Trump the Chump: Chapter Two

Many folks (including Tom Friedman) have never seen a president give up so much to so many for so little, starting with China and (now) Israel. In both the Middle Kingdom and in the Land of Israel, Christmas came early this year. The Chinese and the Jews are both whispering to their kids: “There really is a Santa Claus.”  And his name is Donald Trump.

Every Israeli government has craved U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as its capital. And every U.S. government has refrained from doing that, arguing that such a recognition should come only in the wake of an agreed final status peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians — until now.

Today, Trump just gave it away — for free. Why in the world would you just give this away for free and not even use it as a lever to advance the prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian deal?  Only the so-called "king of deal makers" Trump knows-- and everybody else in the political world must be wrong.

Today's blunder with Jerusalem mirrored the mistake he made with the Chinese earlier this year.  The TPP free-trade deal was an historic agreement that Obama forged with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It was not only the largest free-trade agreement ever, it was the best deal for U.S. workers, closing loopholes Nafta had left open.  But on his first day in office, Trump tore up the TPP--- clearly without having read it or asking China for any trade concession in return. Trump simply threw away the single most valuable tool America had for shaping the economic future of the region and for pressuring China to open its markets to more United States goods.

Trump is now trying to negotiate trade openings with China alone — bilaterally — and getting basically nowhere. And yet he could have been negotiating with China as the head of a 12-nation TPP trading bloc that was based on U.S. interests and which controlled 40% of the global economy. Think of the leverage we lost.

Trump got played by the Chinese and now he's been played by Israel.  We'll be watching and waiting for the "magical mideast deal" from Trump and his cherished child, Jared.  But we're not going to be holding our breath.