President Donald Trump sat down for an interview on Fox News with Steve Hilton of “The Next Revolution” where the host attempted to goad the President into supporting aggressive wars, but the hawkish host heard a different tune than he was expecting.
Hilton referenced an alleged conversation between Trump and neoconservative Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) where the two men apparently agreed on foreign military invasions but disagreed on exactly where to invade.
“Where does he want to invade, but more importantly, where do you invade?” Hilton asked the President.
Trump disagreed with the characterization that he wanted to invade any country militarily, and expressed his desire for America to triumph over other countries in trade rather than through armed conflict.
“I want to invade, if I have to, economically,” Trump said. “We have created a much stronger country economically than when I took it over… I was in Louisiana opening up a $10 billion dollar LNG plant that would have never been approved under another type of administration,” Trump said.
“We have tremendous power economically. If I can solve things economically, that’s the way I want to do it,” Trump added.
Trump doubled-down from there, explaining that despite his push for a stronger military that takes care of the troops, he wants to avoid any wars caused by the “military-industrial complex” that President Dwight D. Eisenhower once warned about before leaving office.
“Well, I’m the one that talks about these wars that are 19 years and people are just there, and don’t kid yourself, we do have a military-industrial complex. They do like war!” Trump exclaimed.
Trump pointed to his progress in Syria where he helped obliterate ISIS and wipe out the Islamic caliphate that once threatened the globe. Trump noted that despite this success, there would always be rogue terrorists in the area conducting mischief. He criticized the military-industrial complex for using these instances to agitate for endless war.
“You have people here in Washington, they never want to leave!” Trump said in an exacerbated tone.
Trump ultimately left a few hundred military personnel in Syria to get the military-industrial complex off of his back after first declaring all the troops would come home.
“If it was up to them, they’d bring thousands of soldiers in. Someday, people will explain it, but you do have… you do have a group, and they call it ‘the military-industrial complex.’ They never want to leave. They always want to fight. No, I don’t want to fight,” Trump said.
While the President very succinctly describes the agenda of the military-industrial complex in one breath, he saber-rattles toward Iran with the other.
If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019
Trump is playing a very tenuous game, trying to avoid military conflict while satisfying war-mongering interests simultaneously. The ‘America First’ move would be for Trump to listen to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy on a consistent basis in the Middle East.
