What To Expect From The Final Days Of The Trump Presidency
President Trump has fired several top level members of his administration in the past couple of weeks. So what else can we expect from the president in his remaining days in office?
Guests
Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)
Suzanne Spaulding, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Former undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security. (@SpauldingSez)
Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She’s worked at the State Department, the Department of Defense and the National Security Council at the White House. Author of “America vs. the West.” (@KoriSchake)
From The Reading List
The Atlantic: “Trump’s Pettiness Is the Simplest Explanation” — “The Trump administration appears determined to go out with both a bang and a whimper.”
Washington Post: “Trump uses power of presidency to try to overturn election and stay in office” — “After courts rejected the Trump campaign’s baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud, the president is now trying to remain in power.”
New York Times: “Trump Fires Christopher Krebs, Official Who Disputed Election Fraud Claims” — “President Trump on Tuesday night fired his administration’s most senior cybersecurity official responsible for securing the presidential election, Christopher Krebs, who had systematically disputed Mr. Trump’s false declarations in recent days that the presidency was stolen from him through fraudulent ballots and software glitches that changed millions of votes.”
The Atlantic: “The Disastrous Idea that Won’t Go Away” — “When President Donald Trump convened his national-security team last week to discuss whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, his top advisers dissuaded him from launching missile strikes, The New York Times reported.”
Reuters: “U.S. judge blocks expulsions of unaccompanied children under Trump’s pandemic-related border rules” — “A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday blocked expulsions of unaccompanied children caught crossing into the United States, a setback for the outgoing Trump administration, which said the policy was aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus.”
Wall Street Journal: “Trump Fires Mark Esper as Defense Secretary” — “President Trump dismissed Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday, saying in a Twitter post that he had “terminated” his Pentagon chief and replaced him with a new acting secretary, signaling the start of a shake-up in the remaining weeks of the Trump administration.”
The Hill: “Trump’s Pentagon shakeup may be more than perceived disloyalty” — “The departures at the Pentagon continue, as Donald Trump’s Pentagon purge seems never to end. The most recent resignation was that of Alexis Ross, a former Capitol Hill staffer who served under Mark Esper as deputy assistant secretary of the Army.”
Reuters: “Trump to cut troop levels in Afghanistan but stops short of full withdrawal” — “President Donald Trump will sharply reduce the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 by mid-January, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday, stopping short of a threatened full withdrawal from America’s longest war after fierce opposition from allies at home and abroad.”
CNN: “Trump team looks to box in Biden on foreign policy by lighting too many fires to put out” — “President Donald Trump’s order of a further withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq is the latest foreign policy move on a growing list in his final weeks in office that are meant to limit President-elect Joe Biden’s options before he takes office in January.”
Washington Post: “Two senior Homeland Security officials forced out as White House firings widen” — “The White House has forced out two top Department of Homeland Security officials as part of a widening purge of anyone suspected of lacking complete loyalty to President Trump, three people familiar with the removals said Thursday.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]
