Skip to main content

The Golden Shower




His Trumpness was feted by the House of Saud in an evening he probably won't be able to live down anytime soon.  Getting a gold chain that even Jay Z would be envious of is standard procedure, but the royal horse escort and the sword dance was something I don't remember seeing before.  King Salman went all out to honor Trump, knowing exactly how to appeal to our extremely vain president, who summed up the royal reception as "tremendous!"

At the center of this "historic event" is a $115 billion arms deal, which the Trump administration claims it negotiated itself.  In actual fact, it was a deal struck last September before he was even elected, but that Obama had held off on because of egregious human rights violations.  His Trumpness appears less concerned about this, as his administration put precision-guided munitions back into the deal.  We will see if these warheads come back to haunt us.

Trump was so anxious to deflect attention away from the ongoing probe into Russia collusion in the 2016 election, that he would agree to just about anything to cast him in a favorable light.  Not sure how this arms deal does this, but he offered up a speech on Islamic terrorism to make clear what those arms are intended for.   It must have taken all the reserve he could muster to tone down his usual rhetoric and call for unity in the face of this scourge, largely bankrolled by Saudi oil sheiks, with connections to the royal family.

You won't find Saudi Arabia on the travel ban the Trump administration is still trying to push through the courts.  Trump himself has sizable investments in the oil-rich country.  He registered eight companies in the country during his campaign alone, and the deal he ultimately struck with the House of Saud promises up to $300 billion in investments during his term, in addition to a free flow of arms, which is why you see a happy Rex Tillerson joining in the sword dance.  I guess this is designed to help offset the stagnant oil prices.

It is going to be pretty hard to top this performance over the next week. Trump had hoped to fly into the Masada by helicopter but Israel nixed the idea.  The disgruntled president chose to abandon his trip to Masada all together, but I'm sure he will try to make the best of his short stay in the Levant.

Bibi Netanyahu has to be a bit disappointed that the Trump administration hasn't been more favorable to his government.  He is having a very hard time keeping his ministers in line.  Meanwhile, Trump's advisers are strongly cautioning him to maintain an even keel here, as one of the goals of this administration is to restart discussions on a separate Palestinian state, something Netanyahu has tried to avoid ever since he came back into power in 2009.  Israel has ratcheted up settlements in the West Bank and doesn't seem in any hurry to discuss tedious land negotiations, as Israel has carved off about 10 per cent of the West Bank as its own over the five decades since it annexed the Palestinian territories.  But, I'm sure Bibi will make some kind of gesture toward restarting negotiations to please His Trumpness.

Beyond that, who knows how this trip will turn out?  He obviously won't get a royal welcome at the Vatican or anywhere else in Europe.   He will get the opportunity to address both NATO and the G7, which will at least make him look "Presidential."   It's a long time to be on the road, and it is going to a lot of coddling aboard Air Force One to keep His Trumpness happy.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!