Axios.com political coverage: on Foreign Policy

Donald Trump: End investigations of Turkish state-owned banks

The book alleges several episodes in which the president's dealings with foreign leaders reflected an apparent single-minded desire to be re-elected. On several occasions, Bolton claims Trump expressing willingness to intervene in criminal investigations 'to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked.'

In May 2018, Bolton writes that Turkish President Erdogan handed Trump a memo claiming that the state-owned bank Halkbank, which was under investigation by the Justice Department, was innocent. 'Trump then told Erdogan he would take care of things, explaining that the Southern District prosecutors were not his people, but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people,' Bolton writes.

Bolton writes that he scheduled a meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019 to discuss Trump's alleged enthusiasm for doing favors for autocrats, and that Barr agreed that he was worried about the appearances created by Trump's behavior.

Source: Axios.com excerpts from "The Room Where It Happened" Jun 17, 2020

Donald Trump: Uighur concentration camps are the right thing to do

In an essay adapted from his book, Bolton writes: 'One highlight came when [Chinese President Xi Jinping] said he wanted to work with Trump for 6 more years, and Trump replied that people were saying that the 2-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed for him. Xi said the US had too many elections, because he didn't want to switch away from Trump, who nodded approvingly.'

'At the opening of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang,' Bolton wrote. 'According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Council's top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China.' [According to leaked Communist party documents, at least 1 million Uighur Muslims are detained in the camps.]

Source: Axios.com excerpts from "The Room Where It Happened" Jun 17, 2020

Marianne Williamson: US should return to being honest broker in Mideast

Israeli-Palestinian peace process: "I don't think the ultimate answer will be about settlements or checkpoints," Williamson told a Jewish news site. "The work of the genuine peace builders must be on the level of the heart." She added that the U.S. must return to "where it can be considered an honest broker" to play a useful role. Source: Axios.com "What you need to know about 2020" Apr 14, 2019

Tulsi Gabbard: Met with Syrian president; for "extreme vetting" of Syrians

Key criticisms of Gabbard:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meeting: In what her office called a "fact-finding" mission, Gabbard made a secret trip to Syria in Jan.2017 and met with Assad. There are questions about the Arab American organization that funded the trip. She has also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
"Extreme vetting" vote: She voted with congressional Republicans on an Obama-era bill that would place "extreme vetting" measures on Iraqi and Syrian refugees.

Source: Axios.com on 2020 Democratic primary Apr 22, 2019

The above quotations are from Axios coverage of political news. Click here for definitions & background information on Foreign Policy. Click here for other issues (main summary page). Click here for more quotes by Pete Buttigieg on Foreign Policy. Click here for more quotes by John Kasich on Foreign Policy.
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