Here’s your Qatar timeline so far:
June 5: Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations blockade air, sea, and land traffic into Qatar.
June 6: Donald Trump praises the blockade. “So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!”
June 8: Apparently having been told that Qatar is an ally which hosts both CENTCOM and a huge US military base, Trump offers up Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to mediate the dispute.
June 9: As directed, Tillerson steps in. He asks the Gulf nations to “de-escalate the situation” and ease the blockade against Qatar. “There are humanitarian consequences to this blockade. We are seeing shortages of food, families are being forcibly separated and children pulled out of school….The blockade is hindering US military actions in the region and the campaign against ISIS.”
One hour later: Trump escalates the conflict for no apparent reason at a press conference with the president of Romania. “The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. I’ve decided, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, our great generals, and military people, the time has come to call on Qatar to end its funding. They have to end that funding. And its extremist ideology in terms of funding.”
I dunno. Trump is playing good-cop-bad-cop? Trump was pissed off about the rumors that he didn’t realize Qatar hosted CENTCOM? Trump had no idea what Tillerson had said? Here’s the official White House spin:
A senior WH official says Trump and Tillerson are on the “same page” re: Qatar. Says they’re simply emphasizing different parts of that page
— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) June 9, 2017
LOL. Roger that.
