Chris Roberts, American Renaissance, December 9, 2016

Mr. Trump’s administration is starting to come together and white advocates have much to be excited about. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Steve Bannon as chief strategist are both excellent choices. These two choices suggest that Mr. Trump is likely to control immigration and undo much of the damage of President Obama’s first attorney general, Eric Holder. Ben Carson is also likely to be usefully ineffective as head of the department of Housing and Urban Development. While many of us are disappointed that Kris Kobach was not picked to head the Department of Homeland Security, the man who was selected, General John Kelly, is no squish. Up until this week, the cabinet picks have ranged from very good to acceptable.

Then came the bad news: Andrew Puzder for Secretary of Labor. Mr. Puzder has been a longstanding advocate of amnesty for illegals, and more immigration generally. His background as a CEO of several fast-food chains ensures that his focus will be keeping wages low–something mass immigration accomplishes with ease. In August, Mr. Puzder tweeted that “Trump’s immigration plan could spell doom for the GOP.”

The selection of Mr. Puzder for Secretary of Labor is the first example of truly bad judgement on Mr. Trump’s part, and it should make us all nervous about his upcoming pick for Secretary of State–an even more important position. Making matters worse is that the three top contenders–Mitt Romney, John Bolton, and Rudy Giuliani–would all be terrible.

Mr. Romney is particularly bad. During the primaries, Mr. Romney repeatedly attacked and insulted Mr. Trump. As late as June, by which time Mr. Trump had become the presumptive nominee, Mr. Romney told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:

Look, I don’t want to see trickle-down racism. I don’t want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following. Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism and bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America. So I’m not looking for Mr. Trump to change a policy that more aligns with my own. This is not a matter of just policy, it is a matter of character and integrity.

Republicans who went out of their way to hurt Mr. Trump when he most needed their help should not be rewarded. They should be frozen out, at least until they apologize. Mr. Trump’s own campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, understands this perfectly. Much to her credit, she has publicly attacked the mere idea of picking Mr. Romney, noting, “We don’t even know if Mitt Romney voted for Donald Trump.” Mr. Trump should listen to those most responsible for helping him win the election.

And what are Mr. Romney’s qualifications for Secretary of State? In 2013 the satirical publication The Onion ran a story about then-Secretary of State John Kerry with the following headline: “Man Who Couldn’t Defeat George W. Bush Attempting to Resolve Israel-Palestine Conflict.” And, indeed, Secretary Kerry’s peace talks failed. What can we expect from a man who couldn’t defeat Barack Obama?

As for foreign policy, all three of Mr. Trump’s top three contenders are keen on more wars in the Middle East. Mr. Romney supported the invasion of Iraq and the troop surge of 2006. On the campaign trail in 2012, he was careful to avoid talking about Iraq because the war had become so unpopular, but he was all too eager to threaten war with Iran. Mr. Giuliani likewise supported the invasion of Iraq and the troop surge, and wants to expand NATO to include both Israel and Japan. NATO members must treat an attack on one member like an attack on themselves. Including Israel and Japan in NATO could force the US and all of Western Europe into wars with China, North Korea, and much of the Middle East.

John Bolton is even worse. He didn’t just support the invasion of Iraq; he helped plan it. He still claims it was a good thing. Before the invasion, he was agitating for a war with Cuba, ludicrously alleging that it had “weapons of mass destruction.” After the Iraq War, he urged that we bomb Iran. He is one of the most recklessly aggressive men to serve in any administration.

Mr. Trump stood firmly against much if not all of this neoconservative nonsense. He also noted that our NATO “allies” may not be paying their fair share, and that the alliance itself may be an out-of-date relic of the Cold War. He promised that under a Trump presidency America would always come first. In one of the Republican debates, Mr. Trump excoriated the Bush family for launching and supporting a foolish war in Iraq. Taking aim at Jeb Bush shortly before the South Carolina primary, he said:

Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. . . . [W]e spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don’t even have it. Iran has taken over Iraq with the second-largest oil reserves in the world.

One week later, in the South Carolina primary, Mr. Trump won by more than ten points. Jeb Bush placed a distant fourth and dropped out that same day, completely humiliated. Foreign policy positions are part of what made Mr. Trump popular, and hated by the elite–and all of those positions are pro-white.

The wars America has fought for the last quarter century have been catastrophes. They deepen our debt, alienate foreign countries, distract from problems at home, and send thousands of good Americans to their deaths. We should protect ourselves from Muslim terrorism by restricting immigration from Muslim countries, not by invading Middle-Eastern countries and making even more Muslims hate us. To reduce threats from terrorism, Mr. Trump needs a national registry for Muslims, not bombing runs. As even the ardent leftist Chris Hedges has noted:

[W]hat feeds the hatred toward the West has nothing to do with Donald Trump. It has to do with the one-thousand-pound iron fragmentation bombs and cruise missiles and 155 artillery shells that are being dropped all over areas that ISIS controls. That is a far more potent engine of rage than anything Trump says, and I think sometimes we forget what we’re doing and the state terror that is delivered day in and day out on Muslims in areas that have been opened up by these failed states because of our military adventurism in countries like Libya and Iraq.

