Today's WorldView from The Washington Post

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

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BY ISHAAN THAROOR

THE TAKEAWAY

The fallout over the resignation of Michael T. Flynn, President Trump's national security adviser, is still settling over Washington. Reporting by my colleagues on Monday night seemed to make Flynn's position in the White House untenable. They revealed that officials from the Justice Department had warned the Trump administration that Flynn had likely misled the White House regarding his conversations with the Russian ambassador — and that he was potentially vulnerable to Kremlin blackmail. After a steady drumbeat of speculation, Flynn tendered his resignation just before midnight.

With Flynn's departure, the intrigue only deepens. Many questions still need to be answered: Why did Trump, who apparently was aware of Flynn's dissembling for weeks, wait so long to force his adviser out? What did Trump himself know directly about Flynn's conversations with Russian officials? Did Flynn potentially make false claims to the FBI, who quizzed him in the first days of the administration? Could Flynn face prosecution?

Democratic politicians — and even some Republicans in Congress — are urging an investigation into the Flynn affair and the Trump camp's wider connections to Russia. After all, two other top Trump aides left their posts ahead of last year's election likely because of ties to Moscow.

Russian lawmakers conspicuously rushed to Flynn's defense on Tuesday, with some claiming his ouster was due to the Russophobia endemic to Washington.

But Flynn, a once-respected military officer turned political maverick who joined Trump early in his campaign, is guilty of acting on his own phobias. Long before his ties to Russia came under question, Flynn was known for harboring an extreme anti-Muslim worldview and for peddling Islamophobic conspiracy theories.

It's likely that Trump's fire-and-brimstone rhetoric about the war against "radical Islam," and his seeming declaration of a clash of civilizations, is in part informed by the views of Flynn and other zealots in the administration.

Flynn, Bannon and others have all, at various points, warned about a phantom Islamic takeover of the United States. In their zeal to crush jihadism, they train their attacks on Islam — a religion of more than a billion adherents — as a whole.

"Islam is not a real religion, but a political ideology masked behind a religion," Flynn claimed. He has repeatedly raged against the supposed "political correctness" of those who fear his rhetoric may alienate millions of Muslims, including American citizens.

"We’ve got to stop feeling the slightest bit guilty about calling them by name and identifying them as fanatical killers acting on behalf of a failed civilization," Flynn wrote in his book, "The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies," which was published last year.

"In the parlance of the day," observed Post book critic Carlos Lozada, "one might say Trump’s national security adviser is normalizing holy wars."

The key distinction between the outlook of the Flynns and Bannons of the world and their predecessors in earlier administrations is that the former genuinely believe radical groups like the Islamic State represent the real face of Islam. The latter generally treated jihadists as aberrations who gained power amid the dysfunction of failing states.

Yet the vague policy measures so far prescribed by Trump and Flynn to defeat the Islamic State are not that different from those practiced by the Obama administration they loathe: Namely, bombing campaigns, the cultivation of local allies and taking the battle of ideas to cyberspace.

Syrian opposition fighters said these men pictured north of Raqqa in May 2016 were members of US special operations forces. (Delil Souleiman/AFP)

What's different is the all-out embrace of a culture war, which seems at this point to be the signature political tactic of the Trump administration. You can draw a straight line from the extreme views of Flynn and others in the White House to Trump's travel ban on refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries — a move stymied in the courts in part because it reflected thinly-veiled bigotry.

That Flynn's views didn't automatically disqualify him from such a vital and strategic post in the world's most powerful government speaks volumes about the deep Islamophobia within the Trump administration. Not surprisingly, Muslim rights groups cheered Flynn's departure on Tuesday.

"We welcome Michael Flynn's resignation and hope it is followed by that of all the other anti-Muslim bigots currently formulating domestic and international policies in the White House, including Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian and Katharine Gorka," said Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in a statement."Our nation is best served by those who base their policy recommendations on facts, not fear."

• Another night, another embarrassing leak for the White House. The New York Times reported late on Tuesday that Trump campaign aides and other associates were in contact with senior Russian intelligence officials for a year before the election. The article noted there has been "no evidence" that Trump's team cooperated with Russia in hacking or attempting to work against Hillary Clinton. One of the aides, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, also said he had never "have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers."

But the article still adds to the growing pile of evidence that ties between Moscow and Trump Tower were deeper than believed — and more than Trump's camp was willing to admit.

• Some conservatives and Trump loyalists, including the scribes at far-right website Breitbart, are now directing their anger at White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who they think is launching an internal putsch against Flynn, Bannon and other ultra-nationalists in the White House.

"I think this is Pearl Harbor for the true Trump supporters, the Trump loyalists," said Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser, in an interview with the Atlantic’s Rosie Gray. “I believe Reince Priebus moved on General Flynn and I think he intends to move on Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller next. He is not serving the president well. The people he hired are loyal to the Republican National Committee, not the President of the United States.”

