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CIA Veteran: Trump's Foreign Policy Team May ‘Double Down on Stupid’ in Ukraine, Middle East, China

© AP Photo / Alex BrandonPresident-elect Donald Trump speaks as he arrives for a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks as he arrives for a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.11.2024
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Days after his election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican President-elect Donald Trump began filling Cabinet positions and other key roles inside his future administration.
Donald Trump's foreign policy appointments for his incoming administration show that “he didn’t learn a thing during his first term,” Larry Johnson, retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, told Sputnik.
“He talked one thing during the campaign about ending needless wars. And yet he is staffing himself with really a lot of young people who are locked up with old ideas,” Johnson noted.
In his opinion, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, is “just an absurd joke.” Florida Сongressman Michael Waltz, tapped as Trump’s national security advisor, is also “a disaster,” Johnson argued, underscoring that he “represents everything that Donald Trump said that Donald Trump stood against.
New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, tapped to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations, “comes in with a very strident pro-Zionist point of view,” the expert remarked.
With a foreign policy team like that, Johnson said, Trump is “going to double down on stupid” when it comes to most important international areas, such as Ukraine, the Middle East, and China.
He doesn't understand that the world has changed. They still believe, foolishly, naively, that they can easily split Russia from China, that there's no natural alliance between Russia and China so that we can we can manipulate Russia into joining with us to defeat China. They just don't get it,” the ex-CIA analyst underscored.

“They believe that they can boss people around in the Middle East and control what they do. Not recognizing the fact that Saudi Arabia and Iran, who were at odds two years ago, have now reestablished diplomatic relationships, are exchanging defense ministers to visit each other's capital, and are planning joint military exercises. The Organization of Islamic Countries has made it quite clear that there should be no normalizing any relations with Israel until there is a Palestinian state and the Palestinians are secure. The Trump team doesn't get that… And they're going to probably have to get punched in the face to wake up and grasp the new reality,” said Johnson.

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