Same Circus, New Monkeys

There is a reason that roller coaster rides last only a few minutes. If they continued indefinitely, passengers would be exhausted, nauseous, or both. Which brings us to the latest week or so of the second Trump presidency, a week punctuated by the man lashing out at some of the people who put him into office for having the audacity to notice things the administration would rather they ignore.

I’m not going to spend too much time on the Epstein business, but to call it a hoax is the sort of statement that deserves mockery. Was Epstein in jail over imagined crimes? Was Ghislaine Maxwell convicted of something that never happened? Just stop. When an administration makes a big deal of releasing incriminating documents about a massive pedophilia organization that seems to have doubled as a blackmail ring in service to at least one intel agency, flipping on a dime and telling people, “Nothing to see here; now, shut up and go away” does not cut it.

Until ten minutes ago, linking Epstein to the intel world was conventional wisdom. Now, it is dismissed as evidence of anti-Semitism because the Mossad is an Israeli agency. That’s not prejudice; that’s connecting the dots between Robert Maxwell and his bond with the Jewish state to the network built by Epstein and Maxwell’s daughter, Ghislaine, to the inexplicable wealth that Epstein acquired. The accusation smacks of calling George Soros’ critics Jew-haters and, over time, it mirrors how common things are cited as evidence of white supremacy by people bent on finding racism under every rock and around every corner.

Team Trump fumbled this one. Badly. This is not about Democrats or anyone else. The White House failed to own this story; therefore, the story owns the White House. Insulting supporters does not change that. It only reveals the petulant childishness that is this president’s worst trait. The administration hoped to shift the conversation from a pedophilia ring that likely involves members of both parties, major donors, and others in the rich and powerful club, to the red meat of investigating James Comey and John Brennan. Both deserve jail, but neither is likely to end up in one. Either way, a normal attention span has enough space for those two and Epstein.

On a separate front, the war that Trump was supposed to end will now intensify, and any incentive for Putin to negotiate has evaporated as the US prepares to send more missiles to Ukraine. That NATO is being used as a middleman does not change the fact that America is now even more of a co-belligerent than before. That bad move is compounded by the even worse threat of massive tariffs to nations that do business with Russia, as the president threatened with a 50-day ultimatum to end hostilities or face new sanctions. The Chinese responded to this latest bluster by allying even deeper with Moscow.

Trump can claim that Ukraine is Biden’s war all he likes, but he is starting to sound like Obama habitually blaming George W. Bush for everything. The president says this war would have never started on his watch and that may be true. He also said he would bring it to a rapid conclusion, which is not true. At this point, it’s his conflict to manage. Meanwhile, warmonger Lindsey Graham is working feverishly to say things that are even more ill-advised than Trump’s statements, posting"If Putin and others are wondering what happens on day 51, I would suggest they call the Ayatollah.”

Is this man insane? The US is not going to bomb Russia. This is not a proposal to build a new golf course, and Putin is not some random guy on the other side of the negotiating table. Say what you will about the Russian leader, but he likely sees people like Graham as more amusing than threatening. He also understands that one of the key points in The Art of the Deal is knowing when to walk away. Putin is winning; threats are not going to persuade him.

Amid all this, a new battlefront has emerged. Israel this week attacked Syria on the disingenuous pretext of protecting the nation’s Druze minority. Disingenuous because Netanyahu’s govt readily took partial credit for the ouster of the Assad regime. For whatever faults Assad has, one thing he did was protect the nation's religious minorities – Druze and Christians alike – from slaughter at the hands of Islamists. Those same people are now being killed.

Apparently, the region is not destabilized enough for Bibi’s liking. Israel is still contending with Gaza, and hostilities with Iran are almost certain to resume. The Jewish state desperately needed the current pause in fighting with Tehran to rearm. Syria shapes up as one more conflict for the US to be dragged into, as if American resources are not overextended as it is. Aid to Ukraine was stopped a couple of weeks ago over concerns about US weapons stockpiles, an issue that has since vanished almost without explanation.

This new front will raise old questions over just how much influence Jerusalem has over Washington. Israel’s effect on American politics is not a new topic. What other nation has the equivalent of an AIPAC? Perhaps I’ve missed one, but no country comes to mind. There is no similar lobbying group that American politicians and candidates are practically obliged to court. Are people supposed to ignore that?

One can support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself without having to be all-in on the current campaign to rid the immediate vicinity of all Arabs or blindly supporting whatever that nation does. Yet saying that is treated like heresy. I have experienced that personally, but this belief does not make one anti-Semitic any more than a Brit noticing the creeping Muslim influence in his country makes that person Islamophobic. Each is noticing reality. These two situations also share a common, if not ironic bond: they bring to mind the old saying that if you want to know who rules you, look at those whom you can’t criticize.

This week, Donald Trump took a page out of that playbook on criticism with a furious posting about people he called “PAST supporters,” with the all-caps to emphasize the point that dissent is not to be tolerated. Sorry, but that’s not how it works. No administration escapes criticism, though each has tried to do so. Regardless, sophomoric tirades are never a good look.

Team Trump has done some good things and still has three and a half years to go, so there is time for this foot shot to heal. A bit more analysis of the questions in play and a lot less impulsive posting and shoot-from-the-hip media briefings would go a long way toward strengthening any waning support. Whether the president is capable of that or not is another matter.