Trump National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien has accused Washington’s enemies of seeking of using the explosive political situation in the US to cause harm to America and its allies.
“Our adversaries are attempting to take advantage of the current circumstances to do us harm or gain an edge on America and the free world,” O’Brien said, speaking to National Security Council staffers in a conference call last week, according to a transcript of his remarks obtained by Politico.
O’Brien did not clarify which “adversaries’ he was referring to, but reportedly indicated that opponents would “fail in their malign efforts” due to the state’s “steadfastness in implementing the president’s ‘peace through strength’” doctrine, which calls for spending hundreds of billions of dollars more on the military.
Comparing the challenges and response of NSC staff today to that of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s staff during the Battle of Britain, O’Brien praised American ideals as being “as perfect as man can formulate,” and promised that “we will get through this time in our history together, just as Americans of previous generations have overcome even greater challenges.”
O’Brien’s comments echoed remarks he made to ABC News late last month, in which he said that the US would “keep our eyes open for anyone else that wants to take advantage of this situation, whether it’s domestic or foreign,” and accused Chinese officials of openly “taking some sort of pleasure and solace in what they’re seeing here.”
“I want to tell our foreign adversaries, whether it’s Zimbabwe or China, that the difference between us and you is that that officer who killed George Floyd will be investigated, will be prosecuted, he’ll receive a fair trial…The American people are going to come together after this. We’re going to get to the bottom of the militant radicals who are attacking our police and our neighbourhoods on the street,” the national security advisor said at that time.
Zimbabwe's foreign minister took offense to those remarks, accusing O'Brien of making "false and unfounded allegations."
I have today informed the US Ambassador of Mr O'Brien's false & factually unfounded allegations which are deeply damaging to a relationship already complicated by years of prescriptive diplomacy & punitive economic sanctions. Zimbabwe is not & has never been an adversary of USA. pic.twitter.com/neEay80kZe
— SB Moyo (@MinisterSBMoyo) June 1, 2020
The US has faced over two weeks of mass protests, some of them degenerating into violence and clashes with police, since the May 25 killing of 46-year-old African American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, and authorities’ failure to immediately arrest or charge the officer responsible. The protests have led to over 11,000 arrests, and at least 22 deaths, most of them to gunshot wounds.
The protests added to boiling tensions over the coronavirus pandemic, which locked hundreds of millions of Americans in their homes for months on end, and deprived some 40 million people of jobs, killing over 100,000 people and overwhelming the US health care system.
Politicians, including some of Donald Trump’s allies, have accused the president of being insensitive to the protests over his get-tough ‘law and order’ pledge, with the nation and communities divided over whether or not to support him. On Thursday, presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden praised senior former US military officials for their criticism of Trump’s heavy handed approach to protests, and said he was “absolutely convinced” that the military would “escort him from the White House” should he refuse to relinquish power and “steal” the election in November. Neither Trump nor his subordinates have given any indication of any intent of doing such a thing, which would be an unprecedented violation of the US constitution and constitute a de facto coup d'etat.
