World of Politics with Harry McGee

If you ever read the New York Times, you will know within nanoseconds that it is a media organisation that is hostile to Donald J Trump.  But conversely, part of the commercial success and massive consumption of the New York Times in recent years has been the fact that Trump is in the Oval Office. He may be its adversary, but he is box office. The number of reporters it has assigned to cover him shows that it just can’t get enough of him.

And that’s the definition of a paradox.

We all want to read about Trump. He is just a compelling subject matter. Bombast. Blusterer, Changes his mind every time the wind changes direction. Capricious. Egotistical. Shambling. Vicious.

Some of his stuff can be nasty.

Like the separate shakedowns of Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelensky, and the South African president Cyril Rampaphosa in the Oval Room; his unfettered support for Israel and the brutality it is inflicting; the dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies of his administration, and the disgraceful way his administration has let ICE agents loose in communities from Florida to California.

There is a long litany of other things, from deportations to suppression of freedoms, to some of his right-wing Maga supporters trying to create a society where everybody is vetted and those who do not subscribe to the Maga worldview are excluded or targeted.

Problem is we are dealing with a super-power with a military superiority that is not close to being matched by any other nation. Anyone who follows history will know that it is might and power, rather than good which prevails. And we have seen plenty of examples of it – tragically – in recent months.

Israel has been like a fox in a henhouse killing all around it – just because it can. It is the biggest military power in the region. The US has been uncritical. It has allowed Binyamin Netanyahu and the right-wing fanatics in his government to act with impunity with deadly missile and air assaults on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now Iran.

Its attack on Iran was not one of self-defence; it was one of choice. Netanyahu has been trying to destroy Iran’s nuclear programmes for a lifetime. While there is no evidence that Iran was on the verge of developing weapons-grade enriched uranium, it knew that a pliant US would turn a blind eye to its decision to wage war on Iran.

Showing the fickle nature of Trump’s thinking, the US initially distanced itself from the Israeli attacks. But then somebody must have swayed Trump’s thinking and impressed upon him that the Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities had inflicted considerable damage.

Pictured: War and peace…Donald Trump with NATO Secretary General and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.