DUBAI: It took us about three hours to reach Kandahar. Caught up in my thoughts, I barely spoke with my travel companion Othman, the man assigned by Osama bin Laden — who would soon become the world's most infamous and wanted terorist — to handle logistics for my interview with him in June 2001.
It was dark when we entered the city. Our transport turned from the main road into a maze of semi-paved streets, then on to sand. Most of the houses in the area were built of mud and their condition spoke volumes about their owners’ financial circumstances.
Stopping overnight at a house in Kandahar, I struggled to sleep under the stress of the situation and the scorching heat of the city.
Around 6 a.m., Othman woke me up. It felt as if I had slept less than an hour. Another man entered the room. I did not recognize him at first, but when he introduced himself as Abu Hafs, I knew the name. This was Mohammed Atif, aka Abu Hafs, the military leader of Al-Qaeda.
He joined me and Othman for breakfast: Naan bread, butter, jam and eggs. While we ate, he said they now had enough trained fighters to fight the “coming battle” and were in full mobility mode. In any emergency, he explained, they could evacuate their bases and move to other battle-ready locations within half an hour. After 9/11, I remembered what Abu Hafs had said and how the Tora Bora caves were prepared to shelter Al-Qaeda’s leadership and soldiers.
We resumed our journey after breakfast. I could feel the terrain change from cracked road to rigid and wild track, over which the old rust-bucket bus bounced and juddered most of the way to our destination.
After three hours we stopped at a residence renovated in the form of a fortified compound, with unscaleable boundary walls and a massive gate. This was perhaps the lion’s den. I could see a small contingent of men inside. The compound was like the fortress of an “underground world.” There were enough weapons and ammunition to bring an entire city under siege. After a thorough security inspection and body pat down, I was pointed toward one of the rooms, and men turned monsters stared back as I made my way inside.
Dressed in a white-smoke colored traditional Arabic thobe, and with a typical bright white Middle Eastern turban on his head, a commanding personality stood in the center of the room waiting to greet me along with his trusted companion — a variant of the famous Russian AK-47. This was Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, a declared terrorist with a $5 million bounty on his head even then. Next to him was Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the second most-wanted terrorist in the world, who now leads the remnants of Al-Qaeda.
As I stepped farther into the room, Bin Laden moved forward and hugged me in the customary Afghan greeting style. The others followed suit. I was being hugged by the most notorious personality on the planet, surrounded by all his men, declared by the world as “terrorists with evil plans.” The thought of a laser-guided missile striking the compound and annihilating us all at any moment loomed large in my mind.
As we sat down on a cotton mattress on the floor, Bin Laden said: “The plan has changed, I will only give reserved comments.” He said he was restrained by an understanding with the Taliban not to talk to the media. Of course, I had no idea that the twisted statements he gave me later would materialize in the catastrophic attacks on the Twin Towers, which killed over 3,000 innocent people.
Bin Laden had been openly criticized by his followers and the leadership of Al-Qaeda for backtracking on his commitments. His promise to the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, that he would refrain from media statements and meeting journalists, was broken. But his pledge not to use Afghan soil as a base for attacks on any foreign country was the most vital of Bin Laden’s broken accords with the Taliban, a deceit that cost his hosts their fiefdom and led to a war with consequences that have been unfolding since 2001.
I asked him what news he wanted to give me. He repeated that the news was about some future attacks. Abu Hafs intervened, and said: “In the coming weeks, there will be a big surprise; we are going to hit American and Israeli installations.” Chillingly, he added: “The coffin business will increase in the United States.”
I looked at Bin Laden and asked if he was serious, seeking confirmation. He smiled at me and nodded in agreement. Bin Laden had few words, but Al-Zawahiri was anxious to talk. He said they would strike the head of the snake first, meaning the US, and confirmed that the Egyptian militant group Islamic Jihad had merged with Al-Qaeda in April of that year.
Tea was served, then Bin Laden’s personal photographer was ready to snap a few shots, and to film the three of us as I sat on the right of Al-Zawahiri with Bin Laden on his left.
