TRUE COLOURS

Donald Trump is a deeply stupid man.

His upbringing in an environment of wealth and privilege has not changed that, regardless of the fact that his father pulled strings to get him into a couple of top universities. OK, we know he didn't become a rocket scientist - but maybe he wanted to be one which might explain his fascination with Elon Musk. No, he kind of followed in his father's footsteps, using daddy's money to become a property developer and to dabble in real estate - not often successfully.

When this real-estate developer became the US president for a second term I guess that there are no surprises that he defaults to what he thinks he knows - property and views the world and American foreign policy through a realtors vision.

Only a real estate agent, and a pretty dumb one at that would want USA to take over Gaza and turn it into a resort for "all the people of the world to enjoy – a Riviera of the Middle East" according to him. During the presidential campaign, he said on a conservative radio show that Gaza could be "better than Monaco", but that the Palestinians "never took advantage" of their "best location in the Middle East".

The Palestinian people who own Gaza, and their neighbouring Arab countries, don't want to sell, lease or otherwise give up Gaza to property tycoons who want to do a quick do-up before flicking it off to the highest bidders. I can't see any new owners of prime seaside estates wanting a whole lot of impoverished, shell-shocked  and potentially disgruntled Palestinians cluttering up the place. They'd probably get in Philippine or Mexican gardeners, pool boys, maids and other help like Americans and Saudi Arabians do.

Even American senators and congressmen are appalled at Trump's plan:

"Developing war-torn land like a Trump golf resort isn't a peace plan, it's an insult," said Democratic Congressman Troy Carter of Louisiana. "Serious leaders pursue real solutions, not real estate deals."

 

Should Trump's crazy Gaza plan be taken  seriously?

We know from the past that when he's fucked up something or is under pressure he tries to deflect scrutiny away from him with audacious headline-grabbing comments and actions. When the extra tariff plans against Canada, Mexico and China blew up in his face a few days ago he threw in the Gaza development plan as deflection and it has by and large worked - or so it seems to him. What he fails to realise though is that people do remember even if his oligarch media-owning friends have chosen to not undertake fact checking in their social media companies and on their owned traditional news sites. There are only so many lies that can be told before even the most dyed-in-the-wool supporters start to smell a rat.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said: 

"I thought we voted for America First," he wrote on X. "We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers' blood."

 Trump's real estate ambitions are not simply concerned with Gaza and it isn't the first time that this grifter thought about how he and his family could make money out of America's foreign policy. Look at the hundreds of millions that his daughter and son-in-law made out of deals with Saudi Arabia. Even when he was dealing with North Korea he got excited at the "great beaches" on which he could one day build the "best hotels".

Trump's spoken intentions to acquire Greenland by any means, his desire to make Canada the '51st state' and to take over the Panama Canal, in light of this latest Gaza nonsense has to be taken seriously. Evidently he has limited understanding of geopolitics, history, diplomacy and how treaties are built and maintained so, as mentioned, he defaults to what he thinks he knows best. Like the metaphorical story about Nero fiddling while Rome burned, for Trump, the USA and the world can go to hell as long as he can be recognised as having done some great and history creating deals that could get his big fat head carved into Mount Rushmore.