Transcript of NewsX panel discussion of Trump on inauguration day

Transcript submitted by a reader

NewsX, Rishab Gulati: 20:29
Ending birthright citizenship is talked about during the campaign and post the election. He has not mentioned it today. It might happen. We don’t know. So now let me get Gilbert Doctorow in.

Gilbert Doctorow, what is the carrot and stick that can be applied for the countries of origin of these illegal immigrants for them to take them back?

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD:
Well, you’re asking a foreign-policy question, and that, foreign policy, is my forte, but this question is particular, it’s not something that I have studied or want to comment on. I just would like to use this moment to say that there was surprisingly little in the way of foreign policy indications in this speech. Just a few hints here and there. Yes, he wants to take back the Panama Canal. And a little hint at perhaps Greenland, by mentioning that it’s an American tradition of territorial expansionism and praising McKinley and that golden age of American expansionism, which reached its peak, I suppose, under Teddy Roosevelt, who he also mentioned in passing.

21:34
But I would like to take a step back to the comments of the previous speaker on how the Americans across the board are in favor of expelling the illegal migrants and of closing the borders. Yes, Americans across the Republican board. The country is split 50-50. There’s no two ways about it — this is two countries we’re talking about. All of the values that Mr. Trump was celebrating are not shared by half the country. Expelling the foreigners, the illegal immigrants, protecting the borders, this is precisely what Biden did not do, not by accident but by intent.

And let’s be frank about it: the Democrats are globalists. Globalists believe in free movement of people. This is not an accident, it is an ideology and Mr. Trump stands against that ideology.

NewsX: 22:31
Okay, now regardless of ideology or not, now we are in it. Now let’s take an example, Mr. Doctorow, of who all has attended the inaugural ceremony, because the issue of illegal immigration, immigration, migrants is an issue wherever we are sitting in the world. It is an issue for me in politics here in this country, in India, because we have immigration coming in from our neighboring states. So, by roping in a Nigel Farage, the only British politician invited and invited to all the inaugural balls. The German Chancellor, not there; the UK Prime Minister who has been in Ukraine sending a different note just a few days ago. not there.

23:10
The recent comments of Elon, Elon will have some sort of a cabinet rank position now in government, we suspect, on what he said about Germany and other places. What is it setting the trend, even though it is not a foreign-policy-specific issue, but certainly it is an administration indicating of what they feel are their friends globally and who they’re not.

Doctorow: 23:35
It is too early to draw any conclusions or to make any projections on what the foreign policy of Mr. Trump will be. The only thing that resembled a foreign policy statement in the speech was his statement that he wants to make America still more exceptional.

Regrettably, that’s the one thing the country needs last. It is a rejection of a multipolar world. It is an assertion of American global hegemony in a different form, but it comes to the same thing as Mr. Biden’s globalism. This is the problem, and it’s a problem for you in India as well as the rest of the world. If America is going to dictate, which is what Mr. Trump is doing in his approach to the Panama Canal or in his approach to Greenland, then the whole world is going to have problems.

NewsX: 24:26
Well, I can tell you, Mr. Doctorow, that George Soros is a problem for us here in India, and Biden just gave him a US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Gosh knows why. So, you know, maybe our definition of problems is a bit different.

————

NewsX: 34:35
Now, on that note, let me now pick up another tangent because there are global affairs, and let me get Gilbert Doctorow into this. Gilbert Doctorow, you have just heard Donald Trump announce a few things. First, he calls January 20th to be declared, I am sure by supporters, as Liberation Day. He says, “I want to be remembered as a man of peace. We will build the greatest armed forces, but we will not judge ourselves by the battles we win, but the wars that we don’t fight and don’t get stuck in defending other people’s borders.” That’s pretty clear. What’s it indicating?

Doctorow: 35:12
Well, it’s not entirely clear what it’s indicating, because one of the, the problem with the American defense budget– and you’re speaking about what, 20 percent of the total US budget.

NewsX:
800 billion dollars, yes.

Doctorow:
800 billion dollars.

35:25
The problem with that is the bases around the world, all of which support the notion of America’s global policeman role. They also provide America with wars everywhere, because it puts its heavy thumb on the balance in every country where those bases are, and gets involved in local conflicts, in local struggles for power. So if you want to cut the budget, it’s very nice to speak about downsizing the bureaucracy. But that isn’t addressing the really big numbers. Five billion dollars here. These are … errors in bookkeeping.

36:09
When you look at the federal defense budget, the defense budget can be cut drastically if we stop paying for toilet paper for all those bases around the world and spend some money on developing advanced cutting-edge technologies to catch up with a country like Russia, which has done a great deal on a budget, defense budget, that was 10 times less than the United States. So there is a vast opportunity to save, and to become the– have a legacy of peace and unifier, which were also part of his address today.

NewsX: 36:43
Okay, 750 basis the Americans have. The next in line of memory serves me right is the UK, which still has a hundred plus. For reference to context, the Chinese have maybe two or three. So that puts it, power projection, in perspective [for] people watching. But okay, let’s come down. He doesn’t want to fight other people’s wars. What’s he saying? What does that tell us about Ukraine? Is that now done? Can Ukraine still expect monies to be coming in from the Americas?

Doctorow: 37:15
Very unlikely. Everything leading up to this day, the statements that he has made in the last two weeks in particular, indicate that he wants to stop the funding. There are two initiatives that I see going through the political establishment of the States right now. One is the question of continuing support. And the second is– which is made contingent on the Ukrainians taking the mobilization age down from 25 to 18. And the second issue is that they have elections. I think the way out, the off-ramp for Mr. Trump, is to insist on the elections, because the regime in Kiev will collapse. Mr. Zelensky has no chance of re-election. And that will end the American obligation to defend a country that is proving itself to be anything but a democracy.

NewsX: 38:08
Tough one. Scot Faulkner: on Ukraine.

Scot Faulkner:
What’s unfortunate with Ukraine is that no matter what Biden said, he didn’t give them the right equipment at the right time. And of course the only reason that Russia invaded Ukraine was our weakness and incompetence in getting out of Afghanistan. There are ripple effects. When you start to look at the world, you have to think of it holistically, because our enemies think of it holistically.

38:35
They’re all interconnected. North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, and all the other Islamic terrorist organizations, they’re all interconnected. We need to start pulling the threads out on one of them, and all the rest will come to heel. So I’m looking forward to Saudi Arabia and Israel coming, expanding the Abraham Accords. I’m looking at us removing all of the supports that Biden put in place for Iran and bringing them to heel.

39:06
I’m looking forward to a robust American energy policy, pulling the revenue rug out from under Russia. I think all these pieces are going to all interconnect. And Ukraine in particular, I mean, that’s obviously at the front line, but they need better equipment than they have. They’ve been doing amazing things with drones and robots and we should be looking at that for modernizing our own military.

NewsX: 39:35
They’ve changed the way all of us perceive war, drone warfare, all the experiential lessons are being learned in the Ukraine fronts as we speak, and that applies for all of us. Daniel Wagner, quick thoughts on Ukraine. I know that our time is short.

Daniel Wagner: 39:55
My view also is that the funding is very unlikely to continue. The prevailing view in Washington these days, certainly from today, seems to be that the Europeans should take care of the funding. It’s on their doorstep. And that is what the Europeans are going to have to do if they want to continue this war, because I really don’t see the support in the US Congress.