President-elect Donald Trump continued to use social media to poke at China Saturday, saying on Twitter that the U.S. should refuse to take a drone seized in international waters after the Communist country agreed to return it.”We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back. — let them keep it!” Trump said on Twitter Saturday night.
Oh. So the way to demonstrate strength towards Beijing, according to Trump, is for the United States to effectively tell these Chinese, “You stole our stuff, and to show you who’s boss, we’ve decided to let you keep it. So there.”Here’s a radical suggestion: perhaps the president-elect can sit through an intelligence briefing or two, and allow knowledgeable U.S. officials to bring him up to speed on the issue? Just a helpful tip from me to Donald Trump.Postscript: Almost exactly five years ago, Trump tweeted, “Why did @BarackObama let Iran keep our drone? Now it is going straight to the Chinese.” I guess he’s changed his mind?
Recommended
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."