• Kim Jong Nam, the older half-brother of North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, was apparently killed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The details, as my colleague Anna Fifield reported, are straight out of a spy thriller: "A woman came from behind and covered his face with a cloth laced with a liquid," Police Chief Fadzil Ahmat told Bernama, the Malaysian state news agency. Kim, believed to be 45, had lived away from North Korea for more than a decade amid speculation over his estrangement from the ruling dynasty. He was said to move between homes in Beijing, Singapore and the Chinese territory of Macau.

In 2006, as a cub reporter for Time magazine in Hong Kong, I tagged along with Austin Ramzy — now at the New York Times — on a trip to Macau in search of the reclusive Kim. We didn’t find him, but we came across his house in a gated waterfront community. Its only distinguishing feature was an image of a sunflower posted on a window, bending to the rays of the sun — a sign of obeisance to Pyongyang.

• While both Republican and Democratic senators pledged to expand the investigation into Russian meddling in the American election, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) welcomed a ruling that suggested Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway had violated federal rules by plugging the clothesline of Ivanka Trump – the president’s daughter – on national television. Despite his chairmanship, Chaffetz has been notably distinterested in investigating almost any aspect of the Trump administration's business entanglements or questionable foreign links.

"Under the present circumstances, there is strong reason to believe that Ms. Conway has violated the Standards of Conduct and that disciplinary action is warranted," wrote Walter M. Shaub Jr., the director of the Office of Government Ethics, in a letter. We’ll see what sort of "disciplinary action" follows — if any. The OGE’s recommendation is nonbinding.

• Politico editor Blake Hounshell wrote a dispatch from the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai, a confab not dissimilar to the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos. Last year’s forum included a video speech from former president Barack Obama. But the Trump administration, eager to distance itself from all such conclaves of cosmopolitanism, had no presence this year.

"Using the kind of language usually applied to problems like terrorism, Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank chief appointed by Barack Obama, suggested that global institutions had a responsibility to address the anger that led to Trump," Hounshell wrote, quoting Kim's words: "It’s not enough to condemn xenophobia and populism; we need to engage with the root causes that make them fester."

He also noted "it was ironic to watch all this globalist soul-searching on display in Dubai, a city that has benefited from globalization perhaps more than any other — importing labor from all over the world and positioning itself as a symbol of openness in the closed-off Middle East, and a gateway between East and West."

Geert Wilders posing after being named politician of the year by Dutch TV show EenVandaag in 2015. (Martijn Beekman/AFP/Getty Images)

The bellwether state

If you want to understand political trends sweeping Europe, look to the Netherlands. Its students began protesting in 1966, foreshadowing young left-wing agita across the continent. It’s 1994 election brought center-left “third-way” politics into style three years before Tony Blair was elected in the U.K.

And this year, the country may once again be a bellwether for things to come. On March 15, the Dutch will go to the polls to choose their new parliament. The campaign, which begins today, pits a populist anti-Islam party against more traditional politicians; the hot-button issues are integration, refugees and what role immigrants, particularly Muslims, should play in Dutch society. It’s practically a dress rehearsal of elections to come later this year in France and Germany.

About 15 percent of Netherlands residents are from outside the E.U. A majority of voters are worried about immigrants from outside the bloc, and 57 percent disapprove of how their government is handling things. (It's no wonder that 40 percent of Dutch citizens of Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese or Antillean descent don't feel "at home" in the country.)

Right now, the candidate with the most popular platform is Geert Wilders, head of the far-right Freedom Party. Wilders wants a Brexit-style withdrawal from the E.U. and a ban on immigrants from Muslim countries. In December, he was found guilty of "insulting and inciting discrimination against Moroccans." Other candidates have also upped their anti-immigration rhetoric. In an open letter, current Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the economically conservative People's Party wrote that people should "act normal or leave."

It's still unclear how things will turn out. More than 70 percent of Dutch voters say they're undecided, and there are 14 parties to choose from. And while Wilders is leading in the polls with 20 percent, most other parties have said they won't form a coalition with him. That would likely leave him locked out of power even if his party wins a plurality.

But if the Freedom Party does come in first, populism expert Cas Mudde told the Economist, "the media will represent him and his European collaborators as 'the choice of the people'." And if that happens, it can only mean good things for France’s Marine Le Pen, Germany’s Frauke Petry and populists across Europe. — Amanda Erickson

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Feb. 12. (Gali Tibbon/AP)

The big question

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington to meet with President Trump and other U.S. officials today. Israel, as we've written, is one of the very few countries that seems likely to benefit from having Trump, a staunch ally who has embraced hard-right positions and advisers on Israel, in the White House. Already there are reports that Trump will not hold Netanyahu to the U.S.' traditional (if moribund) demand for a two-state solution. But with Trump reeling this week amid the Michael Flynn scandal, we asked William Booth, the Post's Jerusalem bureau chief: What can Trump and Netanyahu do for each other?

