Trump Loses His Mind on Twitter

President Donald Trump attacked Steve Bannon, his chief strategist up until August of last year, after a book on the White House discussed a meeting of Trump’s closest aides with Russian officials in 2016. Trump said that Bannon lost his mind after he lost his job because Bannon said that Trump’s son’s meeting with the Russians was “treasonous.” The president didn’t deny what Bannon said, but attacked him because it was the truth. Bannon responded a day later saying that Trump was “mentally unfit.”

What is more important to an Arab writer such as me is that Trump announced that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and decided to move the U.S. Embassy there. Palestinians protested, so he tweeted that Jerusalem has been taken off the negotiating table because it was the “toughest part of the negotiation… But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

I say to Trump that he doesn’t pay a thing to Palestinians compared to the $3.8 billion he pays to Israel every year. I also say to him that he has no right at all to make a decision on Jerusalem for there are international agreements stating that East Jerusalem will be the capital of an independent Palestine. West Jerusalem is merely a group of neighborhoods, but East Jerusalem is the original Jerusalem and includes the archeological remnants of Christianity and Islam. Trump is inciting Palestinians toward a third intifada, and a fourth and fifth, without realizing it.

At the same time, North Korean President Kim Jong Un stated that the nuclear button is on his desk, and Trump responded by tweeting a demand that one of North Korea’s citizens inform the president that Trump also has a nuclear button and that his is bigger and more powerful than the North Korean president’s button. Nuclear bombs don’t work with a “button” as the two presidents have claimed.

President Trump does not have any policy with regard to the Middle East or Korea or Iran or anywhere else. What he has are tweets. In the history of the United States, a president has never governed via social media. But Trump expresses his political opinions – major and trivial – in tweets, just like everyone else.

Of course, there is Iran. We must not forget that Trump halted the U.S. nuclear agreement with Iran, a move opposed by all other parties to the agreement. The U.S. president now threatens new sanctions on Iran, accusing former President Barack Obama of giving Iran hundreds of billions of dollars used for terrorist purposes. He also supported the demonstrations in Iran, blaming the economy, unemployment and corruption. Iranian leaders responded sharply.

I am in constant disagreement with President Mahmoud Abbas, but I support his position on Jerusalem, and I support the Palestinian intifada against Trump before Netanyahu. I believe there is an Arab role in opposing Trump to be led by Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Muslim countries.

Pakistan is a Muslim nation on friendly terms with, and involved in unannounced alliances with, a number of Arab nations. The U.S. president attacked Pakistan saying, “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” In another tweet, he attacked Pakistan and alleged that the United States pays “the Palestinians HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and gets no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate.” Pakistan responded saying this was a lie, as indeed it was.