Understanding Trump
What will U.S. President Donald Trump do now against those 128 countries that defied all the blackmail, insults and degrading remarks they faced from the White House and U.S. permanent delegate to the U.N. Nikki Haley after voting to denounce the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel?
Will he actually cut off financial assistance to these countries? Will he order his country to stop exporting to those countries? Would he actually be able to save money and open new employment opportunities to unemployed Americans? If foreign assistance programs of the U.S. were all halted, will the U.S. allies remain limited to those eight countries that surrendered to U.S. threats or willingly voted in favor of the U.S.? Halting aid and left without any of those 128 countries as friends, can the U.S. expect to remain as a super power and manage to maintain the dollar as the leading global trading currency?
Although a holy city harboring three monotheistic religions, Jerusalem cannot be the capital of the Israeli state only, it should serve as the capital of the Palestinians, too.
Naturally, no one should belittle Ankara’s intense efforts to solicit strong global response to the U.S.’s provocative action on Jerusalem. It is, of course, absurd to claim that the U.N. General Assembly vote was a great diplomatic success for Turkey. It was good that the Turkish and Yemeni governments took the lead and sponsored the General Assembly decision defending the sanctity of Jerusalem for all three Abrahamic religions and calling for the preservation of its status until a solution is found to the Arab-Israel conflict. In any case, the effort of Trump - whatever his reasoning might be - to legitimize Israel’s control over the whole of Jerusalem has been denounced by the global community through the U.N.
The ignorant and arrogant leadership style, outbursts and immature attitudes – which Turks are not unfamiliar to unfortunately – has been an irritating problem not only for the international community but more so for the American establishment, too.
Just as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says, the world is indeed bigger than five. But there is as well an urgent need to revamp the system of the United Nations, find a formula to restrict the powers of the permanent members of the Security Council, or at least upgrade it to show that a lot has changed since post-Second World War.
The U.N. General Assembly decision is not binding. However, this was the first ever time the U.S. received such a global rebuff. The Trump administration might complete its full term and might even have a second five-year term in the White House. Only American people and institutions may have a say in that. Yet from Ankara it appears certain that Trump might have difficulties to survive, let alone a second term, his current term in office looks endangered.
In Turkish we have a saying which roughly translates to: “It is easy for a bachelor to talk about divorce.” It fits Trump’s case perfectly. The American establishment might not feel very comfortable with such a problem maker in the White House.
