spengler speaks!: Trump’s 'America First' vs. McCain’s 'America Last'

[dilbert firestorm]

article from 2017. spengler lays out the case against the "free trade" wing of the republican party. he says what they're tried to do against Trump was "dumb" and self-destructive.

they are trying to thwart the very basis of Trump's foreign policy.

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2017/07...last/#comments

Not the supposed protectionist Donald Trump, but the “free trade” wing of the Republican Party has taken the United States into a trade war that it can only lose. New sanctions against Russia passed by the House and Senate last week force Europe into a de facto alliance with Russia against the United States, and by extension with China as well. It is the dumbest and most self-destructive act of economic self-harm since the United States de-linked the dollar from gold on August 15, 1971, and it will have devastating consequences.

[Tiny]

I don't understand your point. Yeah, he had the right instincts in 2017, avoiding unnecessary sanctions on Russia. And John McCain's instincts towards Russia were bat shit crazy. But now Trump's all in and wants to double down on getting Russia to cozy up to Europe, "and by extension China as well." Think about tariffs on their steel and aluminum, screwing them for living up to their treaty obligations with Iran, threatening them with sanctions for the Russian gas pipeline, threatening to withdraw from NATO, etc., etc. Blaming this on the "free trade wing of the Republican Party" and letting Trump get off Scot free is beyond bizarre.