER GOES TO THE PENTAGON, THE WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL, AND EVEN THE STAFF SECRETARY WHO WOULD BE IN CHARGE OF ALL OF THESE KIND OF PAPER PRODUCTS USUALLY, THEY HAD NO IDEA THAT THIS WAS HAPPENING. >> RIGHT. SO THIS PIECE OF PAPER -- EVEN DOUGLAS McGREGOR WHO HAS GONE ON FOX MANY TIMES AND CALLED FOR TOTAL U.S. WITHDRAWAL FROM GERMANY, AFGHANISTAN, OR AKBAR, EVEN HE SAYS TO MACATEE, I DON'T KNOW IF WE CAN DO ALL OF THIS BEFORE JANUARY. HE CALLS ONE OF MACATEE'S SUBORDINATES IN THE PERSONNEL'S OFFICE WHO'S NEVER WRITTEN AN ORDER TO WITHDRAW FROM WAR BEFORE. REMEMBER, THIS IS A FUNCTIONARY INSIDE THE PRESIDENT'S PERSONNEL OFFICE. TYPES -- SAYS, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO IT. McGREGOR SAYS PULL OUT A FILE DRAWER. IT HAVE THE MEMORANDUMS. ANYWAY, HE TYPES UP THE ORDER. ON NOVEMBER 11th IN THE AFTERNOON, CHRISTOPHER MILLER WHO IS ON HIS THIRD DAY ON THE JOB AS ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, HE RECEIVES BY COURIER THIS PRINTED FORMAL ORDER SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CALLING FOR A TOTAL WITH DRAW FROM AFGHANISTAN BY JANUARY 15, TOTAL WITHDRAWAL OF SOMALIA BY DECEMBER 31. HE SAYS, WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS THIS. AS YOU SAID CORRECTLY, THEY BASICALLY START DOING DETECTIVE WORK AND FIGURE THAT NONE OF THE USUAL PEOPLE WHO WOULD HAVE SEEN OR WOULD WORK ON SUCH AN ORDER WERE AWARE OF IT. IT THEN DAWNED ON THEM THIS WAS AN OFF-THE-BOOKS OPERATION BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF HIMSELF. >> IT REALLY IS STUNNING TO THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS, HOW MANY TROOPS, WHAT IT WOULD HAVE MEANT FOR FOREIGN POLICY AROUND THE WORLD IN SUCH A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. EVEN BEYOND LAST NIGHT, YOU'RE BREAKING MORE NEWS. EVERY TEN MINUTES SOMETHING IS COMING OUT OF YOU HERE. YOU TALKED TO THE FORMER PRESIDENT AND MARK ESPER AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP, AND IN THE DISCUSSION YOU HAD, BASICALLY THE FORMER PRESIDENT TALKED ABOUT THE TENSION, AND HE THOUGHT ESPER WAS OVERLY WOKE AT TIMES. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? >> SO THE PRESIDENT -- BASICALLY WHAT I DID WAS APPROACHED HIM FOR COMMENT FOR THIS STORY AND HE AGREED TO TALK ON THE TELEPHONE. AND ONE THING HE SAID WAS THAT WHEN IT CAME TO MARK ESPER, THE FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY, ONE OF THE REASONS HE FIRED HIM IS BECAUSE HE WAS, QUOTE/UNQUOTE -- HE WROTE, VERY WOKE LETTER TO THE MILITARY. IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO REALIZE WHAT THIS WAS. TURNS OUT IT WAS A MEMO THAT ESPER PUT OUT BASICALLY TALKING ABOUT IMPROVING DIVERSITY, A COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY IN THE MILITARY. SO THAT GIVES YOU AN INDICATION OF HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP THOUGHT ABOUT THE PENTAGON. HE HAD THIS -- THE THING ABOUT TRUMP, WHICH IS KIND OF BIZARRE, FOR SOMEONE WHO CAME INTO OFFICE WITH A COMPLETELY NON-NUANCED VIEW OF MILITARY PARTY WHO THOUGHT THESE ENGAGEMENTS WERE WORTHLESS, HE SURROUNDED HIMSELF WITH GENERALS WHO WERE COMMITTED TO THESE ENGAGEMENTS, WHO HAD HISTORIES IN THE U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND, AND HE MISTAKENLY THOUGHT THESE FIGURES LIKE JAMES MATTIS, GENERAL MILLEY, THE MEMBER OF THE JOINT CHIEFS, TRUMP THOUGHT THEY WERE THESE UNRECONSTRUCTED 1940s GENERALS WHO WOULD AGREE WITH HIM THAT TORTURE IS GREAT, YOU KNOW, AND WE SHOULD SEND TROOPS ONTO THE STREETS TO QUELL PROTESTS AND RIOTS. AND ACTUALLY THESE PEOPLE COULDN'T HAVE MORE FUNDAMENTALLY DISAGREED WITH HIS WORLD VIEW. THAT'S WHERE YOU GOT THIS REALLY INTENSE PUSHBACK FROM THE TOP LEVELS OF THE MILITARY TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. >> JONATHAN SWAN, WELL DONE.
Trump Voters don't care, even if they bothered to watch it all they would say is that Trump Leader is good, Trump Leader is great, the election was stolen so Trump Leader is still President.
Don't try looking for them to see any light, they can't, it's a choice.
The virus that Trump called a hoax and then no big deal, then gone by the spring killed over 600,000 Americans.
They literally don't care what he does just that he is.
Let's be clear, Trump knew he lost the election. He knew thousands of people were dying on a daily basis and he did NOTHING after the election to help the American people. The American people didn't reelect him--so let them all die.
When Hitler knew he was going to lose the war, he gave a scorched-earth order to basically bomb Germany into the middle ages. He claimed all the good Germans had already died so fuck the Germans who were failing him now. Hitler and Trump were/are psychopaths, full stop.
The removal of these troops was intended to handicap America's ability to exert power around the world and it would have handicapped the incoming Biden Administration. Trump is a traitor to our country.
He was trying to hand Germany over to Putin, to wipe his debts clean.
They'd say it's more proof that Trump is not a warmonger, right before demanding he invade Iran for not following the agreement that Trump basically cancelled.
This would probably well suited for the /r/AskTrumpSupporters but you know they wouldn't allow it to be posted as it's not in the "Trump circle of absolute bullshit lies" narrative. No way are they tackling this subject with any open mindedness.
When you accidentally try to end American exceptionalism for the wrong reasons in the worst possible way.