World Affairs Brief, April 28, 2017 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com).

THE VOICES TRUMP LISTENS TO

As more and more information leaks out about who advises Trump, it’s no longer as simple as Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner or Reince Priebus, who we’ve not heard anything from in weeks. Last month I reported that globalist neocon John McCain talks almost daily with National Security Advisor HR McMaster, and weekly with Secretary of Defense Mattis and that can’t be good. The NY Times gave a rundown of who has the ear of the president, and it should worry his supporters.

As Mr. Trump’s White House advisers jostle for position, the president has turned to another group of advisers — from family, real estate, media, finance and politics, and all outside the White House gates — many of whom he consults at least once a week.

Mr. Trump’s West Wing aides, like President Bill Clinton’s staff two decades before, say they sometimes cringe at the input from people they can’t control, with consequences they can’t predict. Knowing these advisers — who are mostly white, male and older — is a key to figuring out the words coming from Mr. Trump’s mouth and his Twitter feed.

Here, based on interviews with more than a dozen friends, top aides and advisers inside and outside the White House, are 20 of Mr. Trump’s outside touchstones.

Rupert Murdock: The two share preferences for transactional tabloid journalism and never giving in to critics. (Mr. Trump said the fallen Fox star Bill O’Reilly should not have settled sexual harassment complaints.) The president’s relationship with Mr. Murdoch is deeper and more enduring than most in his life, and the two commiserate and plot strategy in their phone calls, according to people close to both.

Murdoch, who owns Fox News, is a globalist seeking to control conservative information by making sure Fox never utters a word about conspiracy issues. Any longtime friend knows Trump is a sucker for sympathy and can play him.

Sean Hannity: Presidents always deploy surrogates to appear on television to spout their talking points, but Mr. Trump has expanded on that by developing relationships with sympathetic media figures like Mr. Hannity who also serve as advisers. Mr. Hannity, the Fox News host, defends Mr. Trump’s most controversial behavior in public, but privately, according to people close to Mr. Trump, he urges the president not to get distracted, and advises him to focus on keeping pledges like repealing the Affordable Care Act.

I think Trump would like to keep his promises, but he doesn’t have the intellectual ammunition or good advice on how to counter all the demands and machinations of Washington insiders.

Chris Ruddy: The chief executive of Newsmax Media is a longtime Mar-a-Lago member and was a Trump cheerleader among conservative media well before the website Breitbart joined the parade. He employs writers and editors who tracked Mr. Trump’s career when they were at The New York Post. He recently visited the Oval Office, and he and Mr. Trump kibitz in Florida and by phone.

Ruddy did a great job exposing the Vince Foster murder and the government cover-up, but has become a conspiracy denier of sorts (never mentions it anymore) since going mainstream with NewsMax, which I call “NewsMin.”

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