Discussion: Pompeo Visits Nationalist Hungarian PM To Discuss Russia, China

TPM Article Topics
1
Pompeo Visits Nationalist Hungarian PM To Discuss Russia, China Pompeo Visits Nationalist Hungarian PM To Discuss Russia, China Back to article
2

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Hungary on the first leg of a five-nation European tour during which he will raise concerns about China and Russia’s growing influence in Central Europe.

There are obvious tactics to deal with Sino-Russian influence meddling in Europe. Pull out of NATO. Leave ambassadorships vacant. Cut foreign assistance payments to struggling Euro economies. Encourage the breakup of Euro trade alliances. Weaken Euro relationships and loyalties with trade sanctions. 

Trump has it all mapped out. WTF, don't he and Pompeo talk to each other?
5 Likes
3

I’d like to see a Hungarian and Polish delegation travel to the White House to lecture them on ‘democracy and the rule of law’.

Also, if I were a foreign leader, I wouldn’t bother taking a meeting with Pompeo - unless it’s President* Cheeseburger himself slurring Twittergrams at me on the phone at 4AM, it isn’t American policy.

2 Likes
4

“European tour during which he will raise concerns about China and Russia’s growing influence in Central Europe.”

caused in large part by the actions of 45*

but maybe he can pick up a nifty hungarian white nationalist armband as a souvenir too

3 Likes
5

Did Pompeo borrow Sebastian Gorka’s Nazi costume for this trip?

6

Ahead of his visits to Budapest and Bratislava, U.S. officials said Pompeo hoped to reverse what they called a decade of U.S. disengagement in Central Europe that created a vacuum that Russia and China have exploited.

Steely Dan saw this coming many years ago:

:musical_note:
Bratislava, would you take me by the hand
Bratislava, would you take me by the hand
Can you show me the shine of your Japan
The sparkle of your China, can you show me
:musical_note:

1 Like
7

Please do not gaslight us.

Hey, we are all concerned about China stealing the US’s Ivanka Trump business and patents, but where is the State Department with all of that?? What about China stealing all of the jobs making Trump Ties? Don’t these “bridgeheads” (a term not used since WW2, gramps) by our rivals lead to closed-press meetings where Kushner and Trump kids “pose[s] significant information security threats”? Pompeo is so focused on finding dirt on NATO that his whole job is devoted to this? On our dime? WT actual F?

Here is how the State Department policy is fixing what is the article calls “disengagement in Central Europe that created a vacuum that Russia and China have exploited” in the 5 countries Pompeo visited: By appointing 3 persons with no diplomatic qualifications and leaving Iceland short one Fox new personality (none of these names have been added to the State Dept. website, 'cause no one told IT):

  • Ambassador to Belgium:

Vacant 1.5 years (Jan. 2017 to May 2018) with appointment of Chicago businessman Ronald Gidwitz, aged 73. From Brussels Times: "Gidwitz is one of the people who organised fund-raising for Trump in the state of Illinois. His nomination has to be approved by the US Senate, which for the time being is controlled by Trump’s own sometimes fractious Republican party. Since Belgium is home to three US ambassadors – to the EU, to NATO and to the country itself – the appointment is not seen as being particularly important. Hence the delay in even coming up with a candidate."

  • Ambassador to Poland

Vacant 1.7 years (Jan. 2017 to August 2018). Appointed Fox News contributor Georgette Mosbacher in response to Poland’s desire for an un-diplomatic ambassador: “The new ambassador, in contrast to the previous one, is… personally connected to Donald Trump and is not a professional diplomat. That means there’s hope for quicker flow of information and more political rather than diplomatic contacts with the U.S.,” Ryszard Czarnecki, a PiS member of the European Parliament, told me back in June. And in September, just after the ambassador arrived in Poland, Prime Minister
Morawiecki said on Twitter he had come to know Mosbacher “as a great friend of Poland.”"

  • Ambassador to Hungary

Vacant 1.6 years (Jan. 2017 to June 2018): David Cornstien who seems to have patched things up with Rudy Giuliani since his failed 2011 candidacy for NY State Controller and a little conflict with Elliott Spitzer also in 2001 for violating consumer protection laws through a telemarketing credit card scheme. No real job between 2001 and 2006 when he became chairman of the board of the Jewelers’ Security Alliance. June 2018 =Ambassador!

  • Ambassador to Slovakia:

Adam Sterling. Qualified!

  • Ambassador to Iceland:

New $62,000,000 US embassy near completion. No ambassador.

1 Like
8

An embarrassing accident which will be corrected, I’m sure.

9

You know, I try to stay off of the grassy knoll, but the other half of the former country that at one time would have been the homeland of our First Lady, (if Russian-speaking Ivanka could have held out until 2017) ALSO got a seemingly qualified Ambassador, also RIGHT AWAY.

I do not know what this means, just that these two countries, pretty quickly, got ambassadors that can actually advance American interests.

1 Like