Digby read the Bolton book chapter on China, which has been excerpted for public consumption, so I didn't have to waste my time. Digby includes significant block quotes from Bolton's book, revealing Trump sucking up to China's President for Life, Xi, and begging Xi to help Trump get re-elected. It shows Trump wanting to protect China's private-public companies' desire to further infiltrate the US telecommunications market. Trump even tells Xi it is the Democrats who hate China, and that he wants to be friends with China and its business-political complex that resembles classic fascism more than anything else.
For me, there are the historical antecedents to Trump's brazen behavior. In the presidential election year of 1972, Nixon and Kissinger, during the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) with the then-Soviet Union, threw away many nuclear cards the US held in order to have a deal--literally any deal--cut with the Soviet Union. Gerard Smith, the lead US negotiator, never forgave Nixon and Kissinger for their short term political actions, and wrote about it in detail in his book on the topic. Sy Hersh, in his masterful take down of Kissinger, spoke with Smith, and relied upon Smith's perspective, for the chapters on the negotiations with the Soviet Union regarding strategic arms.
Trump does the work for the international corporations, while Tweeting racism and fascism to divert his fans. It is really that obvious if one cared to look and read. I am not saying Bolton should be fully trusted, and Bolton is a hardline hawk for the American Empire. However, Trump's conduct is so consistent with Trump's narcissism and corruption, and so consistent with Trump's drive for autocratic power. What should concern any thinking or honest American is why even right wing generals like Mattis, who supported Trump in 2016, and eagerly joined Trump's administration, blanched at what they saw with Trump. Trump spoke like a hawk, as did Nixon and Kissinger, but both sell out their hawkish views and pretty much anything, to secure and maintain power. It is not statesmanship. It is not anything but autocratic power of a cynical, manipulative type, and designed to zig and zag to keep opponents on the defensive and confused.
Anyone considering voting for Trump again is beyond any reasonable position for any patriotic oriented American should take.
