3 Headed Monster of the New Trump Diplomatic Machine: Cerberus with a hand shake.

President Donald Trump greets FEMA Administrator Brock Long and Sen. Marco Rubio shortly after arriving in Ft. Meyers, Fla., Sept. 14, 2017. The event was the first stop on a visit to thank first responders and meet with victims of Hurricane Irma. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Patrick Kelley.

A basic axiom of war: protect your side. It’s not complicated. Find the enemy; engage the enemy and pacify the enemy through force until the objective is met, but at all times, protect your side. It’s so simple that 18 year-old kids understand it perfectly.

Diplomacy is vastly more complicated. It only gets more complicated when nefarious people funnel the aid intended to lift civilians up, finds its way sustaining the very people who are holding them down. Money and aid that is funneled to the same people we are contemplating sending 18 year-old kids to pacify.

That can’t keep happening. America is not in the “head space” to tolerate that kind of counterproductive theater. It’s in no mood to watch money hemorrhaging in all sorts of directions that do not benefit and, in some cases, harm the US.

The fact that the United Nations exists at all is a miracle. The US funds, secures and provides a space for nations to negotiate peaceful resolutions. It’s the noblest idea in diplomacy. This is often where diplomacy begins.

It’s where countries that are hurting or had natural disaster can turn to for help. It’s where developing countries come to seek investment. It’s where people who have been attacked can ask for protection from an aggressor, both non-state actors and sovereign states. It’s where we hope everything gets resolved without bloodshed.

In theory. On paper. In our hearts. This is how we want to see things go. But grown-folks know this is not always the case.

Different countries have different views on who they should aid or when to monitor the peace kept or bear witness to violence. Which is natural. However, what is not natural is to funnel aid through the UN programs to the enemies of America or her allies. Not adversaries, not protesters but an enemy who wants to kill you and take your nice stuff.

Anti-American sentiments, incompetence, corruption and greed make it so the aid Americans think they are giving is not going to the places and people it should actually be going. They’re not in mood to throw good money after bad and hope it goes away. This election has changed America’s instinct to be benevolent.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations:
Meet Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-R). She is someone who sees through the corruption in programs like United Nations Iterim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) who were knowingly giving the aid intended for the Lebanese victims of the war to Iranian proxy, Hezbollah.

UNIFIL found itself under Israeli fire as they were giving away not just aid, but Israeli troop movements and locations. They refused to turn their lights out one evening despite repeated requests and Israel felt the need to take out the lights. They protected their troops, the most basic goal in war, by firing on the instillation.

The UN is very critical almost to the point of obsession over how Israel chooses to protect themselves. The resolutions of condemnation and attempts to try Israeli officials in international courts have failed to sway Israel from its goal of enforcing, funny enough, a UN resolution. The resolution, 1701, is for a ceasefire that Hezbollah has been violating since 2006.

A terror group, Hamas, came over the wall Israelis had set up to protect themselves and murdered babies, raped women and killed innocent people. Truly horrific stuff. It was all filmed and put on the internet to humiliate Israel. How many people at the festival attacked on October 7th who may have voted against Benjamin Netanyahu did they kill? The irony – it doesn’t make any sense.

Expect a hardball approach from her in the UN about aid and funding. Her only actionable recourse in her position is to withhold funding from programs like UNILIF. The UN Security Counsel (UNSC), specifically Russia and China, will obstruct her but they know she holds the checkbook.

Secretary of State:
Meet Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). He has been tapped to lead the direct diplomacy as Secretary of State. Where the US tries to find resolutions to conflict and conflicts of interests sans violence directly, nation-to-nation.

He speaks for the president directly. His task is to listen to the other sides and report back to the president. He then advises the president on a strategy to move forward. The State Department coordinates with intelligence agencies to make the best decision to inform the president on how to act. He is also responsible for staffing, maintaining and securing all U.S. embassies.

He has been on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for a decade. He is vocal about China’s military buildup and has signaled that the Ford Motor Company should not be relying on China for EV tech. The crucial manufacturing that will move us into a post-carbon world should not be located in a country that grows ever more hostile and clear about their expansionism.

It’s unclear where Rubio draws the line physically with China as Taiwan seems to be in their crosshairs, but he is on record as being a hawk on Russia, Venezuela and (unapologetically) Iran.

The world should expect little patience for theater and empty words from Rubio and he’s likely to advise the president that some diplomacy just isn’t worth it. He will be the person that tells Europe to light a fire under their ass if they want to contain Putin. Removing the US from the war in Ukraine was a huge campaign promise to the president’s base that Rubio will be tasked to fulfill.

If you are hoping for something that resembles the 2015 Iran Deal in Vienna, you will be disappointed. Rubio knows that path has failed and Iran was never interested in peace. Iran knows that as well.

Typically, sanctions are the first level of discomfort applied and he can turn to the U.S. Treasury to freeze individuals’ assets, but what the U.S. has done thus far doesn’t seem to be working. It’s almost certain that Rubio will reimpose sanctions as his job is to find solutions without using force. When that fails, the world then meets the next adviser to the president.

National Security Advisor:
Meet Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL). This is not the guy you want to see involved in your nation’s diplomatic process. His advisement to the president is to secure the American homeland and her interests abroad. He may even advise the president to act preemptively at times for America’s best interests.

He has seen what it is to send those 18 year-olds to pacify an enemy. He knows the risks and he doesn’t mince words. 27 years of military service and then came up through the White House advising Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.

For neoconservatives, it’s the trifecta. They couldn’t be more thrilled with the president’s betrayal to his base by putting people in place that should scare America’s enemies. All three will be confirmed and will hit the ground running on day one.

To the American political left who will hate any appointment the president makes. Let me implore you to remember that you are needed in this process. The two factions in America are like two pistons running an engine. Think of them as brakes and gas who sometimes switch places.

You are needed to check cruelty, make sure aid is a priority and plans for peace after the fighting. A 3-front fight where two are already hot looms heavy over the horizon. Brace yourselves.