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President Trump issues many threats.
Sometimes they get results, sometimes they don't.
And sometimes it's just bragging. Especially if it's an online post, for example, about how the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois should go to jail for opposing him sending troops to the Windy City.
But his relentless personality, backed by the most powerful army in the world, can prove overwhelming.
Trump nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas
President Trump's recent progress on Middle East peace has been remarkable, although it has been overshadowed at the last second by echoes of the prosecution of Letitia James. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
It is difficult to overstate the remarkable achievement that Trump has achieved in the process of unification, forcing Israel and Hamas to end their brutal and bloody two-year war.
It's fair to say that no other president could have pulled this off. Joe Biden Of course I couldn't. In fact, not since Jimmy Carter staged marathon talks at Camp David with Anwar Sadar and Menachem Begin has a president brokered peace between the Israelis and one of their Arab enemies.
Trump himself drafted the Abraham Accords with the help of Jared Kushner, who was joined in his first term by the UAE and Bahrain, and then by Sudan and Morocco. This gave him experience with this extremely difficult task and stimulated further speculation about the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump had to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept his peace deal. (Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
Now a few caveats are in order. The president says he expects the remaining 20 hostages to be returned on Monday or Tuesday, but Hamas terrorists could raise new objections that would derail the train.
Reporters asked about a second phase, which would include returning the bodies of the dead hostages, but the president wisely deflected these questions.
So the champagne corks aren't popping yet.
It is probably these reservations that prompted the on-air presenters and correspondents to behave rather soberly when covering the latest events. But I think there was more to it than that.
Some of these journalists aren't exactly pro-Trump. And that's why it's not easy for them to shower him with loans. They say the right words—great achievements and so on—but their body language sends a different message.
Look, Israel has been at war, or cold war, with surrounding countries since its founding in 1948.
And in a broader sense, Jews and Arabs have had an adversarial relationship for centuries. The Bible calls on Pharaoh to “let my people go.”
Critical questions now remain unanswered about who will rule the Gaza Strip, much of which has been reduced to rubble, in the future. On October 7, Israel suffered a brutal massacre, but it also found itself increasingly isolated as more than 60,000 Palestinians were killed. Many Israelis and American Jews believe Bibi Netanyahu allowing the war to drag on too long to protect his political position.
Trump had to pressure Bibi to accept his peace deal, essentially threatening to leave the US.
Now Hamas is essentially being asked to surrender by handing over their weapons. Trump said he would join other countries in a peace council to prevent a return to war. But those details remain unclear, beyond the fact that terrorists will no longer be in power, as they have been since Israel voluntarily withdrew from the Gaza Strip nearly two decades ago.
GRAND JURY CONVICTS NY AG LETITIA JAMES ON BANK FRAUD CHARGES IN FEDERAL COURT IN VIRGINIA
And just as the president was basking in well-deserved praise for fundamentally transforming the Middle East, a new development occurred.
A grand jury has indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges of mortgage fraud.
In short, it highlights the duality of the Trump presidency.
It seems like a petty move, and in the video, James said, “We will aggressively fight these baseless allegations.”
A grand jury indicted New York State Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud charges, essentially underscoring Trump's ambivalence. (Jim Franco/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
As with the recent indictment against James Comey, it was only returned because Trump replaced his own US lawyer. Eastern District of Virginia with White House aide and loyalist Lindsey Halligan, who has no prosecution experience.
Trump told his CEO Pam Bondi in a memo that James, like Comey, is “guilty as hell.” The Wall Street Journal reports that “Pam's” note was supposed to remain secret.
Career prosecutors decided there wasn't enough evidence to charge James, who filed a civil lawsuit against candidate Trump over housing inflation that resulted in a fine that grew to half a billion dollars – so outrageous that an appeals court threw it out. James also won her job by promising to go after Trump, calling him an “illegitimate” president.
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James has owned a home in Brooklyn for decades, and two years ago she and her niece bought a home in Norfolk, Virginia.
Career prosecutors found little evidence that James was dishonest in filling out the paperwork.
Media attention immediately shifted from Trump, the global peacemaker, to Trump, the crusader who persistently pursues a campaign of vengeance against his enemies.
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Just as he was receiving praise from around the world, Trump confronted his own history.
