Posted on 12/12/2021 3:19:03 AM PST by Kaslin
Donald Trump’s greatest accomplishment as president may not have been the policies he enacted or the justices he appointed. Instead, as important as those accomplishments were and are, it is possible that the most important thing he did as president was to say to the political world, “I will not play your games. I am the champion of the people, not a member of the good old boys club.”
But now that he has broken the mold, thrown out the old rule book, and forged a new path of leadership, it will be best in 2024 for another conservative leader with backbone and conviction to take the lead. Trump simply brings too much collateral damage with him (and, I remind you, I voted for him in 2016 and 2020).
What prompts me to write this now is the latest reminder of the negative baggage that came along with Trump, this time in the form of two interviews he conducted with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid for his new book, Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East.
As reported in the Jerusalem Post, in April of this year, Trump explained to Ravid that he had not spoken to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since Netanyahu called President Biden to congratulate him after his election.
As quoted in the book, Trump said, “I haven't spoken with him since [he congratulated Joe Biden]. [Expletive] him.”
Trump also said to Ravid, “The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with. Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake.
“I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi. But I also like loyalty. The first person to congratulate Biden was Bibi. And not only did he congratulate him, he did it on tape.”
This is the same man who threw Vice President Mike Pence under the bus on January 6. Is it any surprise that he also ditched Bibi?
In reality, as noted by the Post, “Though Netanyahu was the first leader in the Middle East to pick up the phone to Washington, journalists were quick to note that Netanyahu was actually not one of the first people to give Biden a congratulatory call. In fact, he made the call nearly a month after Biden’s election, after calls had already come in from the leaders of France, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland.”
Yet, according to Ravid, during the two interviews Trump granted him, one lasting 90 minutes, he brought up Netanyahu’s call to Biden 5 times. Talk about letting something stick in your craw. Talk about not letting it go.
But are we really surprised? (Note also that this story has been all over the news for several days now, and I have seen no report from Trump denying the quotes.)
So, in Trump’s view, despite the presence of a new administration in the White House, Netanyahu should not have reached out to Biden. The election was stolen, plain and simple, and even though Israel would be dealing with Biden, not Trump, in the days to come, Israel had no business congratulating him.
Put another way, loyalty to Trump mattered more than the strength of Israel’s relationship with America.
Put another way still, Netanyahu should have said to the people of Israel, the ones who put him in office, “I’m really sorry, but I cannot congratulate the new president of the United States. If I do so, that will hurt my friend Donald Trump, who has done so much for our country. So, I’ll sacrifice our well-being in the present and not deal with our most important ally, since I don’t want to upset the man who is no longer in the White House.” Seriously?
But this is hardly an isolated incident. Trump continues to make acknowledgment of the allegedly stolen election a litmus test.
As he said at a rally in Iowa in October, “The single biggest issue — the issue that gets the most pull, the most respect, the biggest cheers — is talking about the election fraud of 2020’s presidential election.”
But this is not the primary political battle we need to be fighting now, even if you feel 100 percent sure the election was stolen.
The primary political battle is to get the right people in office, first in the midterms, then in 2024, all while continuing to push for election integrity on every front. (For the record, our electoral system seemed to work pretty well last month, didn’t it?)
And we certainly don’t need to reelect someone who will make loyalty to him, demonstrated by the public affirmation that the election was stolen, to cloud his judgment as president.
To be sure, Trump can still be a force for good in many ways. And he can help support worthy candidates, using the massive influence he still wields.
But if he remains the same man who trashed quite a few good people over the years, then we don’t need him back in the White House.
Surely there are others who can step forward and do a good job, especially when Trump has demonstrated that tens of millions of Americans want a strong leader who will not cave in once he or she gets to Washington.
Trump has set a bold, “tell it like it is” model that others can follow. But he is not the only man who can effectively lead America. And without question, it is possible to be a decisive, powerful leader without burning so many bridges, burying so many relationships, and alienating so many people along the way.
As far as I’m concerned, President Trump can do whatever he’d like in 2024, I will back him 100% either way. He has earned that from me.
The author sounds like the typical "Never-Trumper" RINO while defending/promoting "Pence the Traitor"
The only other politician that could be a president that I could vote for is DeSantis. But hey, do a Trump/DeSantis ticket.
And another shot by the Establishment.
Establishment, your sell-by date has passed. We are done with ye!
I thought Michael Brown died in Ferguson.
“ This is the same man who threw Vice President Mike Pence under the bus on January 6.”
Michael Brown. Ok he’s on the list now as a trump hater. Doesn’t read, doesn’t consider who Trump is, who the US electorate is, didn’t see what he saw.
Gaslighters international.
How did I miss that?
Townhall? Just letting all views in, I guess.
Opinions are like pie holes. Everybody’s got one.
“Hands Up” was such a phony lie from racists to defend that piece of trash who had just robbed a store then tried to wrestle the gun from the cop.
Trump obviously irritates this writer. He doesn’t irritate me; he inspires me. Trump plowed ground that needed plowing. He exposed what needed exposing.
This writer says, “I voted for Trump twice, but...” Never mind your but.
If there were a replacement for Trump, I would wish Trump a graceful exit, stage right — for his own sake, at his age. But there isn’t. For now, he is still the champion of the causes that matter most to me.
So Michael Brown should get over his irritation.
Its the next play by never Trumpers. “Trump did the best he could, now its time for someone else (Rino) to carry (drop) the flag.”
He deserves another chance to serve and I believe that is the only way to truly set the record straight for the sake of History and the future.
Trouble is no one else has the stones to walk thru it...
You people’s attempt to not cuss just takes the grunt out of hundreds of years of verbal traditions...
What a hypocritical set of sentences.
Yeah, tell it like it is BUT don't hurt their feelings.
What a pussy.
“ The only other politician that could be a president that I could vote for is DeSantis. But hey, do a Trump/DeSantis ticket.”
**************
I voted for trump both times. But, his time to be POTUS has passed. If he runs again the Dems will probably keep both the presidency and the senate. Hopefully, he will see his role as elder statesman emeritus of the GOP and support someone such as DeSantis for president and support the down-tickets of strong candidates. That’s my hope, but I’m skeptical. Thinking he is more likely to blow up the Republican Party. We shall see….
People love disantis.
That’s easy. When will they see that in this climate of the past 50, post roe v, 70. post-war, if not 100 years since Wilson, no one can withstand the slings and arrows (to put it mildly) but a highly intelligent, highly educated finance/economy expert who gets game theory, balances, law, the art of war, military history, multiple languages, evil dictators, who is self-financed. Let disantis out of Florida and watch out. When they frame him, I mean FRAME, with a foreign dossier that tge full force of all law enforcement agencies can’t figure out for six years beyond what a middle school girls clique at a Catholic school on Long Island could tell you what happened, and all the women in suburbia have written him off running their hateful, illogical, unfounded gossip on him, what’s he going to do?
So, the single most successful president of the era SHOULDN’T be president?
Well said.
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