Standing up the Second Fleet: President Trump Focuses on the Russian Challenge

There is the continuing media preoccupation with the notion that somehow the Russians are aiding President Trump in his reelection efforts. But this does not track with the reality of the Trump Administration focus on the Russian threat.

For example,  look at the national security strategic actions of President Obama and President Trump to determine which commander-in-chief empowered the United States Navy to win a naval campaign against Putin’s Russia.

When faced with a growing Russian threat, President Obama threw down his rifle and ran from the field (or ocean) of battle. President Obama’s actions in taking office were dangerous and shortsighted.  In 2011, then-commander-in-chief President Obama deactivated the United States Navy 2nd Fleet.

The 2nd Fleet was an illustrious Navy fighting force that had a lot to do with putting the brakes on a potential WWIII Nuclear Armageddon between Russia (the Soviet Union) and the United States, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  President Obama simply told the 2nd Fleet to just go away, and poof!

A great fighting fleet was no more:

“Specific fleet operations included establishing a quarantine in the Caribbean as ordered by then-President John F. Kennedy during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, rescuing Americans in Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury in October 1983, and training and certifying half the U.S. Fleet for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990–1991.

Now with elections having significant strategic consequences, thankfully, in May of 2018, Commander-in-chief President Trump stood the 2nd Fleet back up.

“With an eye on Russia, U.S. Navy re-establishing its Second Fleet”

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) -— The United States Navy is re-establishing its Second Fleet, responsible for the northern Atlantic Ocean, nearly seven years after it was disbanded as the Pentagon puts countering Russia at the heart of its military strategy.”

The danger of the Russian Navy did not materialize overnight.  Writing in the American Thinker in early 2019, I asked a simple question addressing a Russian Navy nightmare weapon coming at the United States from a Russian  sub in  the Atlantic:

“Is President Putin diabolically smart or simply a psychopath?  Perhaps he is both, because by his direct action, the world is now a much more dangerous place as the former KGB officer creates a nuclear doomsday scenario backed by real Russian naval capabilities:

Russia is said to have built a new 100-megaton underwater nuclear doomsday device, and it has threatened the US with it.

The device goes beyond traditional ideas of nuclear war fighting and poses a direct threat to the future of humanity or life on Earth.”

Nobody has ever built a weapon like this before, because there’s almost no military utility in so badly destroying the world.

Today, right now, President Putin is not keeping the possible end-of-life nuclear-armed sub force secret.  In fact, just the opposite: He is bragging about that capability and stating his intention to use it as needed.

The good news for all is that President Trump empowered the U.S. fighting Navy to stand up a fleet to take Putin and his Russian sub threat head on.

So much for the stupid, stupid blather that he is favoring Putin and Russia.

Simply stated, Putin would be nuts with his current military doctrine and threats to consider favoring President Trump’s re-election.

Unlike today’s Democrats and media reporters and editors, Vladimir Putin is not a stupid man.

For an earlier version of this article, see the following:

us_navy_shows_more_proof_trumps_not_putins_dupe.html