5/20/17: The president hops a jet and flees from investigators. He lands in Saudi Arabia, where his gaudy tastes are perfectly matched by the Saud royal family.
(Who wants a $549
million yacht?)
On his first overseas trip Trump makes nice with the Saudis, purveyors of Wahhabism, a fundamentalist brand of Islam. This is the brand that inspired Osama bin Laden and can be seen reflected in the ideals of ISIS.
It goes without saying that neither Trump
nor most of the Trump base will have a clue about this topic.
 |
Trump enjoys himself in Saudi Arabia. |
___
5/21/17: In a speech in Riyadh, before dozens of
leaders from across the Muslim world, Trump wimps out, at least according to
one of his harshest critics, Candidate Trump. “This is not a battle of
different faiths, different sects or different civilizations,” he tells his
audience. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate
human life and decent people, all in the name of religion, people that want to
protect life and want to protect their religion. This is a battle between good
and evil.”
____________________
“I think Islam hates us. There’s
something, there’s something there, that, that’s tremendous hatred.”
Candidate
Trump
____________________
This is not the same as saying, as did Candidate Trump, that you saw a video of thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the Twin Towers’ fall. The rhetoric in Riyadh isn’t as stirring as riling up supporters by explaining in an interview, “I think Islam hates us. There’s something, there’s something there, that, that’s tremendous hatred…there…there’s a tremendous hatred there. We have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.”
Nor does Trump employ his “magic phrase”
in speaking to Muslim leaders. Candidate Trump, seconded by Fox News, insisted
we could never defeat ISIS unless we chanted: “radical Islamic terrorism.”
President Obama was a pansy because he wouldn’t. Now, with a chance to lay it on the Saudis, Trump chokes.
He fails to utter his favorite phrase.
You can go to the White House website and read the entire text of his speech if you don’t believe me.
For Obama haters it must have sounded
like Obama Lite, with one stark exception. Where Mr. Obama focused on human
rights and democracy in talking to Middle Eastern potentates, Trump professed
not to care. America wants “partners, not perfection,” he opined. If the
Saudis want to stone
adulterers and arrest women who walk down the street in skirts or dare drive,
or torture political
opponents, it’s of no concern to the United States.
___
5/22/17: It’s on to Israel, where Trump has to deal with the same problems that have vexed the following U.S. presidents, in order: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, Obama and now, Donald J. Trump.
“Not as difficult as people have thought.”
One might give him a pass in this regard, save for the fact he acts like he has solutions where none of his predecessors did. Trump insists son-in-law and jack-of-all-administration-trades Jared Kushner (who definitely never talked with any Russians) can bring peace to the Middle East.
The president explained in a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier in the month, “It is something that I think is frankly, maybe, not as difficult as people have thought over the years.”
(It will be nearly three years before
Team Trump can craft the “deal of the century” to bring peace to the Middle
East. Even Fox News will admit the plan is “unapologetically pro-Israel.” Abbas
will reject it within hours. See: February 1, 2020.)
___
5/23/17: Trump reveals his budget for Fiscal Year 2018 and promises everything will balance in the end. Defense spending will increase 10%. A cool $1.6 billion will go to build the Great Wall of Trump. Social Security and Medicare, the biggest drivers of federal debt, remain untouched.
Over the next decade $192 billion will be
cut from nutrition programs for children, because – hungry kids – no big deal!
___
5/24/17: The New York Times reports that U.S. intelligence agencies collected information during the 2016 campaign “revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers.”
Sources are three current and former officials familiar with the sensitive intelligence. The names of General Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort had both been mentioned. There was also “information about direct communication between Mr. Trump’s advisers and Russian officials.”
Trump and his toadies start complaining about leaks. Fox News amplifies the message. Sean Hannity insists no Russians have been seen within a thousand miles of anyone named Trump or Kushner or anyone else. “If there ever was any effort by Russians to influence me, I was unaware, and they would have failed,” Manafort insists.
(For comparison purposes, see: May 1, 2019.)
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