French President Emmanuel Macron, seen here in Paris with President Donald J. Trump on Bastille Day last year, is left to bridge Iran and Trump now that his “friend” has walked away from the Iran nuclear deal. Courtesy U.S. Embassy/France.
So, President Donald J. Trumpet has gone and done what he said he would do, what many feared he would do, and backed out of the Iran nuclear agreement. There were sunset clauses, Iran could still produce ballistic missiles that could reach Israel, blah, blah, blah. Then, too, President Barack Obama was an architect of the deal and we all know of the obsessive psychodrama that is Trumpet’s hatred of Obama. So, the Iran nuclear agreement was nuked the moment The Donald became president.
But if it were so terrible, why not go to our allies – alias Emmanuel Macron, who’s left to pick up the pieces – and work with them to strengthen the deal, revamp it or put a new one in place? Instead, Trumpet – who may still think he’s back in New York, wheeling and dealing in the real estate world – has weakened the United States by pulling out unilaterally, which doesn’t bode well for negotiations with North Korea.
“What the president has now done is driven a wedge between us and our European allies in the guise of what he would call America first,” Sen. Tim Kaine told “The PBS NewsHour.” “What he’s really pitching is America alone.”
That’s a really insightful comment that plays into PBS’ “Civilizations” and “First Civilizations” series, which have demonstrated over and over again that it is not possible to be alone – not centuries ago when nations first explored the globe and certainly not now in the digital age. Trade, even warfare, breeds a cross-pollination of ideas and cultures, whether you want it or not. That is how the world is designed to work.
But Donnie and the Trumpettes are too afraid to see that. They’re hoping to put the genie back in the bottle, and I’m afraid we’re stuck with their reactionary ways for the foreseeable future, because the resistance has just been dealt a big blow: Trump pursuer and supposed women’s advocate Eric Schneiderman resigned yesterday as New York state attorney general amid claims that he assaulted four women. As The Times said, “Now what?”
Indeed. I don’t think that Trump will ever be impeached. But I do believe that he, like Schneiderman, will be judged.