President Donald Trump does so many big things fast that each one crowds out what was shocking only a day or hour before. It has been less than a month, for example, since he pardoned everyone who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but it seems like ancient history.
To his critics, this is what the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan meant by “defining deviancy down,” successively violating standards so a new normal is established far beneath what is traditional and recently required.
But such analysis prompts tendentious, wild assertions, such as that by taking an inventory of waste, fraud, and abuse, billionaire Elon Musk is running a parallel and illegal government. In truth, he is a glorified, if effective, consultant.
One should not judge the administration by measuring it against the leftist freak-out. Distortions from these people were inevitable even if they weren’t being wrong-footed by Trump’s announcement of extraordinary new policies three times a day. There is an obvious political advantage to him in flooding the zone so deep that Democrats and their allies cannot keep up.
Having said all that, it must be acknowledged that Trump’s most recent suggestion (as of this writing) is simply breathtaking. At a joint Feb. 4 White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump mused nonchalantly about a U.S. takeover of Gaza. America would “own” the war-torn fragment of coastline and turn it from “hell” and a “demolition site” into a delightful riviera where the “people of the world” could live in peace and harmony.
“Out of the box” doesn’t begin to cover it. It seems outlandish. Who would exercise sovereignty over Gaza — Israel? Gaza has been assumed to be part of a putative Palestinian state that generations of diplomacy stipulate must be central to any conceivable Arab-Israeli peace deal. It is currently run by an illegitimate terrorist regime, Hamas, backed by Iran and determined to murder all Jews. Arab countries rejected Trump’s statement as, among other things, “a declaration of war.” Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia repudiated any association with it. But is it an “own” goal?
It’s no coincidence that Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egypt’s Gen. Abdel Fattah El Sisi will be in the Oval Office this month. Trump will use these meetings to push for compromise. He has leverage, such as the $2 billion of American aid sent in an average year to Cairo.
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Trump’s recent diplomatic forays over the Panama Canal and trade war with Mexico and Canada show he will accept less than his maximalist first position if Arabs back away from their maximalist rejection. He defines his diplomacy down.
The president sometimes says he’ll do something “unbelievable.” At first, his ideas can seem so, but not in a good way. His enemies, rivals, and critics should long ago have learned, however, that they can’t take that to the bank.
Editor’s note: Some readers complained that the Jan. 22 magazine cover of Trump taking the oath of office had details, such as the color of the first lady’s dress, that were wrong. It was an imagined scene published before the depicted event took place. We didn’t want to show the first inauguration, by then eight years old, and couldn’t show the second because it hadn’t happened when we went to press.