Trumpography!

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

Yes, this is the only way I could come up with to describe the special type of approach and fascination, just recently demonstrated by US President-elect Donald Trump, versus the science of geography.

As we all know, geography has for centuries, drew the lines not only between countries and peoples, but also built demarcation signs for different nations to respect each other’s space, identity, culture, way of life and freedom.

Geography in this sense is good and useful. But when some men at the top in the past failed to read its subtle codes, problem happened. History is rich of such incidents.  Take for example Genghis Khan of Mongolia in the 11th century, Napoleon Bonaparte of France in the 17th century, and Adolf Hitler of Germany in the 20th century.

Who do think would be a good candidate today to replay the role of one of those who once misread the language of maps?

No one on earth can tell what’s really was going on in the mind of Donald Trump, the newly re-elected President of the US, when he talked the way he did, about his plans for his country’s second door neighbors and allies such as Canada, Mexico, Panama and even faraway Greenland, all in one coup, just few days before he takes office!

Surely, Trump’s hands are full at home and abroad. But it seems that his biggest obsession next to blaming Joe Biden for all mischiefs at home and abroad, is China!

China, he is told, is doing well. Not only its business and reputation are flourishing all over the world, including in the US, but also at home, where the standard of living and economy is impressively on the rise.

In addition to all of these strong cards China holds, its army must be the biggest in the world, plus its nuclear arsenal. Trump is aware of that too.

China for its part, is talking about Taiwan, the American and Western success story, since the end of WWII. China wants it back as part of its territorial national sovereignty. The US, Taiwan’s government and its people (23 million) and the West, do not agree to that, saying that the current world order has been constructed on the results of that war which they won, as did Communist China.

The current situation in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which harbors among others, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan is part and parcel of that glorious history.

Trump, to his own credit, is aware of China’s credentials. He obviously realizes the meaning of a full scale war with China. In some way, Trump thinks, and this goes also to his credit, that economy could be more important and effective than military force with equal rivals!

So to get out of this self-dug quagmire, Trump’s imagination takes him and the whole world, beyond all known classical boundaries of imagination, that politicians and strategists have experienced before.

Here, emerges the other hidden side of Trump, the visionary leader who, most probably, is living an illusion that he could be the greatest American President since 1776! Maybe, he thinks that, if George Washington, 250 years ago was chosen to become the first President of this vast rich country, it is now time for America, under his watch, to change the course of history and adjust some lines of geography again!

So what is he coming up with? He wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, because, first it is appropriate, and second because it is a more beautiful name! Thanks God that he did not suggest to name it the Gulf of Trump!

But what are the facts on the ground?

The Gulf of Mexico was known since Mexico and Mexican civilization were born nearly 3000 years ago. The US as such came to exist less than 300 years ago. The coast line of the Gulf of Mexico makes the waterfront boundaries of states that were taken by the American colonizers, as a result of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Look at the map again!

Other inland states such as Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Kansas and others were all also part of Mexican territory before that war. According to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo signed between representatives of the two governments of the US and Mexico at that time, Mexico had conceded all these territories to the strong and better armed Americans. In brief, more than 50% of what constitutes the USA today, was originally Mexican, but still the names of all these states are still Spanish, not English!

Looking north, Trump beholds Canada, a vast and sparsely populated land with lot of rich natural resources. Why not make it the 51 state now? If the Founding Fathers managed to conquer all these states that make half of the country today, from Mexico 200 years ago by force, why not invite Canada to join the Union, without a fight? Together they would make a great beautiful landscape, and a unique merging venture, Trump fantasizes!

Then he turns to Panama Canal! He wants to take control of this strategic water way between South and North America, because he does not like the news that the Chinese are using it to market their merchandise!

Finally, he looks way up to the Atlantic Ocean and spots a huge island covered with ice, where nearly 60,000 people live. They formally and willingly are loyal to the Danish Crown in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. According to the Mercator Map Projection, Greenland is as big as Africa, although topographically Africa is 14 times larger. But that does deter Trump from wanting to annex it to America as well!

The only way Trump would convince those 60000 Greenlanders to accept his offer would be to offer them all full-board stay in three star Hotels in America which do not belong to his hospitality empire of course, but are owned and run by a Cuban businessman, who was once granted political asylum in Florida along with other Cubans soldiers, after the American planned invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, during the JFK presidency in the early 1960s, had failed!

