16 August 2019

The Tyrant's Tantrum

Yesterday, the prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced that two members of the American Congress would not be granted permission to visit his country this coming weekend. This came after a relentless, and utterly unprecedented, campaign by Donald Trump to block their access.

No American President in history has ever encouraged a foreign nation to refuse admission of members of Congress like this. Many condemned Trump's blatant abuse of presidential power to satisfy a personal vendetta (details here).

One is left wondering why Trump did this. Was it simply because of spite, given the two members in question have repeatedly called for his impeachment?

Or did Trump think that barring the two members of Congress would help Netanyahu, who has been struggling in his re-election bid. (Israeli voters go to the polls next month.) Does Trump think that if Netanyahu fails, that will reflect poorly on his own administration's power?

Or did Trump take this action in order to pander to American evangelical voters, who strongly support Israel because they think its strength is necessary to guarantee a faster arrival of the end times? (Like we really need that in a hurry.)

Whatever the answer, Trump's action might help Netanyahu but it will hurt America in the process (details here). There is no good reason, and many bad reasons, to encourage a foreign power to do something like this, even if it's an ally.

But that's Trump's modus operandi in a nutshell -- serving himself is a much higher priority than serving the nation. If serving the nation is even a priority at all.

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