"The two leaders need each other right now.

"Trump has had a chaotic few weeks, to say the least. A warm and fuzzy day with Netanyahu might help him get back on track — assuming everyone sticks to the script.

"The visit will give Trump a chance to reaffirm his and America’s unbreakable alliance with Israel. Embracing Israel is a popular bipartisan position, a no-brainer. With Netanyahu by his side, Trump can also talk tough on Tehran, Israel’s nemesis. Trump doesn’t have to make good on his promise to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran, but he could rattle his sword a bit.

"Netanyahu’s agenda is Iran, Iran, Iran. He wants an understanding that Trump and the United States will hold Iran to its commitments, and the Trump administration seems happy to oblige. The Israelis are also worried what comes next in Syria, with the Russians, Iran and its proxy Hezbollah.

"Netanyahu needs a good meeting, too. He is being investigated at home by police for accepting lavish gifts and scheming to manipulate media coverage. The prime minister’s hard-right flank is pounding on him to renounce the two-state solution.

"This he will not do. Netanyahu is a status quo guy. But Trump could hand him a gift — for instance, a green light to build more homes in the large Jewish settlement blocs, in exchange for a promise to go slow in the outposts.

"Of course, Trump could also blow Netanyahu's mind by announcing that, 'for humanity's sake,' he will immediately begin to negotiate 'the ultimate deal' with the Palestinians. That would make some news."

You might call today's collection "Lost Causes." Here is advice for Angela Merkel in trying to arrest Turkey's seemingly permanent slide into autocracy, and for President Trump as he prepares to tackle both the endless conflict between Israelis and Palestinians as well as how to play the U.S.' weak hand in Ukraine. As for Russia, Julia Ioffe of The Atlantic examines what Michael Flynn's sacking may have cost the Kremlin.

Angela Merkel has become a Turkish dissident

Germany might be the only country willing to help get Turkey back to democracy.

By Asli Aydintasbas | The Washington Post • Read more »

How Trump can get Israelis and Palestinians to deal

This administration might be blunt enough and bold enough to shake up the status quo.

By Noah Feldman | Bloomberg View • Read more »

Trump should realize protecting Ukraine works in America’s interest

With his biggest American fan safely ensconced in the White House, Putin seems to have decided to return to his plans to expand Russia’s territorial outlines in the west

By Bobby Ghosh | The Hindustan Times • Read more »

What does Mike Flynn's ouster cost the Russians?

The uncertainty that Trump has brought to the United States is spilling into even the places that he hoped to do business with.

By Julia Ioffe | The Atlantic • Read more »

Single or taken, we hope you had a happy Valentine’s Day! Many Americans were able to purchase their favorite gift for the occasion on the cheap this year thanks to a cocoa boom. But when it comes to the office, your everyday candy giving and taking can get complicated, as our graphics team found. But Democrats from the House of Representatives ditched the sweets altogether this year, sending President Trump a snarky card instead.

Valentine’s chocolate gets cheaper as cocoa supply swells

Buying your sweetheart a box of Valentine’s Day chocolates could be cheaper this year thanks to booming cocoa supplies.

By Marvin G. Perez | Bloomberg • Read more »

Why few people dare eat the boss’s M&Ms and other dynamics of the office candy jar

We dish on secret office signals, your co-workers and the person who takes the last one.

By Bonnie Berkowitz | The Washington Post • Read more »

House Dems troll Trump with Valentine's Day card

"Trump's having a tough day," the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Tuesday in a tweet. "We thought a Valentine's Day card could cheer him up!"

By Rebecca Savransky | The Hill • Read more »

It seems that everyone knows about China's mind-bogglng pollution problem, but it turns out the Middle Kingdom has nothing on India. A new air-quality study released by Boston's Health Effects Institute found that air pollution in India has gotten dramatically worse since 2010 — and more people are dying there from air pollution issues than in China. That means toxic clouds like this one, which descended on New Delhi in November, are becoming the new normal in many cities. (Harish Tyagi/EPA)

Flynn departure erupts into a full-blown crisis for the Trump White House

Questions surrounding the former adviser’s contacts with Russia prompt the first major rift with restive Republicans.

By Karen DeYoung, Abby Phillip and Jenna Johnson • Read more »

Stephen Colbert’s anti-Trump experiment is starting to work

The “Late Show” host is gaining on Jimmy Fallon, who treats the president more gently.

By Callum Borchers • Read more »

Flynn’s swift downfall: From a phone call in the Dominican Republic to a forced resignation at the White House

The national security adviser’s demise was also a legacy of the forces unleashed by the 2016 election.

By Greg Miller, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima • Read more »

Flying autonomous taxis may soon fill the skies of Dubai.