Are you ready for this? Trump is telling another *country* what to do. That takes big ones, even if they are actually fake. Trump just keeps going and going and going…. From The New Republic via Yahoo News:
Donald Trump is threatening to withhold U.S. funding for Israel—unless the nation lets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walk away from his corruption charges. In a lengthy post on Truth Social Saturday, the U.S. president lamented that the Israeli leader should have to “be forced to sit in a courtroom all day long” while the country is simultaneously attacking Iran and Palestine. “It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu. He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran,” (etc etc.)
You have GOT to be kidding me. Withdraw support from Israel? We’re damn near a pariah to the world for supporting them with all they are doing in Gaza, and *now* he wants to yank funding? That should have been done a long time ago. And then there’s *still* that TACO thing, even if it’s faded into the background. It still applies. Yes, he took us by surprise. Once. I doubt he’s going to follow through the remaining 99.9% of the time.
By March, polling within the country suggested that the vast majority of Israelis “don’t trust” Netanyahu’s government—roughly 70 percent—including his own supporters. But last week, the U.S. president got involved, apparently sympathizing with the unpopular leader by insisting that Bibi’s trial should be “CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY.” Netanyahu appeared to appreciate the sentiment, thanking Trump at the time “for your moving support for me and your tremendous support for Israel.” But other Israeli politicians didn’t take kindly to the intervention: Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Trump should not “intervene in a legal process of an independent state.”
WHAM. Independent state. No matter what he does over here, he does NOT have the right to interfere with Israel in any way, shape, or form. That doesn’t mean he won’t try. I seriously doubt the rest of Israel will listen to him, anyhow. He can bluster and bloviate and make his thumbs sore as much as he wants to. It doesn’t make him look any more powerful.
Trump’s casual disregard for the rule of law should come as no surprise considering his own history facing the court system. Trump has been sued countless times, but has grabbed the national spotlight over the last few years when he was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll, when he was convicted as a felon for falsifying records to hide hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, when he was ordered to pay out hundreds of millions for defrauding U.S. banks, and when he was charged and indicted in connection to two separate conspiracies to unroot the result of the 2020 presidential election. Those all dramatically came to a close when Trump was inaugurated on January 20.
There was one case I wish they had been able to push through before the inauguration. Oh, well. Shoulda Coulda Woulda. Too late now. Trump can try just about anything he wants to with Bibi and Israel. It’s a waste of time. SCOTUS has given him all the power he could want here at home. He needs to be satisfied (ha) with that. Thanks for sticking with me!
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Maybe he should have suggested that Israel become the 51st state (or 52nd, after he’s annexed Canada or 53rd after he’s annexed Greenland).
Then again, maybe he does have just the slightest bit of awareness at how well that would be received by our Arab “allies” especially the ones who’ve decided to help out Drumpf’s financial issues. If there’s one thing that Drumpf won’t do, it’s risk any potential money that could be flowing into his coffers.