We’re joined by Fred Fleitz, who has labored for the CIA and the Division of Defence, and who labored for the Nationwide Safety Council through the first Trump administration. He’s now on the America First Coverage Institute.
Matt Frei: Let’s undergo a lot of key points. Let’s begin with Nato. Is he going to drag America out of Nato?
Fred Fleitz: No I need to begin with Fred Trump. I noticed your interview with Fred Trump. I believed that was one of the vital tawdry and irresponsible items of journalism I’ve ever seen. Donald Trump wins a conclusive mandate to remake American politics, to remake world safety. And also you pull up some relative I’ve by no means heard of, I’ve by no means seen on TV, to whine about Trump for 5 minutes. It merely goes how the liberal British elite are out to get Trump. They’re not keen on goal journalism. That’s why the British individuals had been so shocked at this end result. They’ve seen these lies in your channel, on the BBC, in The Economist. So, I imply, I don’t even know what the purpose is speaking with you. You’re so extremely biased. I feel Trump goes to remake world politics. What you’re not saying is…
Matt Frei: Might I reply to that?
Fred Fleitz: What you’re not saying is Trump’s tenure as president was fairly good for the UK, was fairly good for Europe. I appear to recollect the Ukraine struggle began underneath Joe Biden. That’s one thing I don’t assume we’re going to listen to in your channel.
Matt Frei: Let me simply say, I hoped to get to all these factors. And I’m glad that you simply’ve completed that. However he was speaking about household. And so far as I do know, you’re not a member of the Trump household. We had been speaking about private stuff and that was very a lot his private view, he wasn’t speaking in regards to the election. He wasn’t speaking about political technique.
Fred Fleitz: It was irresponsible journalism.
Matt Frei: Okay, no matter. Let’s attempt to be accountable then and discuss in regards to the points at hand. Nato – will he pull out of Nato or not?
Fred Fleitz: Donald Trump has made very clear in his America first strategy to U.S. nationwide safety that he desires a robust president, a robust nationwide safety coverage, a robust army – to work in cooperation with our allies and alliances. But in addition to verify the members of those alliances carry their very own weight. I’m not going to talk for Trump on how he’s going to do that. I’ll say he’s going to be fairly powerful with Nato members who aren’t paying their 2 per cent of GDP, as they’re required to underneath their agreements, to different Nato members.
Matt Frei: Okay. He has stated that he would finish the struggle in Ukraine within the first 24 hours of being in workplace. How do you assume he’s going to try this?
Fred Fleitz: You understand, the difficulty for the struggle in Ukraine is that we now have a state of affairs the place we had American and British and European politicians who had been sending weapons to Ukraine for ‘so long as it takes’. However there’s no technique to finish the struggle. They’re mainly doing this for virtue-signalling, they assume Putin is evil, they need to ship weapons there. However that is selling a struggle of attrition that’s killing all of the Ukrainian troopers. There’s going to be a scarcity of Ukrainian younger males. We’re going to begin to finish the struggle – and that is my opinion of what Mr Trump will do – by having a president decided to cease it, to start out negotiations. So – how he’s going to try this, he hasn’t informed me his plan. However I feel step one to ending the struggle is to have a world chief who desires to finish the struggle.
Matt Frei: Let’s transfer on to Iran. I do know that within the first Trump administration, appropriate me if I’m fallacious, that there have been divisions throughout the cupboard about easy methods to take care of Iran. Some individuals wished intervention, others didn’t. You now have gotten this struggle with Iran and Israel. What do you assume he’ll do about that?
Fred Fleitz: Effectively, I heard Mick Mulvaney complaining about who may be within the Trump cupboard. I’ll inform you, there might be fairly a couple of very certified nationwide safety consultants working for Mr Trump. An issue within the first time period is that the president introduced some individuals in who didn’t help his goals with Iran on both fixing, or pulling out, of the 2015 nuclear take care of Iran, the JCPOA. I imagine that Mr Trump will restore most strain. He’s going to bankrupt Iran till it stops sponsoring terrorism and meddling within the area. However as within the first administration, he’ll be keen to speak to America’s adversaries, whether or not it’s Iran or China or Russia.
Matt Frei: Proper. Truly, as I keep in mind the interview with Mick Mulvaney – I feel he stated there have been some good individuals round that Trump might name upon to affix him within the Cupboard, however perhaps I misheard that. Would you be a kind of individuals? Are you ready for a telephone name from Mr Trump?
Fred Fleitz: Look, I’d be honoured to work for the president. I labored for him earlier than. He hasn’t requested but. We’ll see.