With this nostalgic note, I want to close, by sincerely hoping that this Trumpography bubble will not be around after Trump himself is gone four years from now!

This opinion was especially written for Crossfire Arabia by Saleem Ayoub Quna who is a Jordanian author writing on local, regional and international affairs and has two books published. He has a BA in English Literature from Jordan University, a diploma from Paris and an MA from Johns Hopkins University in Washington. He also has working knowledge of French and German.

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Trump, Iran And The ‘Nuclear Fight’

Experts say the Middle East region is poised on an impending war with the top protagonists being the USA, Israel and Iran.  They stand on a military pedestal of violent conflict where Armageddon has become the new catchphrase.

The man at the center of it all is US president Donald Trump who has been elected on a so-called global “peace” ticket but is fueling the worldwide escalation with his rhetoric.

He is telling Iran, nay warning it, to either hitch out and agree to a new accord on the country’s nuclear file or face the American wrath where its Persian cities and nuclear facilities would be wildly attacked in a first-time development that is turning international relations upside down.

And so a war of words began between Tehran and Washington since Trump sent a stern letter to Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, telling him to submit to a new nuclear agreement to stall his country’s nuclear facilities or face extensive US bombing. 

This was a callous, stark warning. The international system has never, till now, faced such discursive diplomatic parlance, even at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Iranian leadership saw Trump’s verbiage as an outright threat and refused to submit, even telling US president that Iran will not be bullied and he can to “go to hell”, a comment made by Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian. He was speaking for the Ayatollah and the top leadership in the country.

Since then however, and in spite of the occasional utterings, recently made by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Iraghchi that Tehran would respond quickly and heavily to any outside attack, both sides have been involved in a “jostling affair” issuing different and irk statements short of the war-mongering tirade Trump started.

Military brink

Today, and on the face of it, both sides appear to want to pull back from the military brink. The Iranians are now saying they would be prepared to negotiate but only indirectly through Oman, the country that has traditionally served as a consummate link between Washington and Tehran.

Whilst the Trump administration may be contemplating such a fact, although it’s on record for stating it would prefer direct face-to-face negotiations involving fully-fledged American and Iranian expert teams in the field of nuclear weapons and proliferation, Washington has not closed the doors to such an offer from Tehran and it is still considering it which means it might be softening its position.

But there is another snag to this. Iranian officials have stated they want confidence-building measures from the Trump administration and don’t believe in negotiations under threat but this appears to be what is happening today.

As the diplomatic chit chat continues, Washington is sending military reinforcements with jet fighters, mass bombs and missiles to the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Red Sea as part of their stepped-up fight against the Houthis and potentially against Iran, both of whom are against the Israeli military onslaught on the Gaza Strip which is being financed by the USA.

Thus, what is happening now is that both sides are involved in sending out mixed signals despite the military escalation and war of words with Trump in what is becoming his customary U-turns. He is now saying that he doesn’t want a fight with Iran and is prepared for negotiations. 

But the ball is turning so to speak. For one thing Israel has long sought deadly strikes on Iranian cities and nuclear facilities and for it, today this is a “golden opportunity” being flanked and supported by US warships in the area.

Israel sees such a series of strikes as more urgent than before because after 2018 when Trump got the USA out of the nuclear deal, Iran started once again to boost its uranium enrichment program and many argue it’s very near to achieving a nuclear bomb and capability.

But that may be over-stating the fact, because Iran has always stated its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and its officials have maintained an official dialogue with the countries it originally made a deal with in 2015 officially named as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

So the current escalation may be tinged with diplomatic talk for although Trump maybe rash in what he says, there is usually a back up plan up his sleeve of not reaching beyond the military brink with brinkmanship being played at the highest levels.

This comment is written by Dr Marwan Asmar, chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.

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Gaza Cracks Trump’s Image as ‘Peacemaker’

By Giorgio Cafiero

The Gaza ceasefire had been extremely fragile ever since its implementation on Jan. 19. Many analysts doubted that phase two would begin, and the main question was about when, not if, the ceasefire would fall apart. It came as no surprise when Israel completely ended the ceasefire on March 18 and resumed its genocidal war on Gaza, killing roughly 600 [1] Palestinians within the first four days after the truce collapsed.

