In tonight’s show, I visit with Vice President Mike Pence, but the interview was taped before the President’s trip to Europe, where it ended with the widely panned press conference with Russian President Putin, so we obviously don’t cover those events. But I will.
Though condemned for his tough talk to NATO, President Trump has actually gotten results by openly and publicly criticizing European nations who gained the most by NATO protecting them while basically being deadbeats and free-loaders who didn’t pay even what they promised and instead let the US pick up the tab. Until President Trump, the US might as well have stood for “Us Suckers.” Was he gentle and oh, so diplomatic in his shaming our allies to stop their free feeding at the trough? Not even a little bit. But the results are encouraging, with most of the slacker nations now agreeing to put their money where they mealy, miserly mouths have been.
In the UK, the President was as straightforward in public as in private with Prime Minister Teresa May, who has the responsibility to get the UK out of the European Union due to the Brits having voted in the Brexit election, but who seems about as happy to do it as Hillary was to sit on the stage watching Donald Trump sworn in as President in January of 2017. But the net result was that the US and UK continue as strong allies and the groundwork laid for strong trade agreements to flourish. And while at Windsor Castle, the President didn’t spill his tea on the rug while chatting with Queen Elizabeth, which his critics felt he was sure to do. The one big question we didn’t have answered was why the Queen has always carried that large purse on her arm. What’s in that thing? It’s not like she has to carry a driver’s license, credit cards, or coins for parking. She’s surrounded by people who will fetch any and everything she needs. I’m convinced that bag is full of Snickers bars and every time she has to sit through some boring event or give that “queenly wave” of hers, before she turns grumpy, she digs out a Snickers and puts on her happy queen face.
When the President went to Helsinki for the meeting with Russian President Putin, we weren’t privy to their extended private meeting, but we were witnesses to a less than stellar press conference which was charitably not the President’s best public performance. A couple of observations: We don’t know what was said behind closed doors, but let’s be clear—Putin is a thug, the Russians did try to meddle in our elections, they murdered people on the streets of London, and they shouldn’t be trusted for directions to a Walmart. But there is no evidence that they changed the outcome of the election, there’s no evidence that candidate Trump colluded with the Russians, and so far, President Trump has been far tougher on the Russians than any American President since President Reagan. He expelled their diplomats, he has busted their energy exports which is the biggest blow to their economy possible, he carried out a promise to punish Syria for gassing their own people and in so doing, killed 200 Russian military personnel, and has condemned them for their incursions into neighboring countries. No silly reset buttons like Hillary did, no nutty talk of having “more flexibility once the election is over” like Obama said, and not cute nicknames like “Pooty Poot” like President George W. Bush gave him when he said he looked into his eyes and saw his soul. If my choice is a President who is stung by his intelligence agencies for having cooked up phony dossiers that empowered other federal agencies to investigate him, which lied to Congress about it, and then scrambled to allow evidence to be destroyed that might have implicated his opponent or the previous President—the President who knew there was Russian meddling and did nothing to stop it nor even warn the nation it was happening and whose intel agencies were actively involved in covering up for the meddling, I’ll take the President we have.
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