<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"> <font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3688" size="5">Despite these concerns, officials have been willing to give Trump a chance to lead the country. Over the past few months, state leaders have done everything in their power to prepare Trump for his new position.</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3421"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3689" size="5">Notably, Obama played a lead role in welcoming Trump to Washington. Just days after the election, he complimented the president-elect on his willingness to cross the ideological divide. “I don’t think he is ideological,” the outgoing president </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3422" href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/14/press-conference-president-0"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3423" color="#0066cc" size="5">said</font></a><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3690" size="5">. “I think ultimately he’s pragmatic in that way. And that can serve him well, as long as he’s got good people around him and he has a clear sense of direction.”</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3424"><font size="5">In the following weeks, Obama </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3425" href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/20/remarks-president-ylai-town-hall"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3426" color="#0066cc" size="5">also</font></a><font size="5"> </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3427" href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/20/press-conference-president-obama-lima-peru"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3428" color="#0066cc" size="5">requested</font></a><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3691" size="5"> that people around the world give Trump a chance. People should not “just assume the worst,” Obama said. It would be better to “take a wait-and-see approach,” and allow Trump the opportunity to run the country.</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3429"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3694" size="5">Politicians, Obama stressed, often make promises that they don’t keep. “My simple point is that you can’t assume that the language of campaigning matches up with the specifics of governing, legislation, regulations, and foreign policy,” Obama said. He continued: “I can’t guarantee that the president-elect won’t pursue some of the positions that he’s taken. But what I can guarantee is, is that reality will force him to adjust how he approaches many of these issues. That’s just the way this office works.”</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3430"><font size="5">Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter provided similar reassurances. “America’s interests remain the same,” he </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3431" href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1028972/remarks-by-secretary-carter-at-a-troop-event-in-aviano-italy"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3432" color="#0066cc" size="5">insisted</font></a><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3571" size="5">. “So, we still have ISIL to fight, we still have Russia — that isn’t gonna change, the world isn’t gonna — isn’t gonna change.”</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3433"><font size="5">Establishment officials have also been willing to accept the new leadership and look for silver linings in Trump’s cabinet. For instance, they were pleased that Trump chose Gen. Mattis to be the next secretary of defense. Mattis is “a friend, and I hold him in the highest regard,” Carter </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3434" href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech-View/Article/1019479/remarks-on-ensuring-continued-excellence-in-defense-at-a-time-of-strategic-tran"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3435" color="#0066cc" size="5">commented</font></a><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3777" size="5"> shortly after the nomination’s announcement.</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3436"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3696" size="5">Trump’s secretary of state pick, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, was also met with applause. The man is “superbly qualified,” former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3437" href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/nominations-hearing-011117"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3438" color="#0066cc" size="5">promised</font></a><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3802" size="5">. “He is deeply knowledgeable about the international scene and geopolitics and importantly would be an informed and independent adviser to the president.”</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3439"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3801" size="5">So far, a number of Trump’s establishment critics have found continuity in the new administration’s foreign policy. Early last month, Obama’s former advisor David Axelrod tweeted that a number of the Trump administration’s earliest moves bore striking resemblance to Obama’s policies: “Much of what @realDonaldTrump admin has done in foreign policy in the past 36 hours is Obama policy, just delivered thru clenched teeth.”</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3440"><font size="5">The</font><cite id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3441"><font size="5"> New York Times</font></cite><font size="5"> has also begun to moderate its tone. Since early February 2017, new headlines have included: “</font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3442" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/world/middleeast/iran-missile-test-trump.html"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3443" color="#0066cc" size="5">Trump Embraces Pillars of Obama’s Foreign Policy</font></a><font size="5">,” “</font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3444" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/politics/trump-foreign-policy-quickly-loses-its-sharp-edge.html"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3445" color="#0066cc" size="5">Trump Foreign Policy Quickly Loses Its Sharp Edge</font></a><font size="5">,” and “</font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3446" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/politics/national-security-foreign-policy-white-house.html"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3447" color="#0066cc" size="5">From ‘America First’ to a More Conventional View of U.S. Diplomacy</font></a><font size="5">.”