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Jim Sciutto

@jimsciutto

Nov 9

This election - unlike previous ones with differences at the margins - may prove to have an enormous impact not just on US foreign policy but on America’s very role in the world. Trump has repeatedly expressed he’s ready to deliver on “America First” and depart from what used to be a bipartisan worldview. 1/

2/ Trump, like in domestic politics, has demonstrated a transactional view of U.S. relations abroad - and one that often fails to differentiate based on values or shared history. He’s repeatedly communicated he sees the U.S. as no better or worse than its adversaries. From “You think we’re so innocent” to O’Reilly in 2017 to “Our allies are worse than our enemies” in the last week of the campaign.

3/ With this approach, he seems to believe he’s just as able to make an agreement beneficial to the U.S. with, say, Russia or China, as with NATO allies or allies in Asia, that is, countries who have fought alongside the U.S. and signed mutual defense treaties. Negotiation is certainly better than great power war, but his approach neglects that those adversaries see it as in their strategic interests to weaken the U.S. and the U.S.-led global order.

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Jim Sciutto

@jimsciutto

Oct 2

Breaking: In newly released brief, Special counsel Jack Smith’s team works to show how Donald Trump was directly involved in the plot to nominate fake electors – a central part of the allegations that Trump himself was working to undermine the 2020 election results. 1/

2/ For example, Smith’s team identifies one individual, whose name is redacted in filings, who worked in Trump’s White House and appears to have relayed information about the fake electors plot to Trump while the strategy was unfolding.

The person, identified only as “P9,” appears to have personally had discussions over the phone about the fake electors strategy with Trump, and had repeated text conversations with other people in the campaign about how the strategy was “crazy” or “illegal,” according to the filing.

3/ Special counsel Jack Smith’s office stressed the private and political nature of Donald Trump's actions around the 2020 election in his new court filing Wednesday.

"The executive branch," prosecutors wrote, "has no authority or function to choose the next president."

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Jim Sciutto

@jimsciutto

Aug 29

New: US Army issued a stark rebuke of Trump campaign staff over the incident on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, saying in a statement participants in the ceremony “were made aware of federal laws” regarding political activity at the cemetery, and “abruptly pushed aside” an employee of the cemetery. 1/

2/ “Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside,” the Army spokesperson said in the statement, @halbritz reports.

3/ “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve,” the statement said.

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Jim Sciutto

@jimsciutto

Mar 17

As X battles over Trump’s bloodbath comment, remember his fmr chief of staff told me he praised Hitler. Consider the character of his comments together, from those he attacks - immigrants, stutterers - to those he praises - Putin, Jan 6 rioters. 1/

timesofisrael.com/trump-admires-…

2/ The themes are fairly consistent; admiration of unfettered power, demonization of critics and those he sees as weak (Gen Kelly also detailed his disdain for wounded veterans), and predictions of carnage and chaos if he’s not in control.

3/ One concern his former advisors related to me is, in a second term, those beliefs and feelings would be magnified.

“A second term with him [Trump]— particularly when he would not be worrying about reelection— it would be fundamentally a catastrophe for us,”
Kelly told me

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Jim Sciutto

@jimsciutto

Mar 11

New: To Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán is “fantastic,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “brilliant,” North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is “an OK guy,” and, most alarmingly, he allegedly said Adolf Hitler “did some good things”, former senior advisers recalled to me. 1/

2/ It’s a worldview that would reverse decades-old US foreign policy in a second term should he win November’s presidential election, an assessment laid out in “The Return of Great Powers” which is out tomorrow. Full story: cnn.com/2024/03/11/pol…

3/ “He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” ret. Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s fmr chief of staff, said. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”

Read 11 tweets

Jim Sciutto

@jimsciutto

Mar 9

CNN Exclusive: In late 2022, the US began “preparing rigorously” for Russia potentially striking Ukraine with a tactical nuclear weapon in what would have been the first nuclear attack in war since the US dropped atomic bombs on Japan in WW2, two senior admin officials told me.1/

2/ In my new book, “The Return of Great Powers” publishing on March 12, I reveal exclusive details on the unprecedented level of contingency planning carried out as senior members of the Biden administration became increasingly alarmed by the situation.

3/ “That’s what the conflict presented us, and so we believed and I think it’s our right to prepare rigorously and do everything possible to avoid that happening,” the first senior administration official told me. Full story here: cnn.com/2024/03/09/pol…

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