The news these days is anything but fun to read. From earthquakes and fires, to tsunamis, hurricanes and floods, just the weather can be enough to cause serious anxiety and sadness.
But there’s another natural disaster that’s wreaking havoc around the world that a lot of us have written off as a sideshow, a distraction, a joke when the truth is, it’s anything but: United States President, Donald Trump.
It might be easy to laugh when he tweets, or share Saturday Night Live’s latest Alec-Baldwin-helmed take down, but the truth is Trump is in charge of a nuclear superpower, and he seems to have little to no concern about what that really means.
Overnight Trump announced the American embassy in Israel would be moved to Jerusalem, effectively recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is a big deal. Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world and it is highly significant to Jewish, Muslim and Christian people.
It’s also disputed territory, claimed by both Israel and Palestine since Israeli forces invaded East Jerusalem in 1967. In short, the politics of just deciding to recognise Israel’s claim to the entirety of Jerusalem are really fraught. Really complicated and really dangerous.
LISTEN: Explainer – what’s going on with Trump and Israel? (post continues after audio…)
As if the Middle East wasn’t already on edge, Trump just upends decades of diplomatic policy to please donors and supporters he promised things to during the election campaign. It’s easy to shrug this off, think the people and places involved are so far around the world it doesn’t matter. But of course it does.
Any decisions Trump makes that build instability in places like the Middle East affects the rest of the world. These decisions embolden terrorist organisations, they force powerful nations in the Middle East to take sides where before they may have stayed silent. When the US sneezes, the world pays attention.
Top Comments
Jerusalem was undivided until the Jordanian Army took control of East Jerusalem in the 1948 war. Jews were not able to pray at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. In 1967, the Jordanian Army was driven out. The Jordanians never had any business in Jerusalem and somewhat ironically loathed the Palestinians.
Ugh. I’m so sick of fools defending him. I’m sick of them defending every stupid comment, every stupid action. This isn’t a game. This isn’t about left versus right. This isn’t about Hilary versus Trump. This is about an absolute idiot that is Trump being elected President of United States. Everyone deserves better.
Is it about unemployment? Which is at a 16 year low
Housing prices? 6.5% higher than a year ago
Consumer spending? Up 2.8% in the last year
The Dow Jones? Up 12% this year
No it’s about degrading comments about women, degrading comments about minorities, stupid ideas like a wall, zero action after gun massacres, ridiculous childlike tweets and so on. The good doesn’t cancel out the bad. You can raise employment and also not be an arrogant fool.
I am starting to think that he ran as a joke, never believing he'd win, realised he's in waaaay over his head and has been doing everything he can to get out of the situation in which he's found himself. Can't explain the escalation in outrageous stupidity any other way. Or maybe I'm the delusional one.
Or, like most people, he does some good things and some bad things.