Has Trump just become the very model of a modern liberal leader?
One day we may know the full story of this remarkable transformation – and, while there are many caveats, doubts and, very likely, disappointments to follow, we should at least cherish such unexpected developments as this.
'We have to get the kids fed' is as simple and powerful an instruction as we could possibly hope to get from the leader of the free world. No moral equivocation there, no 'both sides' – and no room for delay, either.It is not a coincidence that, grudgingly and still inadequately, Israel is allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, and, as a result, lives will be saved.
Trump isn't asinine enough to pretend that there is no starvation in the Gaza Strip, and, loyal as he may be, neither is he so beholden to his friend BiBi that he is going to be taken in by the most audacious and shameful attempt at gaslighting to that effect in the history of the State of Israel.
We can maybe see what is happening here, both with Israel and with Russia, where Trump's patience with Vladimir Putin, another strong man he wished to build a partnership with, has also been exhausted.
First, there is that decision where Trump decides he wants to build that rapport with a counterpart. Usually, this is a strong guy – Putin, Netanyahu, even Kim Jong-un in the first term. Let's not forget that he has even tried to get on terms with the ayatollahs in (oil-rich) Iran, much to Israeli alarm. Starmer, unusually, is someone Trump should despise, but instead declares that he just can't stop praising and liking the guy. It surpasses human understanding.
Second, there's usually some sort of distant private deal on the side, maybe real estate or raw materials, maybe with US interests as well as family ones mixed in. Hence his partial rapprochement with Zelensky, built on rare earths. Notice also how Trump used to fantasise about building a golf course on the North Korean coast, or the bizarre plan to turn Gaza into a beach resort. When he basically told the world he had given up on Putin's sincerity, Trump could surely have wept about how Russia could be such a rich country… if only Putin had allowed Trump to get involved in the economy, he didn't quite add.
Netanyahu, who was taken by surprise by the US-administered Gaza resort idea, may not be proving as useful in this enterprise as Trump first assumed he would – but that is certainly a more confusing picture.
You may recall that in that unusually candid interview Trump recently gave to the BBC's Gary O'Donoghue, the president admitted that he trusts 'almost nobody', but that he wasn't yet 'done' with Putin. Well, now he is because, as Trump himself says, they are these nice, long, respectful conversations in which Trump listens sympathetically to Putin's case and Russia's wartime sacrifices – and then the Russians bomb a nursing home in Kyiv or something.
The truth is that Trump has at times seemed too inclined to trust people he shouldn't, and all too ready to make enemies of natural allies – Justin Trudeau in Canada, Ishiba Shigeru in Japan – but when he finally works out that he's been played along, he will act accordingly. Hence the abandonment of Putin and the distancing of Netanyahu, whose policies, which Trump indulged, have destroyed Trump's plan for a lucrative new economic zone in the Middle East from the Gulf to the Mediterranean, based on his Abraham Accords programme. There is now no chance of Saudi Arabia normalising relations with Israel, greatly to Trump's annoyance.
Last, Trump may not be the one-dimensional monster he is satirised as, though he's no one's idea of a hero. Prompted by First Lady Melania Trump, he seems to have been, at last, genuinely moved by the savagery that Putin has inflicted on Ukrainian civilians; and the same compassion about the starving children in Gaza seems to be impelling him to act with an unusual moral intensity. He can be driven by the humanitarian impulse in the same way anyone can.
Of course, we need not get carried away. The United States is boycotting the UN two-state solution conference on the future of Palestine. The plan for a Gaza beach resort is still, apparently, Trump administration policy, with the prospect that the Palestinians will be driven from their homes; reports suggest the Americans have been looking for places where refugees could be resettled, which would be near enough to a forced displacement as to be a crime against humanity.
Trump is not going to switch sides again and have America support the restoration of full Ukrainian sovereignty – and the Trump White House will continue to deny climate change, and launch trade wars as it fancies. Yet these last few days have seen some extremely welcome signs that Trump is capable of doing some good every now and again.
Trump says he's stopped wars between India and Pakistan, Rwanda and the DRC, and Cambodia and Thailand. Exaggerated or not, the United States is playing the right sort of role. If it is now pursuing ceasefires in Ukraine and Gaza, in each case a peace that passeth all understanding, we should just take the wins – even if it means Trump takes the Nobel Peace Prize.
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