Trump’s Right

By: Larry Gordon

It’s difficult to find a president who keeps his word. Not in this country, and certainly not in this day and age. I’m not suggesting that every word that emanates from Mr. Trump is good and golden, but you get more straightforwardness here than anyplace else.

One thing you hear time and time again about Mr. Trump is that he promised us no more wars. To the soft-headed Democrats, this is clearly a war that the U.S. is conducting with Iran, with its plethora of B-1 and B-2 stealth bombers, F-22 Raptors, and air defense systems, like the Patriot and THAAD missiles that dot the skies all over the Middle East.

But what if you fight a war whose primary objective is to do away with all future wars forever? Is that called “going to war” or is that putting an end to war?

Actually, it depends on who you are and how you see things. The Trump administration’s objective is clearly to put an end to wars. Compare that to the way the Biden administration handled the Russia-Ukraine war, where the U.S. (under Biden and Blinken) pumped in $350 billion just to keep the war going and slow down a potential Russian victory over the Ukrainians. The Biden-Democrat Party objective throughout all those years was to keep the money flowing, to have their little profitable “trickle-down economy” constructed so that all parties involved (including first son Hunter Biden) could pocket a few dollars.

Biden never had a plan or an idea about how to end the war. He and his foreign policy advisors wanted to keep the bombs and bodies flying—and they accomplished just that. It was only when Donald Trump was sworn in as president that wars were finally settled. That is, if the wars could not be concluded, at least the sides could talk and negotiate and end, sometimes through intermediaries as with Iran, when Oman acted as a go-between with the Iranians and the United States.

Since that meeting, which took place last Friday with Witkoff and Kushner representing the U.S., Iran dropped several missiles on Oman, certainly an unusual way to express their appreciation for their efforts toward peace.

When the Iranian people woke up last Saturday morning, they were basically at war with the U.S. and Israel. By the following day, they were at war with nine countries. And those included Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the Emirates. Why would Iran shoot missiles and drones in the direction of these natural allies of theirs? That’s a difficult puzzle to solve. One theory is that while Iran is the head of the snake and has been funding terrorist entities like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, it is the Gulf States that for the most part would like to move in another direction.

One of the much bandied-about theories is that the Saudis were just about to announce a trade agreement and diplomatic relations with Israel prior to October 7, and it was that news that prompted and instigated the Hamas attack on that date. At the same time, it might be important to note that while the Iranians are Muslim, they are not Arabs, not one of the Semitic tribes, and at this stage, due to their vast oil wealth, remain an entity that knows how to attract a lot of trouble by prioritizing funding terror organizations over the needs of its own people.

A story that was circulating earlier this week was that Crown Prince MBS of Saudi Arabia was the one encouraging President Trump to strike Iran. The antisemitic regulars like Tucker Carlson and his new recruit, Megyn Kelly, have been promoting the idea that it was Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu who coaxed the U.S. to join them in the attack on Iran.

President Trump said on Tuesday—Purim day—that in his estimation, the opposite was true. The president said that gauging by the direction the negotiations were heading between the U.S. and Iran with the Omanis as intermediaries, he felt that an Iranian attack on U.S. bases in the Middle East was imminent and it was he who urged Netanyahu to join them.

Carlson, who is suspected to be paid by parties like Qatar (which has also been attacked by Iran), has gone mostly silent since the Iranian missiles were fired at his friends and financiers in Qatar. It was also reported that last week, Carlson was in the White House for a meeting with Mr. Trump, during which time he allegedly urged Trump not to attack Iran.

Tucker, who has turned into a horrible person, believes that his stance on “America First” should be interpreted to mean that the U.S. stays out of foreign wars. However, when a country like Iran has killed upwards of one thousand U.S. military personnel and has been behind at least two attempts on Mr. Trump’s life, that just might be sufficient reason to reinterpret the meaning of “America First.”

For Carlson, unfortunately, it’s not so much about America First as it is about Jews and Israel last. Carlson probably still believes that somehow it is Mr. Netanyahu who directs U.S. foreign policy. If Carlson was honest—which he’s far from being—he would know that no foreign leader, especially one with a population of ten million, can tell Mr. Trump and his military what to do and when. If you happened to catch the Oval Office meeting on Tuesday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, you would have heard President Trump say that it was the U.S. that coaxed Israel into joining the attack on Iran, not Tucker’s versions of events.

The good news that came out of the meeting in the White House between Trump and Carlson illustrates two important things. One is that Carlson has the ability to request and be given a meeting with the president. The other is that Trump is too smart to take Carlson’s guidance seriously. Tucker can come and state his case, but Trump and others around him like Secretary of State Marco Rubio know that Carlson is basically a lobbyist with an anti-Israel personal agenda. A person who harbors these sentiments is not one to take seriously when there’s a high-stakes international engagement like the U.S. currently has with Iran.

In fact, it has been additionally reported that Vice President Vance has an even closer relationship with Carlson, which down the road can become a problem if he has future designs on the presidency.

As U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the other day after a rather contentious interview with Carlson, 80 million Evangelical Christians do not see Israel and Jews the way Tucker Carlson does. Trump seems to have shaken him off. That is, despite repeated meetings and Carlson’s urgings to not attack Iran, Trump didn’t take his advice. You hear that, JD? 

Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.