I read Joel C. Rosenberg’s article about President Donald Trump on US Election Day, “I used to be a ‘Never Trumper.’ Not anymore,” before the results were known.
It’s too late for an opinion piece like this to have an impact. Nevertheless, I feel it important for Jerusalem Post readers to know that many American Jews disagree with nearly every point that Rosenberg wrote. Specifically:
1. “Moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem.”
• Great! But... so what? What practical impact has this had? And is that impact enough to outweigh the troubles Trump has brought upon Americans?
2. “Dramatically strengthened the US-Israel alliance in myriad other ways.”
• Not everyone agrees. And yes, Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are friends, but what happens when they’re gone? Will the new administrations think it was “strong” when Trump simply handed some of Israel’s most closely guarded secrets to Russia, right there in the Oval Office?
3. “Was dramatically strengthening America’s alliance with the Arab world.”
• Saudi Arabia? They threw an amazing party in Riyadh for Trump, to appeal to his vanity. But they’d already agreed to buy weapons. And, if the “strengthening” happened because Trump turned a blind eye to state-sponsored dismemberment, that’s not worth selling our soul for; UAE/Qatar: Those relations aren’t what they were under Obama; Egypt? Are we proud to be coddling a strongman?; Bahrain? Okay, sure; The Palestinians? Jordan? Iraq? Iran? Turkey? No, no, no, no, no.
4. “Withdrew the US from the insane Iran nuclear deal.”
• Almost every Western leader felt the deal was the best one possible. Trump (and Netanyahu) stood alone on that. And now that Iran has advanced its nuclear program considerably since Trump backed out, history will prove Trump wrong.
5. “Crushed the ISIS caliphate, ending genocide against Christians and Yazidis.”
• Great! But “crushed” could be substituted with “ended.” He continued president Barack Obama’s program. At least it’s reasonable to give many other countries a share of the credit.
6. “Massively increased defense spending to rebuild the American military.”
• Not necessarily an unalloyed good. America’s military was not actually depleted, no matter how often Trump claims otherwise. Before Trump, our military spending dwarfed that of most other global powers... combined.
7. “Pushed NATO to spend more of its own money on its own defense.”
• Those agreements were enacted under previous administrations and were on track to succeed. And Trump’s continued claim that other nations were “in arrears in payments to NATO” shows that he doesn’t understand how NATO works – or perhaps he does, but doesn’t care that he lies.
8. “Gotten tough against the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, contrary to the allegations that were being made that he was ‘colluding’ with Putin and weakening US national security”
• If our definition of “getting tough” includes ignoring the Russian bounty scandal, meeting 16 times behind closed doors without revealing to even his closest advisers what he promised to Putin, proclaiming he believes Putin’s claims over those of his intelligence community, allowing Russia to assume a heavier hand in the Middle East and allowing Putin to continue to meddle in our democracy... then he has indeed “gotten tough.”
9. “Signed the biggest tax cut and tax reform bill in US history, creating millions of new jobs and powerful and sustained economic growth.”
• Almost none of that is true. It wasn’t the biggest tax cut (it was only the eighth, and it was concentrated mostly as a gift for the wealthiest). It wasn’t the biggest tax reform. The link between his tax cut and the “creating” of jobs is tenuous; and, regardless, the growth in jobs was slower than in the previous three years under Obama.
10. “Made America energy independent”
• America experienced a leap forward in energy independence due to advances in fracking technology and also a rise in renewable energies. Trump had very little to do with that.
11. “Appointed hundreds of conservative, pro-life, originalist federal judges”
• The reason he could appoint “hundreds” is that his Republican brethren let those seats sit empty year after year. Give credit to Senate Majority Leader McConnell, not to Trump. Presumably any Republican president would have made those same appointments, but they wouldn’t have had the baggage that burdens Trump.
12. “Appointed two originalist, Scalia-esque justices to the Supreme Court [and later Amy Coney Barrett]”
• Justice Neil Gorsuch was possible only because of unprecedented anti-democratic measures put in place by the Senate majority Leaders. Barrett was possible only because the Senate engaged in hypocrisy that was previously unimaginable in this country. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh was installed because the Senate consciously ignored his moral turpitude. Another black eye for the longstanding goodness of the US.
13. “Presented a creative and compassionate plan to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
• “Presented” is the key word. It was “presented” without any buy-in by one of the two key parties. His plan, of course, went nowhere. That’s not leadership, that’s failure.
14. “Brokered a historic peace treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”
• Since they weren’t at war, it’s not a “peace treaty.” “Formalization of economic alliances” is a more appropriate term. But, yes, that’s a good thing.
15. “Brokered a historic peace treaty between Israel and Bahrain [and then Sudan]”
• See above
16. “Gotten tough on China.”
• Not in the South China Sea. Not in Taiwan. Not in Africa. Not in the UN. Not on the Uighurs. Not on economics. Not on their military growth. Not on trade wars. Not on intellectual property. Not on human rights. He may have tried some of those things, but to very little beneficial effect.
17. “Built a security wall to protect America’s southern border with Mexico.”
• Under no definition has he done that. He has mended and extended a few dozen miles, but that’s a far cry from the thousands of miles he promised. And, as we know, he promised Mexico would pay for it. Instead, he got money by taking US funds from other military programs, over the express will of Congress and his military leaders. If this is a success, then we may want to examine his abject failures – and there are hundreds of them.
18. “Mobilized the biggest government and private sector mobilization since World War II to protect the American people from COVID-19, the worst pandemic in 100 years, and reopened the US economy to allow for the creation already of 10.5 million new jobs.”
• It may be the biggest mobilization, but it’s also a failure. His track record on this is arguably the worst of any major world leader’s. With 100,000 people now falling ill every day, and with almost 240,000 deaths, it’s odd to claim that he has “protected us.” Allowing his fellow Republican governors to reopen their state economies has been shown to be a mistake. And those 10.5 million jobs are a fraction of the losses.
19. “Are there some policies Trump pursues that I disagree with? Yes. Am I happy with his first debate performance? No.”
• Many experts not only “weren’t happy” with his first debate, but they deemed it among the most horrifying moments in our 200-plus year history of presidential politics. “Do some of his tweets and public comments baffle, frustrate and deeply disappointment. Absolutely.”
• Recognizing “some of” his flaws does not excuse us from overlooking them when we step to the ballot box.
20. “Still, I am deeply grateful that Trump and his team stand strongly against socialism (no he hasn’t), against abortion on demand (the majority of Americans are against Trump on abortion rights; he may be able to get his way, but minority rule isn’t necessarily good for the nation), against riots and lawlessness (everybody is against riots and lawlessness. We note that such events were not happening under Trump’s predecessor, only under Trump), against shutting down oil and natural gas exploration (a better path toward “energy independence” is via renewables, not via 19th-century technologies), against radical left-wing plans to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court (only being flouted because of the inconceivably anti-democratic actions taken by Trump and his enablers), against restarting a policy of appeasement toward Iran (nobody wants to appease Iran, but the previous administration was more successful at getting them to cease developments), against going soft on the corrupt communists of China (it would have been nice if Trump had achieved something), against shutting down the American economy and ignoring the rights of the American people to live their lives in freedom, even in days of risk (if you feel “rights” are being abridged, we should have a deeper conversation about how to balance rights in a society that exists outside the four walls of our own homes).
The writer is a consultant living in New York City.