Bin Laden shook hands with me and said he would be inviting me again after the success of their objective. His parting words to me were: “If something big happens, I will be hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan. That’s where you can come again to interview me.” He left the room, followed by Al-Zawahiri and Abu Hafs.
By “something big,” of course, he meant the 9/11 attacks. It felt odd to hear Bin Laden say this, since a fugitive of his stature, the most wanted man in the world, would surely not disclose his whereabouts or divulge operational secrets. To me, it felt misleading. Later, Abdullah, Bin Laden’s son, wrote that his father actually planned to settle in Kunar province in northeast Afghanistan, but when US forces took control of the province he moved to Peshawar city in Pakistan, then Haripur, before settling in Abbottabad, where he was eventually found and killed.
After the meeting, I was taken back to the same house in Kandahar where I had spent the previous night. I was anxious to get back to civilization and break this news to the world.
After crossing the border to Pakistan, I sat in the departure lounge in Quetta waiting for my flight to Islamabad, deep in thought, wondering about the dilemma I faced. Should I report the truth, the news, however bad? Or would I be projecting violence and terror?
In the end, the truth won, as it should. My story was broadcast on MBC on June 23, 2001. In my concluding remarks, I said the coming days would reveal who would attack first, and how big this attack would be. As we all now know, it was huge, catastrophic and terrifying, and it shook the world, but the ripple effect brought much chaos and disaster back to where it was planned. Southeast Asia in general, and Afghanistan in particular, still yearn for peace and stability 16 years on.
In November 2001, my phone rang again. It was Othman. “The person” was ready to meet me as promised, he said. “Will you?”
Osama bin Laden’s pre-9/11 terror hints ‘the coffin business will boom’
Osama bin Laden’s pre-9/11 terror hints ‘the coffin business will boom’
Philippines cleans up after Typhoon Yinxing slams north coast
- But while nearly 30,000 people took cover in government-run facilities in the days and hours before Yinxing made landfall
But while nearly 30,000 people took cover in government-run facilities in the days and hours before Yinxing made landfall, there were no reported casualties from the typhoon, which came just two weeks after a major storm killed more than 150.
Yinxing’s 175 kilometers (109 miles) per hour winds knocked down power lines, tore trees from the ground and shattered windows as it slammed into the country’s north coast on Thursday, the national weather agency, residents and rescuers said.
Officials reported 242.6 millimeters (0.80 ft) of rain dumped in a 24-hour window.
“Many trees were uprooted. There was also soil erosion in some areas. We are lucky they were not full-blown landslides,” said Cagayan province disaster chief Rueli Rapsing, whose agency has so far reported no casualties.
In the province’s Pamplona municipality, strong winds sent roofs flying through the air and residents scrambling for shelter.
“The fierce wind that we experienced last night was the strongest I’ve ever felt and seen in this town,” 35-year-old resident Patrick Maquiraya told AFP by phone.
“The roof of the house that was being constructed in front of our home suddenly went flying.”
Maquiraya said friends who sought shelter at a gymnasium had to relocate to a nearby church after strong winds shattered the building’s glass windows.
A live video seen by AFP on Thursday showed fierce winds blowing merchandise from store shelves in Santa Ana town, where the typhoon made landfall.
As of 8 am Friday (0000 GMT), Typhoon Yinxing’s center was estimated to be northwest of Laoag city and moving out across the South China Sea, according to the state weather agency.
Rapsing, the Cagayan disaster chief, said power lines were being restored as the province shifted into cleanup mode, with police, firemen and rescuers using excavators and other equipment to clear major roads.
Yinxing is the third storm in less than a month to threaten the Philippines after Severe Tropical Storm Trami and Super Typhoon Kong-rey together left 158 people dead, the national disaster agency said, with most of that tally attributed to Trami.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.