The Iraq War was launched on false pretexts in violation of international law. It has resulted in nothing but death, chaos, and destruction. What is more, one of the capital crimes with which the Nuremberg defendants were charged was “waging aggressive war.” George W. Bush’s invasion and occupation of a country that posed no threat to us was a clear case of “waging aggressive war.” Its balance sheet is purely negative. And what would it have had to achieve to justify the death of even one young white man and dreams of starting a company and a family? No war in Cuba or Iran will be worth a single white life either. If our soldiers should be anywhere, it is on the Mexico border protecting us from invasion or in the streets of Milwaukee putting down riots.

Our wars in the Middle East also fuel the “migrant” crisis in Europe. Wars send millions of people fleeing for safety, and when things go bad in North Africa or the Middle East, people head for Europe. Many European nations are run by ethno-masochists happy to flood their country with non-whites, and shortly after we invaded Iraq, Iraqis became a statistically relevant part the Swedish population. The wave of “migrants” pouring into Europe today is in no small part due to the destabilization of North Africa that followed the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi–which gave such ghoulish pleasure to Hillary Clinton.

When you read hair-raising stories about freshly arrived Africans raping European women, remember that we helped start the chain of events that led to these horrors. It is not our country’s fault that so many Europeans yearn for civilizational suicide, but our actions can abet their worst impulses.

Americans should use their ingenuity and economic strength to benefit American citizens, not kill foreigners. Mr. Trump seems to understand this, and has proposed such things as revamping the space program and repairing infrastructure. A warmongering Secretary of State could set him on the wrong track.

One man currently in the running for the position is Congressman fDana Rohrabacher of California. Although Mr. Rohrabacher voted for the Iraq War, he came to regret it, and now says it was a mistake. He learned from his mistake, and has opposed President Obama’s troop surges in Afghanistan. Today Mr. Rohrabacher refuses to demonize Vladimir Putin’s Russia and urges better relations with our former rival–just as Mr. Trump does. Mr. Rohrabacher is also a fierce opponent of immigration, and in the 1990s campaigned for California’s Proposition 187, which would have ended government handouts to illegal immigrants. Though he was initially a supporter of Ted Cruz, Mr. Rohrabacher never attacked Mr. Trump publicly, and didn’t hesitate to endorse him.

Although Mr. Rohrabacher would make a good Secretary of State, he may be more valuable pushing Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda in Congress. But there is another man even more qualified and deserving than Mr. Rohrabacher–one who decades ago paved the way for Mr. Trump’s victory. That man is Patrick J. Buchanan. He strongly opposed war in Iraq and intervention in Libya. Throughout his career, he has criticized the idea that America should be “the world’s policeman.” And like Mr. Trump, Mr. Buchanan is a fierce opponent of unrestricted immigration, unfettered global trade, and the Bush family.

What is more, Mr. Buchanan has always supported Mr. Trump. Mr. Buchanan’s columns for the last eighteen months have consistently cheered on Mr. Trump and taken aim at his critics. And Mr. Buchanan understands how our soldiers can be genuinely useful. His most famous speech, at the 1992 Republican National Convention, ended with praise for the National Guardsmen who restored order to Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots:

I visited the Army compound in south LA, where an officer of the 18th Cavalry, that had come to rescue the city, introduced me to two of his troopers. They could not have been 20 years old. He told them to recount their story. They had come into LA late on the 2nd day, and they walked up a dark street, where the mob had looted and burned every building but one, a convalescent home for the aged. The mob was heading in, to ransack and loot the apartments of the terrified old men and women. When the troopers arrived, M-16s at the ready, the mob threatened and cursed, but the mob retreated. It had met the one thing that could stop it: force, rooted in justice, backed by courage. Greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friend. Here were 19-year-old boys ready to lay down their lives to stop a mob from molesting old people they did not even know. And as they took back the streets of LA, block by block, so we must take back our cities, and take back our culture, and take back our country.

And unlike the “#NeverTrumpers,” Mr. Buchanan has remained loyal to the Republican Party even when he was outside it. He endorsed his opponents after failing to win the party nomination both in 1992 and in 1996. Later he supported President Bush’s reelection even when many of his close friends and colleagues refused to do so. He even championed Mr. Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan for a running mate back in 2012. Loyalty is one of Mr. Buchanan’s standout virtues, and it is essential in a cabinet.

Mr. Buchanan is also well qualified to be Secretary of State. He has worked for three Republican presidents: as speechwriter and opposition researcher for Nixon, special assistant to Ford, and director of communications for Reagan. He served unofficially as an adviser and strategist for all three. He has also written extensively on foreign policy, not only in columns, but in books such as A Republic, Not an Empire: Reclaiming America’s Destiny and Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency.

Mr. Trump’s presidency is an unprecedented opportunity to gain much lost ground. Perhaps the worst way this opportunity could be squandered would be to bog down in foreign instead of domestic policy. The Left has already worn out every epithet it can think of for Mr. Trump. If he starts yet more dreadful wars, he will give his enemies a brand new smear-word that would actually be justified: “warmonger.” Mr. Trump needs to focus on immigration, law and order, and trade. These issues directly help the people who voted for him, and will bring yet more Americans to his side. War will do the opposite.

If the greatest fear of the Left is true and the Trump transition team secretly reads American Renaissance, listen up: Get your priorities straight, choose Pitchfork Pat, and Make America Great Again.