Unmentionable is the extent to which the administration has made the government, as Trump stated in Davos, "open for business." Tax cuts for the wealthy and the rollback of Obamacare took priority in the first year. Deregulation features rollback of protections for workers, consumers and civil rights and the environment. Government accountability translates into open season for corporate lobbies and entrenched interests. His judicial appointments are packing the courts with pro-corporate judges.
Trump's executive orders stripped millions of workers of the right to overtime pay, empowered employers to pocket the tips of tipped workers, and gave financial advisers a free pass to cheat the workers in their retirement accounts. The betrayal of the "forgotten working people" that he constantly invokes is shameless and complete.
"Our military is no longer undermined by artificial timelines"
On national security policy, Trump presented himself, as he always does, as tougher than Obama. He took credit for defeating ISIS, boasted about doubling down in Afghanistan, scorned the "terrible Iran nuclear deal," promised to stop North Korea's nuclear buildup occurring because of "failures of past administrations," moved to expand, not close, use of Guantanamo prison, and revive sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela.
Many commented on Trump's failure to mention the Russian interference in our elections and those of our allies. There was no sign of Trump's campaign skepticism about "stupid wars." The threat posed by catastrophic climate change is consigned to the memory hole.
Strikingly, Trump mentioned China and Russia only in passing. Yet in its recent strategy documents, his administration has declared that the growing confrontation with China and Russia poses a greater threat than terrorism.
As Secretary Mattis put it in presenting the National Defense Strategy, "[W]e will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists that we are engaged in today, but great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security." [emphasis added]. China and Russia are tagged as "revisionist powers" posing the "central challenge to US prosperity and security."
In response, Trump's National Defense Strategy calls for a military force that is dominant across the full "spectrum of conflict" -- from Special Forces to nuclear weapons, and across the full range of "theaters" -- from cyberspace to outer space, from the Russian border to the South China Sea. This, of course, is a charter for massive expansion of military spending.
In his speech, Trump called for "fully funding the military" and for rebuilding our nuclear arsenal, but did not bother to inform Americans that a new Cold War against both China and Russia is now the primary focus of the Pentagon, not the war on terror.
Perhaps the president retains his desire for better relations with Russia. Perhaps he is ignorant of the stated change in security priorities. Perhaps he thought it would distract from his posturing on MS-15 at home and terrorists and North Korea abroad. It is, however, truly bizarre that one of the more ominous developments in Trump's first year in office went without mention.
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