A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
Republicans pick up more key House seats while Democrats insist they still have a path to a majority
Republicans pick up more key House seats while Democrats insist they still have a path to a majority
- Seeing their options narrow, Democrats focused on flipping a handful of seats in Arizona, California and possibly Oregon to close the gap
- Trump is consolidating power in Washington, returning to the White House a much more dominant force than in his first term
WASHINGTON: Republican leaders projected confidence Thursday that they will keep control of the US House as more races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.
The GOP picked up two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania, which became a stark battlefield of Democratic losses up and down the ticket. Democrats notched another win in New York, defeating a third Republican incumbent in that state.
Both parties in the House huddled privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washington, where a sweep of MAGA-infused GOP power is within reach for President-elect Donald Trump.
“The latest data indicates that we will also hold — and likely grow — our Republican majority in the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a letter to colleagues, seeking their support to keep the gavel.
But Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “it has yet to be decided” which party will control the House as several key races remained uncalled.
Seeing their options narrow, Democrats focused on flipping a handful of seats in Arizona, California and possibly Oregon to close the gap.
“We must count every vote,” Jeffries said.
A final tally in the House will almost certainly have to wait until next week, at the soonest, when Congress is back in session and prepares to elect its new leaders, including nominees for House speaker and the senator who will replace outgoing GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The election results were beyond what Republicans had even hoped for, including a majority in the Senate, where two races were still undecided — in Arizona between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake and in Nevada between Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown.
The Associated Press called more races Thursday. In Pennsylvania, Republican Ryan Mackenzie defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Susan Wild in the Allentown-area district, and Republican Robert Bresnahan dislodged Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in the Northeast part of the state.
Pennsylvania’s Senate race between Sen. Bob Casey and wealthy businessman Dave McCormick was decided in McCormick’s favor, giving Republicans a 53rd seat in the chamber.
Democrats made up some ground in New York, where Laura Gillen beat incumbent GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, the third flip for Democrats in Jeffries’ home state.
Attention increasingly focused on the West, where Democrats were eyeing what’s left of their path to the majority.
Democrats would need to sweep the most contested races, including two in Arizona and several in California, to win power. But tallies are expected to drag on as California, in particular, counts mail-in ballots that are arriving in the week after the election.
Republican Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told lawmakers on a private call that he’s confident the GOP will hold the House majority, according to a Republican who is familiar with the call but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details.
Trump is consolidating power in Washington, returning to the White House a much more dominant force than in his first term, when Republicans split over their support for him and some were openly skeptical of if not opposed to his rise.
This time, Johnson and Senate GOP leaders have drawn closer to Trump, relying on his power for their own as they drive a common Republican agenda more aligned with his “Make America Great Again” priorities.
Johnson, in his letter to colleagues, used a football metaphor to say he’s “ready to take the field with all of you” to play “the biggest offense of our lives.”
While Johnson is in line to remain House speaker in the new Congress, if Republicans keep control, the question of who will replace McConnell, who led his party in flipping Senate control, is its own intense contest.
The choices facing Republican senators for a new leader are between the “Johns” — No. 2 Republican Sen. John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn — and a longshot, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is favored by hard-right Senate conservatives who want Trump to weigh in on the race.
Cornyn and Thune, who both campaigned for Trump, are building support among senators in what is expected to be a close race on private ballots.
Thune has worked to mend a rocky relationship with Trump, and the two spoke as recently as Wednesday, according to another Republican familiar with the private conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss it.
The South Dakota senator had been critical of Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election for stoking claims of fraudulent voting ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Thune and Trump have been in touch throughout the year, the person said.
Thune has suggested it might be best if Trump stayed out of the leadership race.
“It’s his prerogative to weigh in on that,” Thune said on Fox News. “Frankly, I think if he lets it play out, we’ll get the right person. I’ve had conversations with him and have told him that we want to get his team in place so that he can hit the ground running and get to work on an agenda to make sure that he and our team succeeds.”
The Republicans are eyeing quick action aligned with Trump’s day-one priorities, which revolve around cutting taxes, deporting immigrants who are in the country without certain legal status, and reducing federal regulations and operations.
