The Psalmist advises us, “Put not your trust in princes, in sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.” (Ps. 146:3) The author was thinking of eternal salvation, but the sentiment is true for political salvation, too.
Adherence to a particular public figure can be rational. For reasons that others have expounded at length, expending the time and energy needed to become a fully informed voter is often (usually) not worth the benefit. Just as one’s financial budget doesn’t have to honed to the penny, an approximate “political budget” can be good enough. There are better uses for most people’s time than attaining expertise in all of the areas with which they ideally should be conversant before casting their votes, particularly when votes almost always come down to a choice between two candidates, each with a menu of positions on tens, if not scores, of questions.
One method of approximation is to select a political party that seems, in general, to hold principles similar to one’s own and to stick to its candidates unless some strong reason exists to choose someone else. But parties aren’t homogenous. Even the narrowest includes differing strains of opinion. When those strains clash, many party members follow a leader in whom they put their trust.
With that introduction, let us turn to Donald Trump. There’s no doubt that he is currently the most influential figure in the Republican Party. Many Republicans feel an emotional attachment to him, strengthened, it may be, by the relentless venom of his foes. (“We love him for the enemies that he has made.”) Another large segment of the party thinks that he is rather repulsive personally but on the whole pursued excellent policies as President. Between those two groups, the former President possesses a large capital of good will. But does he deserve to retain it in perpetuity?
One reason for doubt is that the Republican Party’s affection for The Donald is only thinly reciprocated. He worked very hard (whether or not that was his conscious intention) to suppress GOP turnout in the two Georgia Senate runoffs last January, thus costing Republicans control of the Senate. His attacks on the Republican governor of Arizona have devastated the latter’s approval rating and turned his reelection from a cake walk to a struggle. He conditions his support of candidates on their enthusiasm for questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election, a stance that has no appeal to anyone who isn’t already a solid Trump Republican. In short, he makes the path to victory in 2022 and beyond longer and bumpier.
Another unfortunate side of his character was highlighted this weekend, when Israeli newspapers and television reported portions of interviews that he gave to the author of a forthcoming book titled (in Hebrew) Trump’s Peace.
While he was in office, Trump gave the appearance of supporting Israel’s right to a peaceful existence more firmly than any previous U.S. President, as epitomized by his decision to move our embassy to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. It appears, however, that his pro-Israeli stance was more whim than conviction. In the interviews, he denounced former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the offense of congratulating Joe Biden after the election, then followed up by declaring that Netanyahu had never wanted Arab-Israeli peace (which would be odd for the man who signed the Abraham Accords). That Netanyahu wasn’t “loyal” to Donald Trump was enough to overturn, in Trump’s mind, the premises on which his own policy toward Israel had seemingly rested.
As centrist Israeli journalist David Horovitz summarizes, the interviews “confirm how thoroughly the former US president led from the gut, how readily he could be won over and, equally, how swiftly he could turn from ally to adversary”. America was very lucky that, during his first term, those traits pushed President Trump in the direction of sound decisions. In a second term, we may not be so fortunate.
Trump’s newfound loathing for a large segment of the Republican Party and his tendency to be led by his “gut” instead of principle could combine disastrously. He may well want to punish “disloyal” Republicans by adopting the opposite of their positions, and he will doubtless be wooed by fast-talking charlatans who will feed him half-baked reasons to repudiate in his second term what he accomplished in his first.
Donald Trump did much good as President. It’s a pity that he is on the road to casting his legacy aside.
Further reading: Paul Mirengoff, “Trump Praises Abbas, Rips Netanyahu for Congratulating Biden”
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