It is beyond disturbing to think about what will come next for the 2.2 million people in Gaza, especially given that Israeli authorities imposed [2] a blockade on all humanitarian aid on March 2. While briefing the UN Security Council on the day Israel resumed its war, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said [3] “food is rotting and medicines are expiring.” The Israelis quickly undid all humanitarian progress achieved by international actors during the 42-day ceasefire. “Essential survival resources needed are now being rationed,” warned [4] Fletcher.

For all the misleading and outright inaccurate reporting in the Western media, it is clear that Hamas wanted phase two to begin, which was supposed to take place on March 1. However, Israel wanted phase one extended and was against moving into phase two. Had the second phase begun, Hamas would have handed over all the remaining Israeli captives. Now, amid this intense warfare, Hamas claims it is considering US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s “Bridge Proposal,” which aims to extend the collapsed ceasefire into next month, beyond Ramadan and Passover, to permit negotiations for a permanent ceasefire to end this war.

It is not difficult to understand why this genocide resumed on March 18. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies in the government were crystal clear that they did not support the ceasefire and wanted Israeli military operations against Gaza to resume. It was only pressure from the incoming Donald Trump administration during the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency that led Tel Aviv to agree to the tenuous ceasefire. Now that the Trump administration removed that pressure on Israel and the American president went all-out with his rhetoric about “hell” in Gaza, Netanyahu received the green light from the White House to continue the genocide.


Trump’s desires and reality

What US President Donald Trump realistically sought to achieve with his obscene rhetoric about a “clean out” [6] of Gaza and outlandish talk of transforming the war-ravaged enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East” [7] is a question for another article. Nonetheless, it is easy to conclude that such language emboldened the most right-wing and aggressive Israeli elements, including those in the government. These extremists have spent decades fantasizing about a second Nakba and establishing a Palestinian state outside Palestine.

Put simply, for Netanyahu and those around him to champion this plan of mass ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of millions of Palestinians into Egypt, Jordan, and perhaps also some Gulf Arab countries, continuing the war on Gaza is a necessary part of this process. After all, human history has shown that people don’t volunteer to leave their ancestral homeland but typically only do as a result of massive bloodshed.

The Israeli leadership understands this about the Palestinians and their quest to remain on their land. So much was on display with the leaflets [8] that Israel’s military recently dropped on Gaza, which threatened to make Trump’s plan for a “clean out” of Gaza the new reality.

To be sure, Israel’s domestic politics and Netanyahu’s own legal situation were relevant factors too. By restarting the war on Gaza, Netanyahu was able to secure stability within his own coalition. Now, not only is there no reason for him to fear more cabinet members quitting the coalition, but former Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who left in January because of the ceasefire has returned [9] due to the genocide’s resumption.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial, set for the day that the war on Gaza recommenced, was postponed, [10] highlighting how “security developments” [11] shield him from legal consequences for his alleged [12] breach of trust, bribery, and fraud.

A key question is, where does this all leave Trump? After all, he campaigned on being a “peacemaker” president. While delivering his inaugural address just over two months ago, Trump declared, [13] “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”

At this point, Trump might find himself trapped in Gaza, preventing him from reducing the US military footprint in the Middle East. Trump is escalating conflicts in the region—from Gaza to Yemen and possibly soon Iran—that could keep the US bogged down in this part of the world, which is the opposite of his promises regarding US foreign policy if elected to a second term. It remains to be seen how Trump’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza and his escalation in Yemen—closely tied to Palestine—will impact his standing among his MAGA base.

The author is the CEO of Gulf States Analytics

[1] https://www.euronews.com/2025/03/22/israel-orders-idf-troops-to-advance-deeper-into-gaza-as-renewed-operation-expands

[2] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/02/middleeast/israel-halts-gaza-humanitarian-aid-intl-hnk/index.html

[3, 4] https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1161246

[5] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-intensifying-gaza-strikes-press-hamas-into-freeing-hostages-defence-2025-03-21/

[6] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/27/middleeast/trump-clean-out-gaza-middle-east-intl/index.html

[7] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trumps-gaza-israel-plans-riviera-rcna190748

[8] https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-drops-leaflets-saying-no-one-will-care-if-gazans-vanish

[9] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/18/israels-ben-gvir-to-rejoin-netanyahus-government

[10,11,12] https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/report-netanyahus-testimony-corruption-trial-postponed-due-gaza-war

[13] https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/

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