One thing Donald Trump has demonstrated through his nonstop and on-again, off-again “deal” making with the Iranians is his fanatical zeal to make money off people’s ignorance and his lust to strike back at his critics, no matter the cost. Let’s take his “art of the deal” first.
It has been reported by Forbes (May 7) that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating over $2.6 billion in suspicious oil trades placed around key Iran policy announcements by Trump. When Trump threatens Iran with destruction, oil futures go up, and when he backs off, they go down. Even a child can play this game.
Now, for the other side of the equation: Trump’s love of retribution. His fragile ego is very sensitive to criticism. His way of dealing with this is via payback that is totally out of proportion to original hurt. One such source was Barack Obama’s humorous mockery of him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Trump was clearly traumatized by Obama’s remarks, since he has never missed a chance to hit back at him and his legacy. Iran plays a role in that legacy because of the creation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in which Iran agreed to put off developing a nuclear bomb. Obama was instrumental in creating that plan. Therefore, destroying it would be a handy way of hitting back, even if it means putting the world at risk. Therefore, removing the United States from that plan was a handy way of hitting back at Obama, even if it meant putting the world at greater risk than it was before.
For Trump, the only thing as sweet as feeding one’s greed is feeding one’s thirst for revenge. What he does not seem to understand is that neither greed nor revenge takes the place of the thoughtful care we expect from our leaders.
Frederick Longacre
Hockessin
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
