By
Robert Reich
Donald Trump has reorganized the National Security Council –
elevating his chief political strategist Steve Bannon, and demoting the
Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
Bannon
will join the NSC’s principals committee, the top inter-agency group advising
the President on national security.
Meanwhile,
the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff will now attend meetings only when “issues pertaining to their
responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed,” according to the
presidential memorandum issued Saturday.
Political
strategists have never before participated in National Security Council
principals meetings because the NSC is supposed to give presidents nonpartisan,
factual advice.
But
forget facts. Forget analysis. This is the Trump administration.
In
case you forgot, before joining Donald Trump’s inner circle Bannon headed
Breitbart News, a far-right media outlet that has promoted conspiracy theories
and is a platform for the alt-right movement, which espouses white nationalism.
This
is truly scary.
Former
National Security Adviser Susan Rice calls the move “stone cold crazy.” Former
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also served under George W. Bush, says the
demotions are a “big mistake.”
Republican
Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told CBS News,
"I am worried about the National Security Council. … The appointment of
Mr. Bannon is a radical departure from any National Security Council in
history.” McCain added that the “one person who is indispensable would be the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in my view.”
Here’s
the big worry. Trump is unhinged and ignorant. Bannon is nuts and malicious. If
not supervised by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, their decisions could endanger the
world.
In
Trump’s and Bannon’s view, foreign relations is a zero-sum game. If
another nation gains, we lose. As Trump declared at his inaugural: “From this
day forward, it’s going to be only America First.”
Some
of you are old enough to recall John F. Kennedy’s inaugural, when the young
president pledged to support any friend and oppose any foe to assure the
success of liberty.
But
Trump makes no distinction between friend and foe, and no reference to liberty.
As conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer observes, Trump’s view is
that all other nations are out to use, exploit and surpass us.
Not
incidentally, “America First” was the name of the pro-Nazi group led by Charles
Lindbergh that bitterly fought FDR before U.S. entry into World War II to keep
America neutral between Churchill’s Britain and Hitler’s Reich.
Trump’s
and Bannon’s version of “America First” is no less dangerous. It is alienating
America from the rest of the world, destroying our nation’s moral authority
abroad, and risking everything we love about our country.
Unsupervised
by people who know what they’re doing. Trump and Bannon could also bring the
world closer to a nuclear holocaust.
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of
Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at
the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in
the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten
most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written
fourteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The
Work of Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
INEQUALITY FOR ALL.
