What’s the Trump doctrine? According to the White House, it’s #Winning.
And in many respects, they're not wrong. So far this summer, US President Donald Trump has put fears of a global trade war to bed with multiple deals, all in America’s favour. He's struck at the heart of America’s enemies in Tehran without putting boots on the ground or igniting the world war most in the press were predicting. But if you’re sitting in the Middle East today, you could be forgiven for being confused: what exactly is the Trump administration’s end game here?
Lately, it feels as if the whole approach is to throw a bunch of cats in a bag and shake it. And while the President is a master at owning the narrative, he seems less aware of what America's strategic purpose or long-term goals in the Middle East actually are. Between Israel, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and the whole of North Africa, no one arm seems to know what the other is doing. And so far, the administration hasn’t seemed too concerned with defining the exact mission.
In case you're wondering why that is, let me explain it to you. Most Americans don’t really care about what’s happening in the rest of the world. While the US is a country with enormous global influence and a huge stake in the global economy, the fact is that unless you are steeped in academia, work for a Washington think tank, or live in an international American city like New York, Miami or LA, chances are you’re more concerned with your taxes, and the price of food and petrol, than what’s happening oceans away. It’s basic geography and it’s not new.
Mr Trump understands this better than anyone; he has made America First the cornerstone of two presidencies, and for him the medium is the message. He hardly bothers with legacy media anymore. The people who voted for him see “traditional media” as irrelevant at best and, at worst, just another arm of the leftist elite.
So, it’s interesting then, that on the issue of Gaza, a man-made humanitarian crisis of the utmost urgency, with horrific imagery seen by millions in retweets, TikToks, Instagrams and YouTube videos, this White House has been slow to respond. Only this week, during his visit to Britain, did Mr Trump acknowledge the staggering impact of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza: mass starvation. For a man who knows how to tap into trends better than anyone, it’s astonishing that he’s waited so long. One factor could be his frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; another, the shift in America’s youth.
Travelling in the US this summer, I have repeatedly heard disillusionment from Mr Trump’s less aged supporters. They tell me they see Israel as a “freeloader" and question the amount of American tax dollars and weapons flowing to a country they believe threatens US sovereignty. They say they see through the “propaganda and lies” parroted by the talking heads of “Zionist” television networks, citing the horrific images of death, destruction and starvation in Gaza only found online as proof that traditional news outlets are trying to sanitise the truth. Decades of network news broadcasts policed by the Federal Communications Commission, the national regulator, which sets tough guidelines for how much violence can be shown on air and when, support this narrative. And while there are no such rules for cable news, advertisers have never really been interested in product placement wrapped around scenes of gore.
Trump’s boomer base, by contrast, see him as a saviour – the only elected official to follow through on promises made and call out the woke ideology that they believe has hijacked America. My father, born in 1947, tells me repeatedly that Mr Trump is the greatest thing ever to happen to US politics in his lifetime. They are a generation totally cool with America bombing Iran (where crowds chant “Death to America”), they don’t really care about the Epstein files or their fallout and they generally believe Israel is an ally that must be supported and protected at all costs.
To be clear, a huge number of Americans never learn anything about the Middle East outside of church. The region’s history – especially its recent history – isn’t taught in public schools, where the history curriculum rarely goes beyond the Second World War; nor do they learn about US involvement in the region today or America's role in shaping it. History textbooks are curated at the local level, not mandated by the federal government, and local school boards generally reflect the character of their communities, many of which are Christian and conservative. It's only with access to smart phones and the internet that more, mostly younger, Americans have heard about the plight of Palestinian Christians, for example – another point of contention for Mr Trump's base.
All of this is to say, America has a President who sets the news cycle. And while Monday's recognition of “real starvation” in Gaza is belated, any effort to save the thousands of malnourished babies in Gaza would be seen by both a large share of his base and the rest of the world as reasserting America’s role as an effective arbiter in the region.
Mr Trump has leverage with Israel that no other president has had precisely because he was willing to take action on Iran. Now is the time to use it. Apply pressure to end a disastrous war that has been allowed to go on for far too long with way too much suffering. It might even bump Jeffrey Epstein off the top of the headlines in America for a day or two.
