Bahbah: Has Trump Been Stumped?
By: Bishara A. Bahbah/Arab America Featured Columnist
There has never been a president in American history that has been involved in as many lawsuits as President Donald Trump. According to a tally by USA Today, Mr. Trump has been party to nearly 4,100 lawsuits during the last 30 years.
This fact is symptomatic of the troubled presidency of Trump.
To his credit, there are a few policy initiatives that the president has been able to accomplish. He overhauled the US tax system; he renegotiated the NAFTA trade agreement with Mexico and Canada and; he thawed the tense relations with N. Korea.
The Border Wall and the Partial Government Shutdown
Besides those accomplishments and his ability to appoint two members to the US Supreme Court of his choosing, Trump’s insistence on getting funding to build a wall on the border with Mexico has led to the longest ever partial shutdown of the US government in history. The shutdown is beginning to affect many aspects of life in the United States and could lead to a slowing down of the US economic growth. A recent poll conducted by Fortune.com has revealed that 69 percent of Americans don’t think that Trump’s Border Wall is a priority. Thus, the president has been acting out of sync with what the majority of the American public views as a priority.
The issue of the Border Wall and Trump’s demand that the House appropriate $5.3 billion for building the wall completely frayed his administration’s tenuous relations with the newly Democratically-controlled House of Representatives. As a result, Trump was literally disinvited from delivering his annual State of the Union address to the joint chambers of Congress. To retaliate, Trump ordered the US Air Force not to transport a congressional delegation headed by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, on a fact-finding mission overseas.
The “Deal of the Century”
With regard to the “deal of the century” that Trump promised to broker between the Palestinians and Israelis, Trump torpedoed the prospects of acting as an “honest” broker by preemptively recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. He conceded this important issue in Israel’s favor without any quid pro quo that would have furthered the peace process. Instead, the Palestinians cut off formal ties with the US and the US retaliated by cutting off all aid to the Palestinians, including funds to UNRWA, the Palestinian Authority, and soon to the Palestinian security forces which have acted as a protector and a buffer between Palestinians and Israel.
Additionally, Trump has waged wars against:
- Undocumented immigrants including those brought to the United States by their parents when they were children – the DACA generation;
- Arabs and Muslims. Trump suspended immigration targeting predominantly Arab and Muslim countries. After various revisions of the multiple executive orders, challenges in courts, the US Supreme Court upheld Trump’s suspension;
- Obama era policies – Trump reversed key Obama policies including the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement; the removal of dozens of environmental rules; and the abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnerships;
- Trade partners especially China. Trump started a trade war against China through his imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods. China, in return, retaliated by imposing tariffs on goods that it imports from the United States. This trade war, if it escalates, could create a global recession that serves no country’s interests. The trade war rattled stock markets including US markets. The drop in US stock markets forced Trump to reconsider his trade policies and led to a promise to resolve the trade war with China within a 90-day window;
- 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Trump withdrew from the agreement, at the behest of mostly Israel, which increased the level of tension not only with Iran but throughout the Middle East region; and
- Obamacare. Trump failed to repeal and replace Obamacare but he continues to take executive actions to weaken the now very popular Obamacare.
The Mueller Investigation
Trump’s troubles have been exacerbated by the special counsel’s investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The latter is charged with finding out whether Trump or anyone involved with his 2016 presidential campaign conspired with Russia during the presidential elections. If the investigation reveals collusion with Russia, it would be a federal crime. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to two campaign-finance violations involving hush-money payments to two women Trump had affairs with. Trump is implicated in these crimes. Already, some members of Congress have publicly called for Trump’s impeachment.
Fraud Accusations
Trump has also been accused of participating in “outright fraud” in some of his business dealings. In an expose in the New York Times published on October 2, 2018, it was revealed that Trump might have engaged in a tax evasion scheme involving an estimated $400 million in unpaid taxes, interest, and penalties related to his inheritance and some of his business dealings.
These and other cases could lead to Trump being forced to release his tax returns which could open up a Pandora’s box leading to even more serious legal troubles for the president. According to the Brookings Institution revealed in a report published on January 18, 2019, 64 percent of Americans say that Trump should make his tax returns public, up 7 points from January 2018.
It is no wonder that Trump’s approval rating, conducted by the Pew Research Institute and published on January 16, 2019, and other polling organizations, has hit a low of 39 percent versus a disapproval rating of 58 percent.
In short, as 2019 begins, Trump is faced with foreign policy challenges (the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, N. Korea, among others), trade wars, a potentially slowing economy, a partial shutdown of the federal government with no end in sight, testy relations with the Democratic-controlled House, the Robert Mueller investigations, and a slew of lawsuits. With all these challenges and the endless stream of scandals, how in the world can a president, and a shady one at that, run a country and, not any country, but the world’s superpower?
Prof. Bishara Bahbah was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem based “Al-Fajr” newspaper between 1983-84. He was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Peace Talks on Arms Control and Regional Security. He taught at Harvard and was the associate director of its Kennedy School’s Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America.