Five-Hole Diplomacy (Bill Whittle)

https://billwhittle.com/five-hole-diplomacy/ ^ | 1/28/2025 | Bill Whittle

[rlmorel]

LINK: Bill Whittle: Five Hole Diplomacy

This is a 15 min video (The Right Angle Series) on Bill Whittle's website where each episode (up to two or three a week if things allow) involves each participant (Bill Whittle, Scott Ott, and Stephen Green) the opportunity to choose the subject of discussion, and it is a free-flowing discussion of the issue that I have found both highly entertaining and informative.

In this episode, they discuss Colombia's refusal to accept flights of illegal immigrants, and Trump's unique style of "diplomacy" which Bill Whittle has deliciously coined as "Five Hole Diplomacy".

[rlmorel]

To contrast this to the traditional government diplomatic response to issues, Stephen Green had featured a post on X by someone titled Cynical Publius which Bill Whittle chose as they lynchpin of his comparison to "traditional" State Department processes to Trump's "Five Hole Diplomacy":

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To fully understand just how remarkable today’s exchange with Colombia was, you need to understand how Washington DC has traditionally worked through these sorts of issues, and the different way it works now under Trump.

I’ll illustrate.

• Traditional Approach:
  1. Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.

  2. On Monday, the State Department convenes an interagency task force with DoD, NSC, DEA, INS, ICE, Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security.
     
     
  3. The task force meets for four days and develops a position paper.
     
     
  4. The position paper is rejected by the Secretary of State, who is unhappy that insufficient equity considerations are built into the process.
     
     
  5. The task force reconvenes a week later to redevelop three new, equity-centric courses of action and create a new position paper.
     
     
  6. The process is delayed a week because Washington DC gets three inches of snow.
     
     
  7. SecState approves the new position paper for interagency circulation, and considerable input is received from the heads of other departments so the task force must reconvene.
     
     
  8. The original three proposed responsive courses of action are scrapped in favor of a new, fourth course of action that achieves the worst aspects of the three prior courses of action but satisfies the interagency.
     
     
  9. Someone in State who disagrees leaks to the Washington Post, who writes a story about how ineffective the Presidential administration is.
     
     
  10. The White House Chief of Staff sets up a session three days later to brief the President, who approves the new fourth course of action.
      
      
  11. Over a month after the issue is first raised, the State Department Public Affairs Officer holds a press conference announcing that Colombia has agreed to try to send fewer criminals into the US and everyone declares victory.
  
  
  
• Trump Approach:
  1. Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.

  2. After a par-5 third hole where he goes one under par, Trump uses his iPhone to post on social media as to how the USA will destroy Colombia’s economy if they do not do what the USA demands.
     
     
  3. By the time Trump gets to the par-4 sixth hole, Colombia’s President has agreed to repatriate all the illegal Colombians in his own plane, which he will pay for.
     
     
  4. Trump finishes three under par and goes to the clubhouse for a Diet Coke where he posts a gangsta AI image of himself and the new FAFO Doctrine.

Winning.

See the difference? It’s called LEADERSHIP.

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Briliiantly done. I hope those of you who take the time to watch the entertaining and informative video enjoy the delivery as much as I did.

[sauropod]

Haven’t seen him in awhile.

[econjack]

This is the best explanation of why Trump is using tariffs as a policy tool, not a revenue-en. The video is almost 15 minutes long, but it is the best 15 minutes you’ll spend this week if you watch it. Trump understands economics and how to use it as an effective tool in US policy. Everyone in the US should watch this from start to finish.

[rlmorel]

Exactly. That was why I posted it.

What is most striking is, an effective executive will have a workflow in place that raises things that need an immediate escalation right to his or her level so they can act.

As “Cynical Publius” (love that moniker) shows baldly, there is indeed a workflow, but it ain’t a good one!

Past Presidents might be just fine with that workflow. But most past Presidents weren’t Chief Executives of anything until they became President.

I agree with you. This video was not only entertaining, but illuminative of how things have changed with Trump as the Chief Executive, in the modern world, with social media (for better or worse).

How could anyone view the “past process” and prefer it over “Trump’s process”? Well I know why they might...it allows for the dilution or responsibility and the evasion of consequences.

Nobody becomes responsible. And nobody is subject to consequences.

[rlmorel]

I am a huge fan of Bill Whittle.

I view Victor Davis Hanson as one of the pre-eminent Conservative intellectuals we have today, and a damn good one, but I view Bill Whittle as the top Conservative political pundit, and best and most realistic voice on our side...and there are many to choose from for us.

I do like him the best.

[sauropod]

Yep. He’s pretty good.

[aquila48]

Whoever Cynical Publius is, that post of his is utterly brilliant - it should be part of every Civics course... if they were still in existence.

[rlmorel]

Now, I don’t know if that is true or not. But given how things have functioned in our government, it doesn’t seem in the least bit outrageous.

I did like the quick “three inches of snow” process step!