Fear: Trump in the White House(102)
Early in 2018, the CIA concluded that North Korea did not have the capability to accurately deliver a missile into the United States mainland with a nuclear weapon on top. According to the intelligence and the information on the testing of North Korean rockets, they did not have the reentry of missiles perfected. But they were marching toward that goal. The CIA, for the moment, seemed to convince Trump that the North was not yet there.
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Afghanistan continued to frustrate Trump. Months earlier, in late September, he had hosted a reception at the United Nations annual meeting in New York. Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev and his wife posed for a picture with the Trumps. The Azerbaijan leader passed word that the Chinese were mining substantial amounts of copper from Afghanistan.
Trump was furious. Here was the United States paying billions for the war, and China was stealing copper!
Afghan president Ghani had dangled the possibility that the United States would have exclusive access to vast mineral wealth, untouched in the Afghanistan mountain ranges. His argument: There’s so much money to be made. Don’t walk away. Rare earth minerals, including lithium, a main ingredient in the latest batteries. Some exaggerated estimates held that all minerals in Afghanistan might be worth as much as several trillion dollars.
Trump wanted the minerals. “They have offered us their minerals!” he said at one meeting. “Offered us everything. Why aren’t we there taking them? You guys are sitting on your ass. The Chinese are raiding the place.”
“Sir,” said Gary Cohn, “it’s not like we just walk in there and take the minerals. They have no legal system, no land rights.” It would cost billions of dollars to build the mining infrastructure, he added.
“We need to get a company in there,” Trump said. “Put it out for bid.” This was a giant opportunity, capitalism, building and development at its best. “Why aren’t we in there taking it?”
“Who’s we?” Cohn asked.
“We should just be in there taking it,” Trump said, as if there were a national mining company to move into Afghanistan.
At a subsequent meeting in the Oval Office, Trump asked, “Why hasn’t this been done?”
“We’re running it through the NSC process,” McMaster said.
“I don’t need it done through a fucking process!” Trump yelled. “I need you guys to go in there and get this stuff. It’s free! Who wants to do this?” It was a free-for-all. Who wanted this bonanza?
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross volunteered. “I’ll take care of it, sir. I’ll do it,” he said as if it were a Commerce Department issue.
Trump approved.
Kelly didn’t say much but took McMaster, Ross and Cohn to his office.
McMaster was ripshit at Kelly for not intervening. “You just chopped my legs out from me. You knew I was running a process.” He was going by the textbook as usual, was working with the State and Defense Departments and any other departments or agencies with an interest. “You hung me out to dry in front of the president!”
There was little that appealed to Trump more than the idea of getting money from others to pay for national security commitments made by previous U.S. administrations—NATO, Afghanistan, Iraq. The only other appealing prospect was making a good deal, and he thought this was one.
The State Department assessed the mineral rights. Analysts concluded this would be a great propaganda boon to worldwide extremists: The United States is coming to rape your land and steal your wealth from the ground. They sought legal opinions in hopes of slowing it down.
On February 7, 2018, McMaster convened a small group of principals in the Situation Room to hear Commerce Secretary Ross’s report. He had talked with the acting minister of mining in Afghanistan that morning. “The Chinese are not getting anything out. They have these big concessions, as they do worldwide, and they sit on them. They’re in it for the long term. They don’t need to make immediate money off it.”
So there was nothing to worry about. Afghanistan did not have the infrastructure or transportation, the regulatory or environmental controls, he said. No private company would make an investment.
“It’s fake news,” Ross said, to mild laughter.
McMaster added that most of these minerals would be impossible to reach because a lot of them were in Taliban-controlled areas. It was a war zone, and a military perimeter defense would have to be established before mining. At best, he said, it would take 10 years if everything went right.
Ross said he would follow up to explain this to the president.
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Kelly seemed to be just trying to keep the ship from sinking. At a senior staff meeting in early 2018, he announced with pride, “I now know that I will not be the shortest-serving chief of staff. I’ve now surpassed Reince.” Priebus had served 189 days, the shortest tenure of any White House chief of staff in history.
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Early in 2018, 60 Minutes broadcast a piece on the Afghanistan War, noting that Kabul was so violent that the U.S. commander could not be safely driven to his headquarters through the city. General Nicholson flew the two miles by helicopter. He made it clear he had adopted Trump’s victory-driven approach. “This is a policy that can deliver a win,” Nicholson said.