All these policies have emboldened and empowered Russia and Iran to launch their military offenses under Democratic administrations.
Robert Didrikson, Hastings
In light of Thursday’s article about Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talking (“After 7 weeks, Biden and Netanyahu talk”) and Wednesday’s evidence-free counterpoint (“The case for choosing a Trump-Vance administration,” Strib Voices), two more actions taken by Trump during his presidency deserve mention. First, Trump unilaterally moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, apparently without gaining anything in return. From a Star Tribune editorial published Dec. 14, 2017, “The decision will embolden Palestinian hard-liners, including Hamas, which Israel, the U.S. and the European Union rightly consider a terrorist group. It also will weaken the more moderate Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. So the reconciliation between the two factions required for any eventual peace process will be even more difficult to achieve.” Second, he unilaterally withdrew from the multinational nuclear agreement with Iran that led to Iran being able to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb in a matter of weeks or days. Of course, tensions in the Mideast existed long before the embassy move and withdrawing from the agreement, but Trump threw gas on the fire and added oxygen. We now have a war in Israel that was started by an emboldened Hamas and is expanding toward a potentially nuclear-armed Iran. As Biden and Harris try to stop this human tragedy, Trump is fanning the flames and casting blame on others. Voters do have a clear choice in the upcoming election: Return to the incompetence, gaslighting and chaos of Trump or move forward with Harris.
The former president recently spoke at the Detroit Economic Club, and, as he so often has in the past few years, he sounded demented. Donald Trump veered off topic, mispronounced words, was at times incoherent and often made no sense whatsoever. He also managed to disparage the very city he was speaking in. He said, “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if [Harris is] your president” — clearly not intending it as a compliment for either the candidate or the city.
