Summary of Peter L. Bergen's Trump and His Generals

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 On July 20, 2017, Trump went to the Pentagon to receive a briefing on America’s military commitments around the world. Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, wanted to demonstrate how overextended and overcommitted the United States was overseas. Mattis, the secretary of defense, and Tillerson, the secretary of state, wanted to promote America’s alliances.

#2 Bannon was obsessed with China and the threat they posed to the US, as well as other threats such as Iran. He wanted to build up the Quad, an alliance between the Pacific powers of Australia, India, Japan, and the US.

#3 Bannon, who was raised as a devout Catholic, believed that Judeo-Christian civilization was being attacked. He recommended that Trump be briefed on America’s global commitments, from the Pacific to NATO, and its commercial relationships, capital markets, trade deals, and weapons.

#4 On July 19, Mattis went to see Tillerson in his seventh-floor conference room at the State Department to prep him for the meeting the next day. Neither Mattis nor Tillerson was a Trump guy, and they had formed a close alliance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822518636

IRB Media

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Insights on Peter L. Bergen's Trump and His Generals

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

On July 20, 2017, Trump went to the Pentagon to receive a briefing on America’s military commitments around the world. Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, wanted to demonstrate how overextended and overcommitted the United States was overseas. Mattis, the secretary of defense, and Tillerson, the secretary of state, wanted to promote America’s alliances.

#2

Bannon was obsessed with China and the threat they posed to the US, as well as other threats such as Iran. He wanted to build up the Quad, an alliance between the Pacific powers of Australia, India, Japan, and the US.

#3

Bannon, who was raised as a devout Catholic, believed that Judeo-Christian civilization was being attacked. He recommended that Trump be briefed on America’s global commitments, from the Pacific to NATO, and its commercial relationships, capital markets, trade deals, and weapons.

#4

On July 19, Mattis went to see Tillerson in his seventh-floor conference room at the State Department to prep him for the meeting the next day. Neither Mattis nor Tillerson was a Trump guy, and they had formed a close alliance.

#5

The Club of Two, Mattis and Tillerson, slow rolled any decisions or actions taken by President Trump that they didn’t agree with. They both believed the post-World War II order was a great benefit to America.

#6

Trump believed that the United States had taken on itself a mandate to maintain world order instead of looking after the well-being of Americans. The United States had ended up solving everybody else’s problems by opening up its markets and by taking on security commitments that were well beyond its ability to pay for.

#7

In the Pentagon Tank, Trump turned on Gary Cohn, who had spent his career at institutions based on the belief that free markets and free trade inevitably led to greater American prosperity. Trump was having none of it. He railed against America's large trade deficits with