WTF?! Trump Gets Visibly Excited At Possibility Of War With China

Donald Trump at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
Donald Trump at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

For the better part of a year since beginning his effort to gaslight his way to the presidency, every other thing Donald Trump has said has made fair-minded Americans cringe. Well, he may have made people around the world cringe this weekend when he refused to rule out going to war with China over trade.

When The New York Times’ David Sanger and Maggie Haberman asked Trump how he would deal with any trade disputes between the United States and China, the Donald told them as far as he’s concerned, any politician who refuses to rule out war in such a situation is a squish.

“I would use trade to negotiate. Would I go to war? Look, let me just tell you. There’s a question I wouldn’t want to answer. Because I don’t want to say I won’t or I will or – do you understand that, David? That’s the problem with our country. A politician would say, ‘Oh I would never go to war,’ or they’d say, ‘Oh I would go to war.’ I don’t want to say what I’d do because, again, we need unpredictability.”

Trump has said on numerous occasions that this country needs to be more unpredictable. He thinks that one of the drawbacks of democracy is that “you have to be so open” in order to be elected. However, he doesn’t want anyone to know “what my thinking is.” He believes that the “total predictability” of this country “is why we do so poorly.”

However, believing that war should be a last result isn’t being “predictable.” It’s being responsible For Trump to even suggest he’s thinking about going to war with Beijing would be irresponsible at any point. Now, with our troops still recovering from a decade in the meat-grinder of Iraq, and helping out against the Islamic State? Calling this insane would be being rather kind.

We saw another example of this earlier in the week, when he refused to rule out using nuclear weapons against ISIS in order to “make them respect us.” Uh huh. So he’s willing to devastate an entire country in the name of wiping out a few thugs? It would also commit this country to another decade-long (at least) nation-building project. Seems like we tried that before in the same region–and look how well that worked. But then again, that’s to be expected from a guy who has proven that he’s nothing but a big bully with a big bank account.

A number of my Canadian and British friends are dumbfounded at how Trump is even in the race. After this spiel, it’s pretty easy to see why. Sounds like Trump’s idea of “unpredictability” would mean turning this country into a loose cannon–something that we already have too many of in the world.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.