I admit to a bit of pique. A few hours ago I posted a story on Trump openly admitting that he didn’t know who gave the orders regarding freezing and unfreezing of aid to Ukraine — ergo, he didn’t give the order, and whomever did is the person(s) running the country. That story isn’t getting read a lot. Maybe the headline is too hyperbolic. But the truth of the matter is that today the sitting president of the United States was asked who gave an order regarding a war involving an ally that we are supplying aid to — and he didn’t know the answer. The so called Commander in Chief did not know who was in charge of that issue.
That I find completely amazing and mind boggling, even given how jaded we have all become these past ten years. But an alarm bell did go off somewhere and now the press is questioning the sequence of events surrounding the actual giving of orders around aid to Ukraine. My take on it, as I wrote in the article linked to above, is that it’s Dan Caine giving the orders. He’s our de facto president these days. Or, at least he is with respect to military matters, with Russell Vought and Stephen Miller being in charge of domestic (as I conjecture.) CNN has some other ideas.
As you heard, Marco Rubio didn’t know about any of this and Rubio is Trump’s interim national security advisor. I think we can safely say Pete Hegseth is out of the loop, other than to sign off because after all, there has to be some semblance of accountability in this circus in Washington that we all watch unfold every single day.
We learn that the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge Colby, took action and he did have Hegseth sign off. So we have some sketch of what took place but this is not normal protocol. Normal protocol is the national security advisor talking to both the president and the SECDEF and other parties. Then a decision is made. For Trump to not know who makes these decisions is a clear admission that normal protocol is not being followed.
Trump muddled through his first four years because it wasn’t until the last year, 2020, when COVID came up, that he faced any real challenges. He did plenty of damage to the robust economy that he inherited from Obama but he managed to obfuscate his way through on every other issue. And a complicit GOP went along with him and right-wing media made him into a hero.
This time out is different. This time out Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the economy with his tariffs mania and he’s got two hot wars on his hands, plus he’s courting a third with Iran. And there’s the tragic flood in Texas to deal with. Plus, the Supreme Court is backing his play to lay off thousands of government workers and so who knows what we will be left with as this first year concludes?
We need to get it in hand, now, exactly what protocols are being followed and which are not. We need to know who is making these decisions. Because whomever is actually making these decisions is running this country. And it is not Donald Trump. It would be really nice to know who is.
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I just figured he was lying, because he’s the one pulling the strings and doesn’t want to admit to it. Either way, it’s a hell of a mess. I am very glad the aid being turned back on.
Ladies…lift the hems of your skirts…we are going through HELL.
“.. a clear admission that normal protocol is not being followed.”
Normal protocol not being followed? In the Trump administration? Surely you jest.
In passing, may I respectfully suggest that we follow the recognized laws of English grammar and confine our use of “whomever” to the objective case, taking special care to use “whoever” for the nominative case? I regret to say that this law has been broken twice in your otherwise edifying post.
According to Politico, “the decision [to pause the weapons shipments] was driven by the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, and was made after a review of Pentagon munitions stockpiles.” Even Trump allies were blindsided, accsuing Colby of pretty much acting o his own and failing to coordinate without notifying anyone. “I think it’s all made by the DOD policy director, this Colby guy. We essentially don’t have a national security adviser,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). “I’m not even sure [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio was consulted on this one … There’s internal division in the White House.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/02/ukraine-weapons-freeze-elbridge-colby-00438156
None of this could have happened if our grate leader was actually doing his job. With Trump it seems “the buck never even gets here.”