Category Archives: Foreign Policy

Let’s See…..

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Let’s see if I have this straight.

Donald Trump set a deadline of 8pm April 7 for Iran to stop attacking ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Over the Easter weekend, Trump posted an obscene threat to Iran promising Iranians will be “living in hell” if they do not comply by the deadline. On the morning of April 7, Trump posted another threat, promising, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

A little more than an hour before the deadline, with some reports saying that long-range bombers were already enroute to the Middle East from their bases in the United States, Trump announced an agreement for a two-week ceasefire.

Trump and his supporters see this as an example of superior deal-making. Keep your opponent under pressure and uncertain of your next step.

Critics see it as just another example of what they call Trump’s TACO tendency, as in, “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

The whiplash alone will kill us.

Trump justified his attack on Iran with the claim that the country was very close to having a nuclear warhead and the missiles to deliver it. Nothing has been released to back up that claim. Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman have reported in The New York Times details about Trump’s decision-making process. They say their information comes from reporting for their forthcoming book, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” The article indicates there was considerable skepticism from most of Trump’s national security staff about the decision. Strong support came only from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Hegseth has argued that the sole purpose of the military is “lethality,” specifically, the efficient killing of enemies to break their will. Hegseth has also characterized the conflict with Iran as a religious battle.

There is no mention of these arguments in Trump’s post announcing the cease fire. There is a reference to the “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz….” From that it is clear Trump’s mind is now focused on the price of gasoline, soaring to well over four dollars a gallon on average and as high as five dollars a gallon in some parts of the United States.

It is the price at the pump that will have the greatest impact on voters in November. Trump clearly fears he and his Republican enablers will suffer. History says he will be right. So now, and only now, the closing of the shipping lane which transports twenty percent of the world’s energy supply is of concern. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security advisor to President Barak Obama, observes that Trump’s newly announced deal is a move to “reopen a Strait that was open before the pointless war he started”.

It is not clear that Trump’s two-week cease fire has even accomplished that goal. Iran’s response, which Trump himself posted, says “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.

Those “technical limitations” appear to include forcing ships to travel within Iran’s territorial waters and reportedly will include the payment of a toll to Iran. Trump has stated that perhaps the answer is for the United States and Iran to share that toll for passage.

In any event, Iran has kept the Strait closed, claiming it predicated opening the Strait on Israel ending its military action in Lebanon. Trump has denied any such promise was even discussed, let alone part of the agreement.

More negotiations are planned.

The Strait of Hormuz is not like the Suez Canal, or the Erie Canal, or the St. Lawrence Seaway. Those are manmade structures located completely within a sovereign nation. The Strait of Hormuz is a natural waterway, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. It is bordered not only by Iran, but also by Oman and the United Arab Emirates. As such it is an international waterway. There is an established route in its center. No tolls are charged and interfering with the right of passage violates international law.

Not that Iran cares about any of that. As for Trump, he has admitted that he “goes with his gut.” He doesn’t take advice because he believes he is always the smartest person in the room. He also knows or cares little about history or he would know Iran has blocked or threatened to block the Strait many times before. Only now, with his MAGA acolytes screaming to their congressmen, is he paying attention.

Who benefits from Trump’s actions? Believe it or not, Iran and Russia. In an attempt to push gas prices down, Trump is temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil that is currently at sea, allowing it to be shipped to buyers around the world. The sanctions were designed to pressure Russia into ending its military campaign in Ukraine. Oil and gas exports are Russia’s primary source of revenue. Russian will rake in the profits, which it will use to further the war it is fighting with Ukraine.

As incredible as that seems, for his next act Trump waived sanctions on Iranian oil purchases at sea for 30 days. This will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Iran’s treasury. Which they can use to buy and build more missiles, drones, and bombs to fire on America soldiers and bases in the region. And, naturally, at Israel. All to ease surging oil prices in the US.

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Rubio’s Woke War

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The Secretary of State is considered the senior advisor to the president. Dean of the cabinet. He is fourth in the line of succession to the presidency. The first Secretary of State was none other than Thomas Jefferson.

The current holder of this key office is Marco Rubio, the 72nd secretary. He used to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate from 2011 to 2025 and has long been a prominent figure in Republican politics. You would think his hands were full. His State Department is grappling with major foreign policy challenges like deterring China’s influence in the Western Hemisphere, managing migration pressures from Latin America, the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, negotiating peace efforts in the Middle East, and handling military against Venezuela.

But Rubio, or as Donald Trump used to call him, “Little Marco,” has something else on his mind. Fonts. Specifically, the typeface used by America’s diplomats on documents. Rubio has ordered diplomats to stop using the Calibri font and return to the more traditional Times New Roman.

Against the backdrop of all the crisis the nation is facing, the font edict looks less like a matter of professionalism and more like a symbolic skirmish. A way to score points in domestic culture battles while the department wrestles with urgent global crises.

