How does Trump think?

How does Trump think?
To better understand Trump, my SPIEGEL colleague Matthias Gebauer and I drove up the Atlantic coast in June 2016 to Rhode Island, the smallest U.S. state. The summer home of Michael Flynn, 58, is located at the edge of a town called Middleton. At one point, he was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, but then he had a falling out with Obama and was fired in 2014. During the fall of 2015, Trump invited Flynn to New York and he has since appointed him as national security adviser. Recently, the two have been discussing what might happen if there were a war between the U.S. and China. Listening to the general provides an impression of how the new America thinks.

Flynn hosted us on the wooden deck of his summer home, Atlantic breakers crashing into the cliffs along the coast. "We’ve got to examine the threats that we face in the 21st century," Flynn said. "Threats don’t just come in the face of Vladimir Putin and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi out of ISIS, they come in different looks. One of the biggest ones is the economic threat."

Flynn was relaxed that morning, wearing jeans and flip-flops. He had a reputation within the DIA for being particularly tough. He said America was at the breaking point and that everything needed to be called into question -- especially military costs. "How is that cost paid for?"

That question could be the central tenet of the new government. For Trump, everything is business - economics, education and foreign policy. During the hour and a half that we spoke with Flynn, the discussion was not about common Western values and solidarity between states. For Trump and Flynn, foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy - they don’t think about Aleppo without having Alabama in the backs of their minds. Their view of the world is comprised of a disconcerting mix of megalomania and small-mindedness. They want to build new nuclear weapons while at the same time leaving the rest of the world to fend for itself. What is certain, though, is that Alabama will take precedence over Aleppo.

Trump’s diplomacy, Flynn said, operates according to a simple principle: "You start in any negotiation as high and as hard as you can possibly start, and now you go into a conversation."

The world will have to get used to the fact that the U.S. is now led by a brutal and merciless negotiator -- a man who leaves all his options open and whose values are not entirely clear.

Flynn recently flew to Moscow, where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner. Flynn appeared to feel very comfortable. He told us on his deck in Rhode Island that you’ve got to respect Putin. "He’s a world leader," he said. "Putin will be a reliable partner for certain things for the United States."

After we said our goodbyes, he shouted out to us that Trump would enjoy a landslide victory and that they were going to take control of the country.

I must admit, the remark made me chuckle to myself.

Holger Starkn (Spiegel Online)

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