Even by his low bar, Trump’s Easter Sunday rant against Iran pushes at a perilous line
How can Iran — or many of the US’s allies in West Asia — justify engagement with a country whose leader mocks and insults?
As a reality TV star, Donald Trump was never known for his nuance — in fact, his hallmark was the put-down, crude and blunt. As US President in his second term, he has, internally with political opponents and externally, with several countries (many of them allies) and world leaders, ingloriously burnished that reputation. But beyond the shock value, even the he-is-what-he-is grudging admiration, the expletives and exclamation marks starkly frame the dangers of the Trump brand of politics. In the immediate and medium term, they highlight the challenge of the world’s largest economy and most powerful military being led by a leader who knows little verbal restraint. More disturbing is that there are no “adults in the room” to rein their Boss in. To tell him that you don’t urge people to throw out a brutal regime and then call them “crazy b*****ds” who belong to the Stone Age. For a world that faces deep challenges — whether from new technologies or a changing climate — Trump’s outbursts deter all meaningful discourse.
Even by his low bar, Trump’s Easter Sunday rant against Iran — a threat to bomb power plants and bridges, capped with a religious insult — pushes at a perilous line. It signals the deepening of a trend that leaves no room for either “enemies” or friends to make compromises or common cause with Washington. How can Iran — or many of the US’s allies in West Asia — justify engagement with a country whose leader mocks and insults? Even the Western allies are finding it difficult to weather the Trump years. Take Emannuel Macron. During Trump’s first term, the French president was commended for keeping lines of communication open. Now, with Trump making personal remarks against his wife, the French president could not help but respond.
The US political system is executive-driven. Every occupant of the White House in recent memory, for all their rhetoric, has put American interests and even exceptionalism first. The problem with Trump’s personality and how he views the “art of the deal” is that it places all others — from Canada to Greenland, and the UK to India — on uncertain ground. The fact that the US system is unable to check its worst impulses will, in the long run, diminish both its image and power. The reason Trump’s predecessors, even as they prosecuted wars abroad, spoke a language of democracy and rights was not merely hypocrisy. It was an understanding of the complexity of US power. Trump, even as he claims to make America great again, diminishes it, quote by quote. There is a law of diminishing returns on insults and threats. Today’s bully can easily become tomorrow’s caricature.
