| | | | Trump's tough tone on terror | | Donald Trump doesn't do nuance when it comes to terror attacks, CNN's Stephen Collinson writes in a dive into the style of the President-elect's response to attacks in Turkey, Germany and Switzerland. Trump's response to the day of carnage made clear his combative instincts on terrorism have not been tempered just because the election is over. Trump moved quickly and didn't wait for all the facts to emerge. He set a tone of uncompromising toughness and clarity, in which emotion and attitude take priority over subtlety and details. That approach worked to his political advantage on the campaign trail, but could inject an unpredictable element into global politics when he is president.
Trump's approach also raises the question of whether the more emotionally satisfying response that he prefers is appropriate -- or even the best political strategy -- when it comes from a man who will soon be president. For example, his tweet conflated the three attacks in Turkey, Switzerland and Germany into a single explosion of radical Islamic terrorism. But it is still unclear whether the off-duty police officer who killed the Russian ambassador was linked to an extremist group, or was primarily motivated by a personal grievance over the Russian-backed siege on the Syrian city of Aleppo at a time of great dislocation and uncertainty in Turkish politics. Similarly, Trump's statement got him out far ahead of the German authorities responding to the crisis -- a factor that could irritate a US ally. And the attack in Switzerland hardly fits the mold of the other two, since it targeted a mosque.
It's a "Madman Theory" of foreign policy, with Trump hoping his unpredictability will unnerve and intimidate foes, writes The Washington Post's James Hohmann. | | "He 'doesn't know much.'" -- President-elect Donald Trump on Bill Clinton, swinging back in a mocking tweet after Clinton told a local newspaper that Trump "doesn't know much." | | | | If you're curious, here's Trump's pair of tweets about Clinton: | | Trump's Cabinet: More conservatives than populists | | From CNN's Stephen Collinson: Donald Trump might have been a conservative hiding in plain sight this whole time. The President-elect, who ran on populism rather than ideology and was once viewed as a political apostate by many conservatives, might represent the movement's most significant governing moment since Ronald Reagan as he assembles a conservative dream team Cabinet. "It is a really conservative Cabinet, and a lot of conservatives are really happy. I have had Reagan people come up to me and say this is more conservative than Reagan's Cabinet," said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union.
Trump will weaken the US trade negotiating agency, reports Politico's Doug Palmer, by shifting more trade policy power to Commerce Secretary-designate Wilbur Ross and less to the eventual US trade representative appointee.
Praise from an old enemy: In an op-ed for CNN, onetime Trump rival Jeb Bush praised his pick of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA. | | | Trump in October: "The New York Times' strings are being pulled by Mexico's Carlos Slim, a billionaire who benefits from NAFTA and supports Hillary Clinton's open border policies." | | Obama moves to limit drilling, close Guantanamo | | Looking to cement his environmental record, President Barack Obama took new action Tuesday barring offshore drilling in areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans indefinitely, CNN's Kevin Liptak reports. The White House said Obama was declaring the entire US portion of the Chukchi Sea and the vast majority of the Beaufort Sea "indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing," citing critical protection for the marine mammals, ecological resources and native populations. Obama relied on a 63-year-old law to make his moves, which will prevent future leasing of certain offshore areas for oil rights. His successor, Donald Trump, who has promised a policy allowing more US energy production, would face legal challenges if he attempted to reverse Obama's order.
Obama is making Gitmo moves, too. The President is moving to leave as few prisoners in Guantanamo Bay as possible, notifying Congress that the administration intends to transfer out some of the detainees before Donald Trump is sworn in, per CNN's Barbara Starr and Ryan Browne. | | | The Trump family is distancing itself from a January 21 fundraising event after press reports that attendees could get a meeting with President Donald Trump for $1 million. ... Hillary Clinton allies ripped the FBI after the search warrant showing the agency had remarkably little evidence to go on when it reopened its look into her private server in late October was unsealed. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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