“This is a dangerous thing to not have clarity on, and I don’t mean it’s dangerous in some academic, geopolitical sense; I mean it’s literally, physically dangerous for the American troops who are in Iraq right now.“If the Iraqis they’re serving alongside think that the United States has these members of our military in that country right now because it is now U.S. policy to take Iraq’s oil, that is very dangerous for American troops in that environment — like fighting ISIS wasn’t dangerous enough.”
In part of yesterday’s ABC interview, David Muir asked Trump if he’s concerned about anger from the Middle East in response to the White House’s new “extreme vetting” policies towards Muslims. “Anger?” the president responded, “There’s plenty of anger right now. How can you have more?”Asked if his administration might be exacerbating a problem, Trump added, “David, I mean, I know you’re a sophisticated guy. The world is a mess. The world is as angry as it gets. What? You think this is gonna cause a little more anger? The world is an angry place.”The phrase to remember is, “The world is as angry as it gets.” In the new American president’s mind, it’s impossible to inflame tensions in the Middle East, because the region is already at Peak Rage.New York‘s Jon Chait concluded, “Trump has gone out of his way as a candidate and as a president to depict his policies toward the Muslim world in the most hostile and imperialistic terms, and he literally cannot imagine how this could create problems. ISIS could not have dreamed up a more effective recruiter. The consequences will be horrific.”
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."