If This Isn’t the Trump Doctrine, It Should Be

Photo Credit: WhiteHouse.gov

The media and political pundits have been going bonkers over President Trump and Russia ever since the Helsinki Summit with Vladimir Putin. It has been entertaining to say the least. Of course, the underlying issues are quite serious, just not in the way the ruling class wants you to believe. What we believe, however, is that China, not Russia is the primary concern. China and Russia together become an even more serious problem.

We have warned for years regarding how Putin was attempting to persuade China to join him in a plot to threaten, if not topple American global economic leadership in this Blog, in articles, media interviews, and even books. We have been quite clear in our continuing concerns about Putin.

Kevin Freeman on Fox and Friends from Seed Studios on Vimeo.

We have extensively documented Russian economic interference prior to the 2008 election that put Barack Obama into the White House. There can be no doubt that the Russian’s, from the highest levels, did manipulate our economy fully aware that this would impact the Presidential election. And, there is no doubt that the crashing stock market, as they were expecting, changed the election dramatically. These are facts that not only remain overlooked by the media but were actively covered up by the Obama Administration’s intelligence community (IC). And, we have repeatedly warned about the politicization of the IC.

After the Obama team was put in place, we saw a big push to “reset” relations with Russia emerging from the new President and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This manifested in multiple ways that could clearly be viewed as evidence of collusion although no one was allowed to fully explore it. In fact, there were clear signs of a cover up. Just as a sampler of the critical facts:

1. In 2009, shortly after President Obama took office, the FBI had solid evidence of a Russian bribery and extortion plot to gain control of America’s uranium assets. This was kept under wraps for years but clearly known inside our Intelligence Community. And, this bribery plan was executed with the approval of highly placed Russian officials.
2. In 2010, the FBI caught 10 spies, including Anna Chapman, as they were about to enter Hillary Clinton’s private circle. Apparently, the evidence against them was beyond solid. And yet the spies were “swapped” with Russia just a few days after they were captured. This was NOT normal. The typical protocol would have been to get every last shred of evidence, embarrass Russia as much as possible, and hang on to them long enough to maximize leverage. Instead, they were rushed into a very quick trade for four double agents held by Moscow. The question at the time is the right question for today as well. WHY?
3. Also in 2010, Bill Clinton received a $500,000 payday for a single speech in Moscow and held private meetings with Vladimir Putin while there. Given the fact that the Russian spies were worming their way into the Clinton circle, this is particularly concerning. Because the FBI had extensive and continual surveillance on the Russian spies, the Clinton speech should have raised multiple eyebrows and serious investigation. Any concerns raised, however, were swiftly swept under the rug.
4. Then there were the massive Russian donations to the Clinton Foundation that have been tied by email leaks to the Uranium One scandal, where about 20% of American uranium resources were placed under Russian control in a $1.3 billion deal. This includes over $2 million directly from Uranium One’s Chairman and millions more from others related to the deal. The timeline of the speech and contributions as shared by The NY Times is quite revealing. All told, Peter Schweizer, author of Clinton Cash, documents $145 million of Russian money going to the Clinton Foundation or its initiatives.
5. With seriously questionable Clinton ties (and lots of money going to the Clinton Foundation), the Russian Skolkovo initiative (an attempt to build Russia’s version of Silicon Valley) gets lots of US support after the “Russian Reset,” while building Russian technology and hacking capabilities. From Peter Schweizer (as shared in the NY Post):“I think the idea that you’re going to help develop a Russian version of Silicon Valley, which, by the way, will be controlled by the Russian government, and then not to expect that the technology will be siphoned off for military uses, is incredibly naive,” Schweizer said.As early as 2010, cybersecurity experts also expressed deep concerns about Russia using Skolkovo to develop hacking capabilities.Russia’s FSB spy agency — the successor to the KGB — reportedly keeps two of its information warfare “security centers” at Skolkovo, the report says.“There certainly is an irony that as we are now concerned about Russian cyber-attacks on the US, that the reset played a role in enhancing their cyber-capabilities,” Schweizer said. In this latest report, as in his book, “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” Schweizer concedes he found no “smoking gun” evidence that any of the donors who poured cash into the Clinton coffers actually were promised, or received, any State Department favors in return.“We don’t have an email or a pirated voice mail message saying, ‘We’ll give you money if you help us with Skolkovo,’” Schweizer told The Post. “But what we do have is a pattern that shows a high percentage of participants in Skolkovo who happen to be Clinton Foundation donors….“But the American people get nothing. In fact, we get a rival — Russia — with enhanced technological capabilities. At best, that makes them a tougher competitor [in legitimate commerce],” Schweizer said.“At worst, they get a more robust military, with technologies that we helped develop, and that can be sold to our enemies.”
6. Even after being fully aware of all of this, President Obama tried to secretly telegraph a message to Vladimir Putin but was caught on a “hot mic,” promising to work with Putin with “more flexibility” after the election. This was largely downplayed by the mainstream press but is perhaps one of the greatest scandals of his presidency. That was 2012.
   
7. Even during the 2012 election, President Obama not only downplayed Russia as a concern, he even mocked Governor Romney during the debates by saying, “the 1980s called and they want their foreign policy back.” He knew there was a problem with Russia but used a lie to score campaign points. The media joined him in loudly mocking Governor Romney.
   
