Peloni: Mike Doran and Gadi Taub discuss the recent turmoil in the wake of Trump’s Gulf tour. Mike makes the case that the manner in which Trump has been pursuing its America First policies has effectively undermined his own stated goals in pursuing this policy, eg making threats against the terrorists and Iran while failing to make good on those threats. He also argues to consider that Trump’s team is still forming its agenda, and learning as they go, and that this past week was just a bad week which should not necessarily be taken to indicate Trump’s agenda. He also argues that Trump wanted credible victories to herald from his first overseas trip, and that Israel had no such victories to hand him, suggesting that this should not be taken to indicate that Trump is no longer prioritizing Israel in his Middle East policies. Notably, while Mike is entirely correct in suggesting Trump wanted tangible victories from this trip, he gave the Islamists a tangible victory in separating Israel from his deal with the Saudis, while growing closer to Qatar, and promoting the canard that Gazans are starving. Are any of these actions likely to be revised in the coming weeks or months? I would be happy to find the answer is yes, but I suspect the answer is actually no. But of course we will see.
@EvRe1
Thank you for raising this important article and for your detailed summary. I posted the article here:
https://www.israpundit.org/the-non-nuclear-iran-a-strategic-threat-to-the-usa/
I just read a very informative and very detailed article by J. E. Dyer, “The optimistic conservative.”
“https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2025/05/18/trumpschlacht-debuts-with-vivid-energy/
She is describing Trump as changing the entire framework for foreign policy that has existed since the end of WWII. She also describes the similarities and differences between Reagan and Trump which is useful for context, since Reagan challenged the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union fell as a result of being challenged to overspend on defense, thus Reagan changed the world as well.
But Trump specifically is using many ways of changing things. He basically smashed the WTO with his tariff policies, and through this is finding a way to throw a wrench in China’s One Hundred Year Marathon (which ends in 2049) in their goal of overcoming the US for world hegemony.
She has a take on the Middle East which is very different from all I have read. It is her contention that it would be insane to give up the air base in Qatar for geopolitical reasons in terms of where it is located. She feels that Qatar actually needs the air base more than the US needs it. But she is suggesting that what Trump accomplished in Qatar was bending Qatar AWAY from Iran.
Time will tell on that issue. But in addition, she stated that Trump is essentially surrounding Iran! He has had many assets drawn to the region (which I can verify because Amir Tsarfati, on his Telegram channel posts regular information drops about which US assets have come to the region surrounding Iran). She says that Trump wants to use all methods available short of military adventure if at all possible, which is similar to Reagan’s approach. I think she is saying that his negotiation with Iran doesn’t mean he’s changed his mind about Iran and the need for an end to their nuclear enrichment.
She writes:The U.S. is way bigger than either Iran or Qatar, and Trump isn’t stupid. He inherently has the upper hand in this dynamic, and he knows it. It’s not about how much Qatar and the U.S. need each other. It’s about how much Iran needs Qatar to be overbalanced in Iran’s favor – and Trump is driving a wedge (in the military maneuver sense!) right down the center of that calculation.
She writes:
“The U.S. is way bigger than either Iran or Qatar, and Trump isn’t stupid. He inherently has the upper hand in this dynamic, and he knows it. It’s not about how much Qatar and the U.S. need each other. It’s about how much Iran needs Qatar to be overbalanced in Iran’s favor – and Trump is driving a wedge (in the military maneuver sense!) right down the center of that calculation.
Also she has stated another truth, which is that Trump has given Bibi Netanyahu WIDE LATITUDE to prosecute the war against Gaza in any way he chooses. Giving him the freedom to win this war is exactly what Israel needs right now.
She wants to see Israel victorious and she thinks that is what Trump wants also.
I think her main point in the article is that Trump is shifting the dynamics of foreign policy so that those with careers in foreign policy, (ie. the FP establishment) are feeling unnerved because Trump is handling things very differently than others have in the past. They sense he is in control, but they are not, and it leads them to complain that Trump is creating chaos. She thinks this is because Trump is writing the script as he goes, and using business negotiations as a framework for negotiating solutions to foreign policy conflicts.
As I read her article I wondered what Professor Gil-White would say about her viewpoint, since she provides a lot of historical detail from the perspective of someone who has studied the history of warfare, something that is a different discipline from that of Gil-White.
I think it is refreshing to read different points of view on the subject of Donald Trump, and those viewpoints that are best substantiated make for the best learning. I am glad there is a robust debate on these issues because that is what has been lacking for a long time in the West.
The reason robust public debate has been lacking is that the West has been ideologically subverted, as Yuri Bezmenov explained. Communism has infiltrated our government, our public schools, our universities, and our media. It has made people think “equity” is the goal, and that the US is “irredeemably racist.” All the contentions of wokeness lead to young people feeling either lost or militantly socialist, and, in any event our young people have not really been educated to think for themselves, they have been indoctrinated and their minds poisoned by Communist rhetoric. They have knee jerk responses to everything based upon their indoctrination, and feel certain that everything in our culture is problematic because it is all racist and unfair.
White people, Christians and Jews are the Oppressor Class, and what has this done to all the young people who are white, Christian, Jewish, and who are heterosexual? They are considered the enemy unless they grovel at the feet of people of color and admit their oppressor position of privilege.
All of this poisoning has come from either Soviet Russia or the CCP. It has overtaken Canada, the UK, France, Germany and the EU as a whole. The west has all but fallen to self destructive ideology, to self-hatred and hatred of one’s country.
Along comes Donald Trump and says, “It doesn’t have to be this way.” And he starts on a path that is very different from other Presidents. Naturally those who are part of the system and who must kowtow to the system have been fighting him with every weapon at their disposal.. Every judge who tries to stop him, and every SC justice who tries to stop him are part of a corrupt system whose goal is the continuation of the corruption.
Now we are beginning to find out who the individuals are who have been puppet masters of corruption. They will be revealed very soon.
Trump is glad that such ideas are promulgated. He does not want to be perceived as ‘on the side of Israel”.
But see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISe93fojnYM
He wants some Muslim countries to join the attack on Iran.