But after the chaos of the past two years of GOP control of the House, it’s unclear how much Republicans will be able to accomplish, especially if they have another razor-thin majority with few seats to spare for dissent, in the face of resistance from Democrats.
Famine looming in Myanmar’s Rakhine state: UN
- Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning and some 2 million people are at risk of starvation, said a new report from the UN Development Programme
UNITED NATIONS: Myanmar’s conflict-torn Rakhine state is heading toward famine, the United Nations warned on Thursday, as the country’s civil war squeezes commerce and agricultural production.
“Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning,” a new report from the UN Development Programme said, projecting “famine conditions by mid-2025” if current levels of food insecurity are left unaddressed.
Some two million people are at risk of starvation, it said.
Amid the fighting roiling the country, international and domestic trade routes leading into the already impoverished state have been closed, leaving the entrance of aid and goods severely restricted.
In addition to intense fighting, people in Rakhine are facing “absence of incomes, hyperinflation (and) significantly reduced domestic food production,” the UNDP report warned.
Myanmar has been racked by conflict between the military and various armed groups opposed to its rule since the ruling junta ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021.
Clashes have rocked western Rakhine since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November 2023, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the junta’s 2021 coup.
With the farming economy in crisis, the UNDP predicted local food production would only cover 20 percent of the state’s needs by March or April.
Internal rice production is “plummeting,” it said, due to “a lack of seeds, fertilizers (and) severe weather conditions.”
Some 97,000 tons of rice are set to be cultivated in Rakhine this year, compared to 282,000 tons last year, according to the UNDP.
A “steep rise” in internally displaced people, meanwhile, means many fields are unable to be worked.
According to UN figures, Rakhine state recorded more than 500,000 displaced people in August, compared to just under 200,000 in October 2023.
Facing particular risk are populations including members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority and displaced people.
Biden to attend South America summits, in Trump’s shadow
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will attend two key summits and visit the Amazon rainforest in South America this month, the White House said Thursday, in a trip totally overshadowed by Donald Trump’s election win.
Biden’s swansong at the G20 summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and the APEC meeting in Lima, Peru will come as world leaders are more focused on how to deal with Trump’s stunning comeback.
“He is planning to attend both conferences,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing.
The return of Trump’s “America First” agenda to the global stage threatens to upend Biden’s embrace of international alliances on issues ranging from Ukraine and the Middle East to climate change and trade.
Jean-Pierre said in a statement that Biden will travel to Lima from November 14-16 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) regional forum.
Last year he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California, although there is no word on whether a similar meeting is possible this time.
Biden will then make what the White House said was the first visit by a sitting US president to Manaus in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest to meet indigenous leaders and others working to “protect this critical ecosystem.”
Finally, Biden will attend his last G20 group of nations summit in Rio on November 18 and 19, where the subjects will include climate change, it said.
Biden has spent his four years in office trying to reshape US leadership on the world stage, after the disruption of Trump’s first term as he criticized US allies and courted dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Uncertainty now reigns about what Trump 2.0 will mean for the world.
Trump’s plans for huge tariffs could trigger a trade war with China and badly affect Canada, Mexico, Europe and other trading partners.
Trump is also mooting talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, amid speculation that he will try to push through a peace deal with Ukraine.
Putin has said he will not attend this G20 because it would “wreck” the conference.
Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed
- Trump’s agenda also would scale back federal government efforts on civil rights and expand presidential powers
- Altogether, his approach would not just crack down on illegal migration, but curtail immigration overall
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has promised sweeping action in a second administration.
The former president and now president-elect often skipped over details but through more than a year of policy pronouncements and written statements outlined a wide-ranging agenda that blends traditional conservative approaches to taxes, regulation and cultural issues with a more populist bent on trade and a shift in America’s international role.
Trump’s agenda also would scale back federal government efforts on civil rights and expand presidential powers.
