Outside the Beltway

Meanwhile, on the Korean Peninsula…..

Republicans from around the country want Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to run for Senate in Kansas. Because they’re afraid they can’t win without him.

Jon Huntsman has resigned as Ambassador to Russia ahead of an anticipated bid to return as Utah’s Governor, a position he held 11 years ago.

President Trump’s nominee to be the next Director of National Intelligence is quite simply not qualified for the position he has been nominated to.

Kris Kobach, former Kansas Secretary of State and former head of President Trump’s “Voter Fraud” Commission, is running for Senator in Kansas.

Just over a year after the United States repudiated the JCPOA, Iran has surpassed a limit on uranium enrichment set by the JCPOA

Realistically, President Trump has very few options when it comes to dealing with Iran and its nuclear program.

Is the United States finally ready to give up on the fantasy that North Korea will surrender its nuclear weapons?

President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met at the Demilitarized Zone for what amounts to their third summit in a year. As with the previous two, there was nothing of substance accomplished.

The Pentagon has been headed by Acting Secretaries for an unprecedented period. Does it really matter?

Eight months later, the President and his Administration continue to refuse to acknowledge the truth about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

A possible way forward?

Trump and Iran.

Just days after being named the next Acting Secretary of Defense, the President is appointing Mark Esper to be full Secretary of Defense.

The planes were apparently in the air, and the ships in position, for an American attack on Iran last night. Then the order to pull back came in.

Democrats are trying to rein in President Trump. It won’t work.

Patrick Shanahan is out as nominee to be Secretary of Defense after questions were raised during his background investigation.

As we head toward a potential crisis in the Persian Gulf, the consequences of the President’s lies are coming home to roost.

Tensions are increasing in the Persian Gulf as the Iran war hawks seem to be winning the battle for the President’s support.

Expanding on events that have been going on for months, two oil tankers were attacked today near the entrance to the Persian Gulf

The State Department has barred American Embassies from flying the Pride Flag during Pride Month as has been the custom for several years.

The United States and Mexico reached a last-minute deal to avert tariffs that would have gone into effect on Monday. Whether the deal accomplishes anything substantive remains to be seen.

The Trump Administration continues to misstate what the DPRK agreed to regarding its nuclear program. That’s why talks between the two nations are stalled.

Jared Kushner’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan is still awaiting release, but it already appears to be dead on arrival.

John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban,” has been released from prison but the war in which he was captured goes merrily along.

The White House claims to want to talk to Iran but the President’s actions make clear that negotiation is the furthest thing from his mind.

President Trump’s foreign policy has largely been a failure, and there are specific reasons why.

The Trump Administration is taking an unnecessarily militaristic approach toward Iran, and that poses real dangers for the country and for the Middle East.

With the apparent failure of the coup attempt in Venezuela, what happens next?

President Trump’s obsequious effort to please Russian President Vladimir Putin continues.

Lacking any real support from the military or police, the attempted coup against Nicolas Maduro has predictably failed.

While street protests continue, the efforts to get the Venezuelan military to oust President Nicolas Maduro appear to have failed.

The ongoing apparent attempted coup in Venezuela is already leading to talk of American intervention in the event of a crackdown. That would be unwise and unjustified.

The Trump Administration’s policies toward Iran aren’t going to work, but that’s because they aren’t supposed to work.

President Trump has not surprisingly vetoed a Congressional resolution to limit American support for the Saudi war on Yemen. His defense for doing so is utterly absurd.

Trump declares he will end aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

There appear to be enough votes in the Senate to pass the resolution disapproving President Trump’s border wall “emergency,” but there’s not enough Republican support to override an expected veto.

The second summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un ended early without any kind of agreement, signalling that no real progress has been made in talks between the two countries.

President Trump and Kim Jong Un hold their second summit in Hanoi later this week, but it’s unlikely anything significant will happen.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not be running for Senate despite urging from Republicans in Washington and back in Kansas,

Two months after being named, Heather Nauert withdrew her name as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations due to a ‘Nannygate’ problem.

In a rare display of assertiveness in the foreign policy arena, the House voted yesterday to bar U.S. assistance in Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war on Yemen.

As threatened late last year, the Trump Administration has withdrawn from the Intermediate=Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. This is a mistake.

Having two presidents sounds like a terrible sitcom idea. In reality, the situation is just plain terrible.

The situation in Venezuela entered a new stage yesterday as opposition leader Juan Guaidó claimed the nation’s Presidency.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet again in February, but it’s hard to see why.

With Pat Roberts retiring, Kansas Republicans are reportedly looking at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to succeed him.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts is the second Republican to announce his retirement, but his seat should remain safely red.

President Trump has lost another one of his top advisers on the fight against ISIS.

In what clearly appears to be a rebuke of the President, Defense Secretary James Mattis is retiring as Secretary of Defense.