If the President of the United States behaves primarily as the chief negotiator for corporate America, then alliances themselves become contingent commodities.
Rasool’s expulsion deepened an already deteriorating relationship between the two countries, one that had been on a downward spiral since Trump returned to office.
But with a maniacal president who cannot tolerate even a simple difference of opinion, a country that dares not to comply with his demands turns into an enemy that must be eliminated.
Trump, grandson of a German immigrant, is particularly peeved at an independent South Africa, which was the worst example of a Western supremacist-cum-colonial mindset.