Ahead of Friday's inauguration of the Donald Trump administration, there are multiple indications that the president-elect will have a very tough time of it, including:
A raging controversy over his and members of his team's relationship with Putin's Russia. Charges and counter-charges abound. Documents emerge that may or may not be phony, alleging that he is seriously compromised by the Russian regime. His own cabinet picks in their confirmation hearings in Congress characterize Russia as a serious threat to the US. This is beyond confusion - it is sheer policy chaos.
I am generally not an advocate of conspiracy theories, but as we all know conspiracies do happen and there would appear to be, if not a conspiracy, a significant effort on the part of the intelligence community and much of the major media to discredit Trump before he takes office, thereby crippling his chances of achieving success in implementing his agenda.
Finally, Trump has himself added to the controversy by refusing to separate himself completely from his business interests. This is not hard to do. They can be put into a blind trust, which is a technique that has been used by hundreds, if not thousands of public servants over the years. His refusal to do anything of the sort is reprehensible and casts a dark shadow of impending corruption over his assumption of office.
When all this is added to Congressional testimony by his nominees for high office, which on many significant points has frontally contradicted his own policy pronouncements, prognostication concerning the success of his administration must take on a distinctly somber tone. Given that his administration will follow on to sixteen years of bad government in the US, which has left the country in a state of monumental over-indebtedness, loss of position and prestige in the world as well as military weakness not seen since the early 1980's, the political weather forecast for the country can only be described as stormy.
What this all means for Israel is obvious. The most pro-Israeli president in recent history will be crippled by his own deficiencies and by the desperate efforts of his enemies (not least a seriously wounded Democrat Party) to see that he fails. His very support may indeed become a liability for Israel rather than an asset. We can only hope and pray that this does not happen, but at the moment things are not looking good.
Norman A. Bailey, Ph.D., is Professor of Economics and National Security, The National Security Studies Center, University of Haifa, and Adjunct Professor of Economic Statecraft, The Institute of World Politics, Washington, DC. He was formerly with the US National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 19, 2017
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