A look at what Trump has proposed:
Immigration
“Build the wall!” from his 2016 campaign has become creating “the largest mass deportation program in history.” Trump has called for using the National Guard and empowering domestic police forces in the effort. Still, Trump has been scant on details of what the program would look like and how he would ensure that it targeted only people in the US illegally. He’s pitched “ideological screening” for would-be entrants, ending birth-right citizenship (which almost certainly would require a constitutional change), and said he’d reinstitute first-term policies such as “Remain in Mexico,” limiting migrants on public health grounds and severely limiting or banning entrants from certain majority-Muslim nations. Altogether, the approach would not just crack down on illegal migration, but curtail immigration overall.
Abortion
Trump played down abortion as a second-term priority, even as he took credit for the Supreme Court ending a woman’s federal right to terminate a pregnancy and returning abortion regulation to state governments. At Trump’s insistence, the GOP platform, for the first time in decades, did not call for a national ban on abortion. Trump maintains that overturning Roe v. Wade is enough on the federal level. Trump said last month on his social media platform Truth Social that he would veto a federal abortion ban if legislation reached his desk — a statement he made only after avoiding a firm position in his September debate against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
But it’s unclear if his administration would aggressively defend against legal challenges seeking to restrict access to abortion pills, including mifepristone, as the Biden administration has. Anti-abortion advocates continue to wage legal battles over the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug as well as the agency’s relaxed prescribing restrictions. Trump is also unlikely to enforce Biden’s guidance that hospitals must provide abortions for women who are in medical emergencies, even in states with bans.
Taxes
Trump’s tax policies broadly tilt toward corporations and wealthier Americans. That’s mostly due to his promise to extend his 2017 tax overhaul, with a few notable changes that include lowering the corporate income tax rate to 15 percent from the current 21 percent. That also involves rolling back Democratic President Joe Biden’s income tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and scrapping Inflation Reduction Act levies that finance energy measures intended to combat climate change.
Those policies notwithstanding, Trump has put more emphasis on new proposals aimed at working- and middle class Americans: exempting earned tips, Social Security wages and overtime wages from income taxes. It’s noteworthy, however, that his proposal on tips, depending on how Congress might write it, could give a back-door tax break to top wage earners by allowing them to reclassify some of their pay as tip income — a prospect that at its most extreme could see hedge-fund managers or top-flight attorneys taking advantage of a policy that Trump frames as being designed for restaurant servers, bartenders and other service workers.
Tariffs and trade
Trump’s posture on international trade is to distrust world markets as harmful to American interests. He proposes tariffs of 10 percent to 20 percent on foreign goods — and in some speeches has mentioned even higher percentages. He promises to reinstitute an August 2020 executive order requiring that the federal government buy “essential” medications only from US companies. He pledges to block purchases of “any vital infrastructure” in the US by Chinese buyers.
DEI, LGBTQ and civil rights
Trump has called for rolling back societal emphasis on diversity and for legal protections for LGBTQ citizens. Trump has called for ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government institutions, using federal funding as leverage.
On transgender rights, Trump promises generally to end “boys in girls’ sports,” a practice he insists, without evidence, is widespread. But his policies go well beyond standard applause lines from his rally speeches. Among other ideas, Trump would roll back the Biden administration’s policy of extending Title IX civil rights protections to transgender students, and he would ask Congress to require that only two genders can be recognized at birth.
Regulation, federal bureaucracy and presidential power
The president-elect seeks to reduce the role of federal bureaucrats and regulations across economic sectors. Trump frames all regulatory cuts as an economic magic wand. He pledges precipitous drops in US households’ utility bills by removing obstacles to fossil fuel production, including opening all federal lands for exploration — even though US energy production is already at record highs. Trump promises to unleash housing construction by cutting regulations — though most construction rules come from state and local government. He also says he would end “frivolous litigation from the environmental extremists.”
The approach would in many ways strengthen executive branch influence. That power would come more directly from the White House.
He would make it easier to fire federal workers by classifying thousands of them as being outside civil service protections. That could weaken the government’s power to enforce statutes and rules by reducing the number of employees engaging in the work and, potentially, impose a chilling effect on those who remain.