</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3448"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3698" size="5">In short, the establishment, at least for now, seems confident that it can continue having its way with the world. Despite all of the post-election quaking about Trump, which was greased by the ongoing concerns about Russia, China, and ISIS, establishment officials and their supporters seem to believe that Trump is starting to understand what they mean when they say that the United States is indispensable to the world order. As always, they are speaking the words of empire, and they are determined to keep it.</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3449"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3700" size="5">“I know some people are looking at the world and saying, ‘Oh my God, the world order is coming apart,’ and this and that,” Secretary of State John Kerry </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3450" href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2017/01/267073.htm"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3451" color="#0066cc" size="5">commented</font></a><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3702" size="5"> during his final days in office. “No, it isn’t, folks. And it won’t.”</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3452" dir="ltr"><font size="5">The empire, in other words, is here to stay.</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3779" dir="ltr"><font size="5"><br></font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3726" dir="ltr"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3748" size="5"><a class="enhancr2_280d94a4-8dcb-319d-7931-0d8ba328ba6a" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489629676811_3747" href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/obama-trump-mattis-united-states-empire/">The American Empire Isn’t in Decline</a></font></div><div><br></div><div class="yahoo-link-enhancr-card ymail-preserve-class ymail-preserve-style" id="enhancr2_280d94a4-8dcb-319d-7931-0d8ba328ba6a" style="max-width:400px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" dir="ltr" contenteditable="false" data-size="medium" data-type="yenhancr" data-embed-url="" data-category="article" data-url="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/obama-trump-mattis-united-states-empire/"> <a class="yahoo-enhancr-cardlink" style="text-decoration:none !important; color: #000 !important;" href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/obama-trump-mattis-united-states-empire/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"> <table class="card-wrapper yahoo-ignore-table" style="max-width:400px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr> <td width="400"> <table width="100%" class="card yahoo-ignore-table" style="max-width:400px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="card-primary-image-cell" background="https://s.yimg.com/vv//api/res/1.2/UKHL9rT_Fr2YQiD21ajTxQ--/YXBwaWQ9bWFpbDtmaT1maWxsO2g9MjAwO3c9NDAw/https://images.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/16634794743_5c7fd88272_h.jpg.cf.jpg" valign="top" style="background:#000 url('https://s.yimg.com/vv//api/res/1.2/UKHL9rT_Fr2YQiD21ajTxQ--/YXBwaWQ9bWFpbDtmaT1maWxsO2g9MjAwO3c9NDAw/https://images.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/16634794743_5c7fd88272_h.jpg.cf.jpg') no-repeat center center;background-size:cover;height:200px;position:relative;" bgcolor="#000000"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><v:rect fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:400px;height:218px;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;"><v:fill type="frame" color="#000000" src="https://s.yimg.com/vv//api/res/1.2/UKHL9rT_Fr2YQiD21ajTxQ--/YXBwaWQ9bWFpbDtmaT1maWxsO2g9MjAwO3c9NDAw/https://images.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/16634794743_5c7fd88272_h.jpg.cf.jpg"/></v:rect><![endif]--> <table class="yahoo-ignore-table" style="width:100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" valign="top"> <tbody><tr> <td background="https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/12/overlay-tile.png" valign="top" style="background:transparent url('https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/12/overlay-tile.png') repeat left top;height:200px;" bgcolor="transparent"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><v:rect fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:400px;height:218px;position:absolute;top:-18px;left:0;"><v:fill type="pattern" color="#000000" src="https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/12/overlay-tile.png"/><v:textbox inset="0,0,20px,0"><![endif]--> <table height="185" class="yahoo-ignore-table" style="width:100%;height:185px;min-height:185px;"> <tbody><tr> <td class="card-richInfo2" style="text-align:left;text-align:left;padding:15px 0 0 15px;vertical-align:top;"> </td> <td class="card-actions" style="text-align:right;padding:15px 15px 0 0;vertical-align:top;"> <div class="card-share-container"></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!--[if gte mso 9]></v:textbox></v:rect><![endif]--> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table align="center" class="card-info yahoo-ignore-table" style="background:#fff;position:relative;z-index:2;width:95%;max-width:380px;border:1px solid #e0e4e9;border-bottom:3px solid #000000;margin-top:-40px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr> <td style="background-color:#ffffff;padding:16px 0 16px 12px;vertical-align:top;"> </td> <td style="vertical-align:middle;padding:16px 12px;width:99%;"> <h2 class="card-title" style="font-size: 16px; line-height:19px; margin:0 0 4px 0;font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;word-break:break-word;">The American Empire Isn’t in Decline</h2> <div class="card-description" style="font-size:11px;line-height:15px;color:#999;word-break:break-word;">The foreign policy establishment remains confident it can steer the US into a new age of global hegemony.</div> </td> <td style="text-align:right;padding:16px 12px 16px 0;"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </a></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>