The ready, fire, aim presidency - The Jewish Standard

President Trump has difficulty controlling his impulses. When he is angry, he fires insults even when they cause significant upheaval. In recent days, he called Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve chair, a “loser” and complained that he couldn’t “be terminated soon enough.” Predictably, the markets tanked. So he had to walk back his insults and threats to fire Powell. The markets calmed down soon after.

The same with tariffs. It’s true that we have unfair trade with many countries, including among our allies. Rather than differentiating between friends and adversaries, he used a sledgehammer, announcing “liberation day,” when steep tariffs would be exacted on dozens of countries, insulting Canada and Mexico. In the process, he forgot Newton’s third law of motion, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The only thing liberated was the stability of the dollar and U.S. treasuries. It was when the adult in the Oval Office, Scott Bessent, intervened that a 90-day pause for the most draconian tariffs was enacted, so that each negotiation can be tailored for each trading circumstance. Meanwhile we endure the roller coaster ride of the stock market, reaching correction and even bear territory for the major market indices.

Regarding China, which practices unfair and predatory trade as part of its foreign policy, Newton’s law is particularly relevant. China controls over 90% of the market in rare earths, vital for our military and technology, and has withheld their sale to us. And tariffs on cheap goods will inevitably increase inflation, hurting Trump’s newly allied constituency, the working class. Some Liberation Day! He also should have had Congress pass his tax cuts before tackling tariffs. That, together with the loosening of regulations, would have given “some wind in his sails,” giving him greater political capital to expend on tariffs.

On illegal immigration, to be sure, Trump’s enforcement of the law has resulted in a nearly airtight border. As he stated in the State of the Union address, the country didn’t need a new law to control the border, but a new president. But he could have arrested and taken alleged criminals off the streets without deporting them, while they underwent whatever due process was warranted. I suspect most if not all would have been deported anyway, without an uproar from the courts and civil libertarians.

Meanwhile, the march of Democrats, led by Senator Chris Von Hallen, to travel to El Salvador to meet with a wrongfully deported man accused of human trafficking and being a member of MS-13 will make a great commercial for the Republican National Committee. I wish he showed as much compassion for one of his constituents, Patty Morin, whose daughter of 5 was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant. He didn’t even bother to attend her highly publicized funeral. Nor for the Israeli hostages. Instead he led the charge with Bernie Sanders on boycotting arms sales to Israel.

Seeking to fulfill his campaign pledge to bring peace to Ukraine, Trump unilaterally “disarmed” Ukraine by rejecting potential NATO membership and insisting on inevitable territorial concessions, humiliating President Zelensky in the process. He also broached a mineral sharing arrangement but without any U.S. security guarantees. For these sacrifices, Putin reciprocated by increasing his bombing of civilians, resulting in the slaughter of dozens.

It’s important for each side to give up something to show good faith, enhancing the chances for successful negotiations. But this has been a one-way street in Moscow’s direction. Trying to seek peace, a laudable goal, Trump fired first at Ukraine without aiming at leveraging Putin, if he can be pressured at all. Meanwhile, the latter knows the floor he can seek if there are ever any serious negotiations with the West and Ukraine.

As of this writing, we have the Iranian negotiations, which have morphed from dismantling Iran’s nuclear program to retention of a civilian nuclear capacity. This for one of the largest oil exporters in the world? Now there will be discussions on enriched uranium, how much Iran can possess, how to verify this and other arcane issue reminiscent of the failed JCPOA of 2015. This in exchange for the lifting of sanctions? What about Iran’s ballistic missile production and funding its terrorist proxies? Haven’t we learned from October 7?

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking while the Iranians work the clock, and the Israelis are on pins and needles, praying that there’s time left to attack Iran when the latter has been the weakest since 1979.

This president shoots from the hip. That’s fine in real estate negotiations or on game shows. But as the leader of the free world, he needs to better think through the implications of his initial impulses.

Aim before firing.

Max Kleinman of Fairfield was the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest from 1995 to 2014. He is the president of the Fifth Commandment Foundation and consultant for the Jewish Community Legacy Project.

Opinion

comments