The story behind the memo is made clear when you consider the order reverses a shift by President Joe Biden’s administration to the less formal typeface that Rubio called wasteful, confusing and unbefitting the dignity of US government documents. In other words, if Biden did it, it must be reversed. We already know Trump is obsessed with Biden. Now we know Rubio shares the syndrome.

Experts say Calibri is modern, clean, and screen-friendly, while Times New Roman is traditional, formal, and optimized for dense print text. The choice between them often depends on whether you want readability on digital displays or a classic, authoritative look in print. So, this is a judgment call.

But more telling, the Biden administration’s decision to switch fonts originated in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office. DEI is the number one boogeyman for the Trump administration. The Biden administration had made the switch because Calibri is generally considered to be more accessible for people with reading challenges due to the font’s simpler shapes and wider spacing, which make its letters easier to distinguish.

“Typography shapes how official documents are perceived in terms of cohesion, professionalism and formality,” Rubio said in a cable sent to all US embassies and consulates abroad. In it, he said the 2023 shift to the sans serif Calibri font emerged from misguided diversity, equity and inclusion policies pursued by his predecessor, Antony Blinken.

Anything that helps people with disabilities access government documents is not on the Trump agenda. Since taking over the State Department in January, Rubio has systematically dismantled DEI programs in line with President Donald Trump’s broader instructions to all federal agencies. Rubio has abolished offices and initiatives that had been created to promote and foster diversity and inclusion, including in Washington and at overseas embassies and consulates, and also ended foreign assistance funding for DEI projects abroad.

“Although switching to Calibri was not among the department’s most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances of DEI it was nonetheless cosmetic,” according to Rubio’s cable obtained by the Associated Press and first reported by The New York Times.

Americas can rest easy. The world may be going to hell but at least the nation’s chief foreign policy expert has his fonts under control.

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Bombing Iran

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It has become routine. Every two- or three-days Donald Trump does something more atrocious than before and it interrupts whatever I was doing and prompts a cycle of disgust, fear, and rage and often provokes one of these blogs, forcing me to put side something I thought was more interesting. I have come to hate the fact that he sucks all the oxygen out of the room.

But despite that, I find myself unable to get upset about Trump’s recent decision to bomb Iran‘s nuclear facilities. In fact, my initial thought was simply, why did it take so long?

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President Musk II

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Elon Musk has been making the rounds of Washington, giving exit interviews as he steps back from his Trump ordained role of destroying as much of the federal government as possible in the shortest amount of time. No one, perhaps not even Elon, knows why he is leaving a role he so obviously relishes.

Who else would gleefully prance around a stage carrying a chainsaw and celebrating “feeding the United States Agency for International Development into the woodchipper?” That act alone left poor people around the world to starve while food already purchased by USAID from American famers rotted in warehouses. What kind of a monster does something like that and cheers about it?

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The Trump Recession

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The Trump Recession is upon us. Not officially, that could take months. But the handwriting is on the wall. Just as clear as it was one year ago when every creditable economist warned Donald Trump’s plans for trade tariffs and government layoffs would knock the Goldilocks economy of Joe Biden off its feet. Seventy-seven million voters didn’t believe it. Or didn’t care. Now they can care. Or not. It’s hard to tell.

The latest GDP report shows that the U.S. economy contracted by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, marking a sharp downturn from the 2.4% growth in the final quarter of 2024. This decline was largely driven by a surge in imports ahead of Trump’s newly announced tariffs, which widened the trade deficit and negatively impacted GDP calculations.

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Deer in the Headlights

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The expression “deer caught in the headlights” comes from the behavior of deer when they’re suddenly illuminated by a vehicle’s headlights at night. In such situations, deer often freeze in place, unable to move or make a decision, likely out of fear or confusion. Metaphorically, the phrase is used to describe someone who is paralyzed by surprise, fear, or panic, especially when they’re put on the spot or faced with an unexpected challenge. It is that moment of being visibly overwhelmed and unsure of how to respond. Much of the nation is caught in the headlights today.

Let’s start with the Republicans in Congress. The party of Lincoln has thrown in the towel. There are no Barry Goldwaters, Gerald Fords, or Nelson Rockefellers, Republicans who stood up to Richard Nixon. There are not even any Liz Chaneys or Adam Kinzingers, Republicans who stood up to Donald Trump after the January 6 insurrection. Today Republicans in Congress have abandoned their traditional legislative role, rubber-stamping actions taken by Donald Trump. This shift marks a significant departure from the principles of checks and balances that are foundational to the U.S. political system. The GOP is now the Trump-MAGA Party.

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BDS

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A group calling itself “Princeton Israel Apartheid Divest” (“PAID”) submitted a proposal to the university asking that it divest and dissociate from companies and holdings with ties to Israel. The Princeton’s Resources Committee asked members of the community for comments. An abridged version of my response follows.

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