Trump also claims that presidents have exclusive power to control federal spending even after Congress has appropriated money. Trump argues that lawmakers’ budget actions “set a ceiling” on spending but not a floor — meaning the president’s constitutional duty to “faithfully execute the laws” includes discretion on whether to spend the money. This interpretation could set up a court battle with Congress.
As a candidate, he also suggested that the Federal Reserve, an independent entity that sets interest rates, should be subject to more presidential power. Though he has not offered details, any such move would represent a momentous change to how the US economic and monetary systems work.
Education
The federal Department of Education would be targeted for elimination in a second Trump administration. That does not mean that Trump wants Washington out of classrooms. He still proposes, among other maneuvers, using federal funding as leverage to pressure K-12 school systems to abolish tenure and adopt merit pay for teachers and to scrap diversity programs at all levels of education. He calls for pulling federal funding “for any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”
In higher education, Trump proposes taking over accreditation processes for colleges, a move he describes as his “secret weapon” against the “Marxist Maniacs and lunatics” he says control higher education. Trump takes aim at higher education endowments, saying he will collect “billions and billions of dollars” from schools via “taxing, fining and suing excessively large private university endowments” at schools that do not comply with his edicts. That almost certainly would end up in protracted legal fights.
As in other policy areas, Trump isn’t actually proposing limiting federal power in higher education but strengthening it. He calls for redirecting the confiscated endowment money into an online “American Academy” offering college credentials to all Americans without a tuition charges. “It will be strictly non-political, and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed— none of that’s going to be allowed,” Trump said on Nov. 1, 2023.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Trump insists he would protect Social Security and Medicare, popular programs geared toward older Americans and among the biggest pieces of the federal spending pie each year. There are questions about how his proposal not to tax tip and overtime wages might affect Social Security and Medicare. If such plans eventually involved only income taxes, the entitlement programs would not be affected. But exempting those wages from payroll taxes would reduce the funding stream for Social Security and Medicare outlays. Trump has talked little about Medicaid during this campaign, but his first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients.
Affordable Care Act and Health Care
As he has since 2015, Trump calls for repealing the Affordable Care Act and its subsidized health insurance marketplaces. But he still has not proposed a replacement: In a September debate, he insisted he had the “concepts of a plan.” In the latter stages of the campaign, Trump played up his alliance with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines and of pesticides used in US agriculture. Trump repeatedly told rally crowds that he would put Kennedy in charge of “making America healthy again.”
Climate and energy
Trump, who claims falsely that climate change is a “hoax,” blasts Biden-era spending on cleaner energy designed to reduce US reliance on fossil fuels. He proposes an energy policy – and transportation infrastructure spending – anchored to fossil fuels: roads, bridges and combustion-engine vehicles. “Drill, baby, drill!” was a regular chant at Trump rallies. Trump says he does not oppose electric vehicles but promises to end all Biden incentives to encourage EV market development. Trump also pledges to roll back Biden-era fuel efficiency standards.
Workers’ rights
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance framed their ticket as favoring America’s workers. But Trump could make it harder for workers to unionize. In discussing auto workers, Trump focused almost exclusively on Biden’s push toward electric vehicles. When he mentioned unions, it was often to lump “the union bosses and CEOs” together as complicit in “this disastrous electric car scheme.” In an Oct. 23, 2023, statement, Trump said of United Auto Workers, “I’m telling you, you shouldn’t pay those dues.”
National defense and America’s role in the world
Trump’s rhetoric and policy approach in world affairs is more isolationist diplomatically, non-interventionist militarily and protectionist economically than the US has been since World War II. But the details are more complicated. He pledges expansion of the military, promises to protect Pentagon spending from austerity efforts and proposes a new missile defense shield — an old idea from the Reagan era during the Cold War. Trump insists he can end Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, without explaining how. Trump summarizes his approach through another Reagan phrase: “peace through strength.” But he remains critical of NATO and top US military brass. “I don’t consider them leaders,” Trump said of Pentagon officials that Americans “see on television.” He repeatedly praised authoritarians like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
