*45th POTUS Donald Trump – Page 50

Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence (DNI), will leave the Trump administration on August 15. Coats is one of the last remaining original members of President Trump’s national security team. The news of Dan Coats’ departure was, not surprisingly, delivered by Trump via tweet, along with Trump’s announcement that he would be nominating Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace Coats.

Dan Coats is known for his low-key, behind-the-scenes approach. He hasn’t spoken out much in public, but when he has, his comments have often been bluntly at odds with Trump.

In a 2018 summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, for example, Trump cast doubt on whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election, in effect saying that Putin had said Russia hadn’t interfered, and that Trump believed him.

In response, Dan Coats issued this statement on behalf of the U.S. intelligence community:

“We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.”

At a Senate hearing, Dan Coats also contradicted Trump’s proclamation that the Islamic State had been completely defeated.

“While we have defeated the caliphate, with a couple of little villages left, we should not underestimate the ability of terrorist groups, particularly ISIS,” said Coats.

Vince Houghton, historian at the International Spy Museum, said about Coats, “He’s been someone who is willing to tell the truth, even if the main consumer, and that’s the president of the United States, does not like what he has to hear.”

Coats has also advocated stronger election security, saying that it should be a top U.S. priority. As one of his last actions in his current role, Coats named Shelby Pierson, a longtime intelligence community veteran, to serve in a newly created position as the overall head of election security efforts. At around the same time, coincidentally or not, Mitch McConnell blocked proposed legislation for additional funding for election security.

While Dan Coats has frequently contradicted Trump and his pronouncements, John Ratcliffe, Dan Coats’ expected replacement, has received praise from Trump for, among other things, admonishing special counsel Robert Mueller during Mueller’s testimony in the House Judiciary Committee hearing regarding Mueller’s findings in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Many of those who support Donald Trump have said they do so because Trump “says what he means, and means what he says.” That is not the same as having integrity or telling the truth. One has to wonder if Dan Coats’ pursuit of integrity over his willingness to “back up” whatever utterances Trump has put forth, are at least one of the reasons for his departure. One also has to think, then, about the implications of being governed by a U.S. president who would dismiss those who disagree with him, even when national security may be at stake.

As Rep. Don Beyer put it, “(Dan Coats) was a widely respected and trusted by everyone on both sides as a man of integrity. But Trump doesn’t want integrity, he wants people who will tell him what he wants to hear and intel leaders who will agree that 2+2=5.”

Dan Coats refused to pretend that the Emperor was wearing clothes.

Trump replaces US intelligence chief Dan Coats | Al Jazeera
[2019-07-29]

DNI Dan Coats to step down, Texas Republican John Ratcliffe to replace | Fox News [2019-07-28]

The first National Conservatism Conference may have reinforced the very image today’s conservatives say doesn’t define them. Though many don’t fit the labels, conservatives as a group, and especially Trump supporters, have come to be frequently categorized as racists, exclusionists, and “white nationalists.” And though conference organizers repeatedly announced that white nationalists were not welcome, the National Conservatism Conference, seeking to establish a new identity and solidarity for American conservatives, had threads of racism running through it.

The conference aimed to define and assert the existence of “Intellectual Trumpism,” perhaps attempting, in part, to distance itself from the fact that the 2016 Trump campaign appealed most to non-college-educated white males, many of whom saw immigrants and non-whites as a threat.

If there was an elephant in the room at the National Conservatism Conference, it was perhaps the spate of racist language tweeted out by Trump in the days before and during the National Conservatism Conference. First, there was the set of Tweets Trump had sent out earlier in the week, telling the four American congresswomen of color known as “The Squad” that they should go back to the countries they came from, and accusing them of “hating America.” Then, there was Trump’s fabricated claim that Ilhan Omar (one of the four congresswomen) was an al-Quaeda sympathizer.

Conference speakers avoided mentioning or dealing with these heavily reported comments by the president. The few times they did, it was with verbal eye-rolling aimed at the media or at those calling the comments “racist.” Since this “Intellectual Trumpist” movement claims to want to distance itself from the racist elements of Trump’s actions, taking a more definitive stand to denounce the tweets certainly could have helped.

Some speakers at the National Conservatism Conference were less subtle as they expressed their racist-tinged platforms (while still denying that they were racist or exclusionist).

University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax, for example, during a panel on immigration policy, commented that immigrants are “too loud,” and that they are responsible for the increase in litter. Though she was quick to say she supported immigration, she also said she advocated an immigration policy favoring those from Western countries over non-Western countries (Echoes of Trump’s early 2018 “sh**hole countries” comments).

“…Our country will be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites,” said Wax. She denies that her statement indicated racism, because, as she says, her issue with non-white immigrants is not biological, it’s cultural.

So, though “some of their best friends” may be non-white, the National Conservatism Conference will need to try harder to show that they’re not racist, exclusionist, or white nationalist, but perhaps we should ask, does that really even concern them?

Penn Professor Under Fire For Saying Country Will Be Better Off ‘Fewer Non-Whites’ CBS Philly | [2019-07-18]

Senator Hawley’s keynote at the National Conservatism Conference | National Conservatism [2019-07-17]

Category: *45th POTUS Donald Trump

DNI Dan Coats Departs, Emperor Continues without Clothes

National Conservatism Conference: “…But We’re Not Racist”