The great mistake's undoing
by Tom Sullivan
In a series of tweets Saturday night, President Trump reversed the decision he had announced 48 hours earlier to hold next year's G7 meeting at his Trump National Doral resort in Miami. Critics decried the decision as a textbook emoluments clause violation and another likely article of impeachment on a growing list.
Trump cannot help himself. He was pitching his resort's amenities from both his twitter accounts even as he withdrew the proposal to line his own pockets. Even when others try to help, they make things worse. Faced with an accelerating impeachment effort on Capitol Hill, he made things worse without outside help. Bringing a large revenue stream and the world's attention to one of his premiere properties (and a struggling one) was irresistible, if a violation of law. Legality is never Donald Trump's first concern where following his grifter's instinct is concerned.
"A season of weakness"
It was Trump's worst week in a string of bad weeks. The man with a fondness for the world's strongmen and a need to project strength finds himself severely weakened by his own hand. His decision to remove U.S. troops protecting Kurdish allies in southeastern Turkey from attack by Turkish forces has drawn condemnation from his own party and further undermined allies' confidence in the U.S as a partner in defense and foreign policy. Trump's reversal on the G7 location amidst his claims of victory in Turkey only punctuates his administration's flailing efforts at minimizing the damage wrought in the Middle East.
A New York Times correspondent's Twitter thread Saturday displayed a grisly autopsy of Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish politician dragged from her car by Turkish-backed militia. She was murdered, then mutilated. The group is allied with the Syrian National Army, Amnesty International charges.
As Syrian Kurds face what seems to be ethnic cleansing, a top human rights lawyer told us Americans could face accusations of Crimes Against Humanity: for knowing about atrocities, failing to stop them, and potentially aiding and abetting. I know some US officials are concerned.
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 19, 2019
Trump now finds himself mired in a season of weakness. Foreign leaders feel emboldened to reject his pleas or to contradict him. Officials inside his administration are openly defying his wishes by participating in the impeachment probe. Federal courts have ruled against him. Republican lawmakers are criticizing him. He has lost control over major conservative media organs. Polling shows that Americans increasingly disapprove of his job performance and support his impeachment.Trump's domestic allies are shaken. U.S. allies grow dismissive.
Trump bragged about sending a “very powerful letter” warning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to invade Syria. “Don’t be a fool!” Trump wrote. But Turkish officials leaked word that their leader had thrown the letter in the trash, and Erdogan then took Trump to task for his “lack of respect.”Turkey's former ambassador to the U.S., Namik Tan, retweeted a New Yorker cartoon mocking Trump's "very powerful" insult to a foreign head of state:
Donald Trump's "perfect" letter to Santa. Via @NewYorker pic.twitter.com/GBmGgAnqIs
— Ambassador Namik Tan (@NamikTan) October 18, 2019