Trump, the professed peacemaker, only makes conflicts worse

We were sold Donald Trump as a president of peace. He would end all wars immediately, and it would just be peace reigning supreme globally. The Russia, Ukraine war would end on the day he gets elected, and then that was pushed back to the day that he gets sworn in, and then none of it happened. But what we’re actually seeing is that the guy who swore he was the peace president is now presiding over renewed bombing in Gaza, more than we’ve seen in a very long time. He has launched new attacks in Yemen, and of course, he hasn’t ended the Russia, Ukraine war like he promised. Remember that Trump said, under his stewardship, we will stop the bloodshed. Will Israel just launched its most intense assault on Gaza in months, killing over 400 people because Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t feel that enough progress has been made on permanent cease fire talks, and now all of a sudden, you’ve got Palestinians order to evacuate, signaling maybe there is a full scale ground invasion coming. Trump’s love affair with bombing Middle Eastern countries continues this time he launched a new wave of air strikes in Yemen. Over the last 10 days or so, US forces have killed more than 50 people in this campaign against the hooties, and the strikes are likely going to continue. Trump’s not even pretending its defensive action. He’s saying we’re going offensive, and Iran had better be warned. In addition, Trump levying threats against Iran. Trump also did not end the Russia, Ukraine conflict. Now you and I know he was never going to end it on day one, but we need to hold Trump accountable for what he promised. He said, The day I become president elect, within 24 hours, it’ll be over. Didn’t happen. He said that, when I get sworn in, within 24 hours, it will be over. It didn’t happen. More recently, they’re talking about, we’re going to need 100 days, and even that is seeming shaky after Donald Trump had a call with Putin through Zelensky under the bus, floated a peace plan that sounds a lot like carving up Ukraine to appease Russia. And meanwhile, Russian forces continue their assault. And in addition to this, Trump has talked about, do we take Greenland one way or the other? Do we go into Mexico? If we have to do we try to annex Canada or the Panama Canal. And so consider how Trump sold himself, the guy who would bring the troops home, stop the endless wars, make America a neutral player in global conflicts, and instead, what we’re seeing under his leadership is mass bombings again in Gaza, escalating war in Yemen and a Ukraine, Russia, conflict that doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon. It’s not peace, it’s not chaos, it’s failure. Now, on some level, the people who would be affected by Trump’s failures already never supported the guy. What I mean by that is, I knew he wasn’t going to build a wall with Mexico in that first term that Mexico would pay for, but I didn’t vote for him. So Trump failing to do it did not affect me when I spoke to Trump callers during Trump’s first term. And I would say, What about Trump not building the wall? You going to hold him accountable for that? They go, Oh, it’s because of Democrats. And so one of the things we have to, I guess, accept is the right word, is that the standards that include holding people accountable for what they promise, and being ideologically consistent. If we’re the only ones who care about those standards, it kinda doesn’t matter. And this is what gets me to what I think is the best approach for the Democratic Party, for the progressive left at this point in time, and this is an area where we failed. We need to better connect policy to real world. Now, with foreign policy, it can be more difficult, because sometimes it’s more difficult to explain how Trump bombing the Houthis in Yemen affects bob and sue in Wisconsin. Okay, that can be tougher, but the lesson that we can take are these two viral stories from Trump’s deportation fiasco from the last couple of months. One story, I’m paraphrasing, was man votes Trump. Trump deports man’s wife. More recently, it was man votes Trump ice arrests and detains man’s wife. Those were immediate. You messed around, and now you’re finding out moments. And one of the best things that we can do, as we continue to try to explain this is bad for everybody, is connect the policy and the ideology to real world effects. And meanwhile. Yes, they control everything, but that also means they are accountable for everything if we hold them. So Democratic Party hasn’t done a great job on that lately. Maybe it’s time to start.