8. In 2014, Russia invaded Crimea. When we objected with sanctions, Russian media responded with direct threats to crash the US stock market. That same year, a “digital bomb” was discovered in the NASDAQ stock market, reportedly placed their by Russian hackers.
9. In 2015, the Justice Department brought charges against a Russian spy who was here to learn how to disrupt our stock market using Exchange Traded Funds.
10. In 2016, the Obama Administration was fully aware of Russian meddling in August BEFORE the election and did nothing. In fact, they told the IC to “stand down.” Of course, the spin will be that the issue was complex and it would have been difficult to retaliate. And, wherever possible they will attempt to point a finger at the Trump team. But the facts are clear and they knew the truth.

So, when you boil it all down, President Obama oversaw eight years of compromising American interests in regard to Russia. This was AFTER the fact that Russia was clearly impacting our election in 2008 using economic warfare in his favor. All of this was swept under the rug. But now, President Trump is under attack for simply meeting with Vladimir Putin. The former communist sympathizing, Obama era CIA Director Brennan has made claims of “Treason.” Others have demanded to interview the interpreter that President Trump used in his meeting with Putin (which would be an outrageous breach of protocol and Presidential authority).

Before accepting the media narrative that Trump conspired with Russia to steal the election, however, you should take a step back and look at all the facts. We are not certain that the DNC “hack” was exactly that. There is a good deal of evidence that this was an inside job in some way, although it might have been Russian sponsored. The fact is that the transfer rate on the emails was too fast to make a traditional hack possible. For a good explanation from a former NSA official, view this video or read this report. In regard to Secretary Clinton’s emails, their release was clearly from hacking, but also the result of gross negligence on her part. According to Congressional testimony, 30,000 Clinton emails were sent to an unauthorized foreign entity NOT related to Russia. This information was presented to the FBI during the email investigation but Peter Strzok did nothing with it according to the Intelligence Committee Inspector General. This is the same Peter Strzok that gave such a bizarre performance when questioned by Congress. And, he’s the same FBI agent who privately texted that he didn’t think there was anything substantive to the Russian collusion narrative despite a willingness to push it forward presumably for partisan political reasons.

Please understand that unlike the partisan left (which ignored Russian malfeasance for 90 years), we have been on Putin’s case for a decade and are unwilling to excuse him from clearly bad activity in 2016 and for a decade prior. We have documented his serious and ongoing efforts to undermine the United States in general and our economy in specific. We have called him out time and again. But, what we are seeing from President Trump may actually be a brilliant effort to secure America.

Basically, the truth is that China is the much larger threat, economically and militarily. With Putin and Russia on the side of China, the threat is infinitely worse. Forty years ago, the situation was pretty much the opposite. Russia had the bigger economy and dominant military. Richard Nixon pulled off a coup by going to China and sowing sufficient distrust to break the Chinese from the Russian orbit. This was a masterstroke and paved the way for Reagan’s Cold War victory.

Hopefully, President Trump’s recent efforts underscore an awareness of the current Economic Warfare threat coming from China. Yes, Russia is a serious threat as well, having recently dumped a majority of her Treasury Bond holdings and making direct threats against our currency. But China is the much larger threat. If China dumped 85% of her holdings in  two months (as Russia has just done), the implications would be far more serious.

The idea that China is the larger threat is clearly supported by the evidence. Here’s a quote from Daily Caller on July 19:

China is a greater security threat than Russia according to many experts — but you won’t hear that from liberals or never-Trumpers who are going after President Trump over his response to Russian meddling while in Helsinki, Finland.

John Bambenek, a cybersecurity expert who worked on the Democratic National Committee hack, sat down with the Daily Caller to discuss the threat China poses to the U.S. He also went into detail about his cybersecurity firm’s role in confirming the source of the DNC breach early in the summer of 2016 — before the public even knew about the leaked emails.

Bambenek worked for Fidelis Cybersecurity in 2016. He now serves as the Vice President of ThreatStop and as a part-time lecturer at the University of Illinois.

Even former Secretary of State to President Clinton, Madeleine Albright, recognizes China as the bigger threat.

China is currently running spy operations in all 50 states in America. This is a part of their ongoing Unrestricted Warfare campaign against our nation as documented by Epoch Times (graphic used with permission).

Even the FBI Director admits that the China threat is the greatest espionage threat we face today. China always has been a communist nation. While Russia may be run like a criminal organization in many ways, it can be bargained with. China is committed to a hundred-year marathon to rule the world. China is already beginning to pursue conflict to assert her position. For years, Putin pursued China’s support in attacking American finance. He has even recently ramped up the effort to displace the dollar.

Now, however, Putin should be as concerned about China’s future plans as we are. This may be the ideal time for President Trump to separate Russia from China. China is, without question, using her influence to undermine the United States and the Western order in general. They are using any and all means possible including hacking, trade wars, intellectual property theft, undermining our alliances, direct subversion, manipulating our education system, and using culture warfare via Hollywood. They know that a war is underway and they have been fighting us for years. We’ve just been too blinded to see it.

This is not to say that we should tolerate Russian aggression or interference in our democracy. But we must be realistic about global threats rather than looking for partisan advantage from them. The President should make every effort to negotiate better behaviour from Russia and at the same time create a wedge that would derail or at least slow China’s global aggressiveness. If that’s what he is doing, and he succeeds, the Trump doctrine will be proclaimed as brilliant. This is a global economic war and we must do everything necessary to win it. When the threat is grave, Winston Churchill would advise that we pursue “victory at all costs.” The hope is that with strategists like John Bolton, we can both tame the Russians and also win the economic war with China.