Mattis insists and disagrees: US Defence Secretary James Mattis, taking questions from reporters at the Pentagon in Washington last Thursday, insisted that he was just restating US President Donald Trump's views in different terms when he was talking about North Korea. “If I say six and the president says half a dozen, they're going to say I disagree with him. Let's just get over that.” He added that “if that's the story that some people want to write, then they'll find the way. They'll sort out something.” As we know, the disagreements, not just different terms, have been many in recent days, and not just about North Korea. Yet, Mattis, a retired US Marines general, told Defense News executive editor Kevin Baron that “you know, when a president of the United States asks you to do something – I don't think it's an old-fashioned school – I don't think it's old-fashioned or anything, I don't care if it's Republican or Democrat, we all have an obligation to serve. That's all there is to it, you serve.” Last week when Mattis announced his transgender policy review, some observers suggested he was disagreeing with the president by delaying Trump's order. But Mattis told reporters what he had got from the president. “He's told me what he wants in broad terms, and now he's leaving it up to me,” he said. As it was described, Trump's memo indefinitely blocks transgender people from joining the US military or Coast Guard and prohibits the defence and homeland security departments from paying for gender-reassignment medical procedures as of 23 March 2018, with room for some exceptions. The secretary of defence during his recent trip to the Middle East and Ukraine told a gathering of US service members that “you're a great example for our country right now that's got some problems – you know it and I know it.” He added that “it's got problems that we don't have in the military, and you just hold the line my fine young soldiers, sailors, airmen [and] Marines. Just hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it.” Even if what Mattis stated and insisted on mentioning is taken into consideration, it has not yet and will not end speculation in the media and among political pundits about expected disagreements in the future. The issue remains of how Trump and Mattis will handle those disagreements, and if they will always be a matter of “crisis management” or will one day reach the level of “damage control.” Let's wait and see.
What about Tillerson? Whenever US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talks, the same questions are asked again. Is this the US policy? Is this what President Trump thinks? Similar questions are raised not just in foreign capitals but also in Washington too. Last Thursday, journalists Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker wrote in the Washington Post that “on Tillerson, Trump has come to see his top diplomat's approach to world affairs as ‘totally establishment,' in the words of one Trump associate. Several people close to Trump said they would be surprised if Tillerson stays in his post past his one-year mark in January. They hinted that his departure may come far sooner, with one describing it as ‘imminent. ' ” What was seen recently on US television screens and echoed on the political scene was shocking. Tillerson said on the TV programme Fox News Sunday that the United States was committed to freedom and “equal treatment of people the world over” when posed the question by anchor Chris Wallace. “I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values,” Tillerson said. “And the president's values?” Wallace asked. “The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson said. Last week more details were also disclosed of the process of reshaping or reducing the State Department's budget and personnel. It was reported that Tillerson would end or transfer as many as three dozen special envoy positions. There will no longer be US special envoys for Afghanistan-Pakistan, climate change, the Arctic, Syria, Myanmar, Libya, Haiti, Sudan and South Sudan, though regional offices will assume those portfolios. It was reported that the Trump administration will keep envoys or at-large ambassadors for women's issues, hostages, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS and Holocaust issues. In a letter to Senator Bob Corker, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tillerson said that “I believe that the department will be able to better execute its mission by integrating certain envoys and special representative offices within the regional and functional bureaus.” With the talk of the expected exit of Tillerson, the name of Nikki Haley was mentioned as possibly the next US secretary of state, and the name of Dina Powell as the next US ambassador to United Nations. This month, September, may carry many political surprises, both good and bad.
Hillary is back: Hillary Clinton will be back again on the US political scene and in the media circus, with her latest book “What Happened” coming out on 12 September. Her book tour will kick off on 18 September in Washington DC, and includes 15 stops throughout North America before concluding on 13 December in Vancouver in British Columbia in Canada. The tour itinerary includes Toronto, Chicago and Atlanta, as well as Ann Arbor, Michigan and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, some of the areas she was criticised and accused of neglecting in her 2016 presidential election campaign. In the book's introduction Hillary writes that “in the past, for reasons I try to explain, I've often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I'm letting my guard down.” As the US TV channel Fox News has reported, a “platinum VIP ticket” to Clinton's talks in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal costs $2,375.95 (or 2,967 Canadian dollars). For those who can afford it, the ticket brings two front-row seats, a photograph with Clinton backstage and a signed copy of her book. The ticket prices for Clinton's book tour vary from one venue to another. For her talk in Florida, for example, the price ranges from $50 to $375.
