President Trump makes many threats.
Sometimes they work out, sometimes not.
And sometimes it’s just a show. Especially in an online post, like when he said Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor should be jailed for opposing his troop deployment to the Windy City.
But his persistent nature – supported by the world’s most powerful military – can be overwhelming.
TRUMP RECEIVES NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINATION FOR ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT
It’s hard to exaggerate how significant Trump’s achievement is in getting Israel and Hamas to end their brutal, two-year war.
It’s safe to say no other president could have managed this. Joe Biden certainly couldn’t. In fact, not since Jimmy Carter held the lengthy Camp David talks with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin has a president mediated peace between the Israelis and one of their Arab adversaries.
Trump himself orchestrated the Abraham Accords, aided by Jared Kushner, with the U.A.E. and Bahrain, in his first term, and later Sudan and Morocco. This gave him the experience to handle this much tougher challenge and fuel more Nobel Peace Prize speculation.
Now for some quick warnings. The president says he expects the remaining 20 hostages to be freed Monday or Tuesday, but the Hamas terrorists could raise new objections that derail the process.
Reporters asked about Phase 2, which would include the return of deceased hostages’ bodies, but the president skillfully avoided those questions.
So, hold off on the champagne for now.
EXCLUSIVE: ISRAELI AMBASSADOR SAYS GAZA WILL ONLY HAVE PEACE IF HAMAS RELEASES ALL 48 HOSTAGES AND DISARMS
Presumably, it was these concerns that led anchors and correspondents to look rather serious on air while covering the latest events. But I think there’s more to it.
Some of these journalists don’t exactly support Trump. So it’s not easy for them to praise him. They say the right things – great achievement and such – but their body language tells a different story.
Israel has been at war, or in a cold war, with its neighbors since its founding in 1948.
And more broadly, Jews and Arabs have been hostile for centuries. It’s in the Bible, the plea to Pharaoh to “let my people go.”
Now, important questions remain about who will govern Gaza, most of which is in ruins. Israel suffered a brutal massacre on Oct. 7, but it has also become increasingly isolated as over 60,000 Palestinians have died. Many Israelis and American Jews believe Bibi Netanyahu prolonged the war to protect his political career.
Trump had to pressure Bibi into accepting his peace agreement, essentially by threatening U.S. withdrawal.
Now, Hamas is essentially being asked to surrender by giving up its weapons. Trump says he will join other countries in a peace council to prevent renewed war. But these details are unclear, except that the terrorists will no longer be in charge, as they have been since Israel willingly left the Gaza Strip almost two decades ago.
GRAND JURY INDICTS NY AG LETITIA JAMES ON BANK FRAUD CHARGES IN VIRGINIA FEDERAL COURT
Just as the president was enjoying some well-deserved praise for essentially reshaping the Middle East, a new development occurred.
A grand jury indicted Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, for mortgage fraud.
This underscores the Trump presidency’s dual nature.
It seems like a minor action, and in a video, James said “we will aggressively fight these baseless charges.”
Like the recent indictment of James Comey, this indictment only happened because Trump replaced his U.S. attorney in Virginia’s eastern district with White House aide and loyalist Lindsey Halligan, who lacks prosecution experience.
Trump told his AG, Pam Bondi, in a memo that James, like Comey, was “guilty as hell.” The Wall Street Journal says the “Pam” memo was meant to be confidential.
Career prosecutors decided there wasn’t enough evidence to charge James, who filed a civil suit against candidate Trump over real estate inflation that resulted in a fine that grew to half a billion dollars – so outrageous that an appellate court dismissed it. James also won her job by promising to target Trump, calling him an “illegitimate” president.
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James has owned a home in Brooklyn for decades, and two years ago she bought a house in Norfolk, Va. with her niece.
The career prosecutors found little evidence that James was dishonest in filling out the paperwork.
The media’s focus quickly shifted from Trump the global peacemaker to Trump the crusader relentlessly pursuing revenge against his enemies.
As he was receiving global praise, Trump undermined his own story.
