Trump Recycled!

By Saleem Ayoub Quna


CROSSFIREARABIA – In his younger years (in the late 70s and early 80s of last century), Trump, the rising and flamboyant businessman, when asked by reporters about his presidential aspirations, repeatedly said that he did not want to become a president!


Time has just proved that he was lying even at that early stage! But it was a lie that took a nap that lasted nearly four decades! The nap finally came to an end in 2016. Trump was the first person who could not
believe, his own eyes and ears, that he won the race to become the 45th President of the US!


Prior to that surprising outcome, the vast majority of polls, indications and analyses were in favor of his rival, the veteran Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.


Another interesting coincidence in Trump’s path to the White House, then and now was the fact that his two rivals in the two races were women! This last race in November, however, was unexpectedly different in that he won by a large and significant margin, one which the Americans label as a “landslide victory”!


Even during the shorter nap or forced absentia from real politics, when “sleepy” Joe Biden occupied the White House for four years, Trump was not never absent from the public eye and the thirsty and nagging American media. He frequently appeared in the media sitting in courtrooms, in different locations (States), frustrated yet polite, listening to more than 30 allegations, leveled against him by Attorney Generals, of breaking the rules of the land.


The question number one in the US and around the world today is this: Will Trump repeat himself, or should we expect a recycled Trump? Either way, someone around him will, definitely, remind him that the world has significantly changed since his interrupted presidency back in 2020!

This someone would also remind Trump that he was not the only one who must have learned his lesson. Others did that too, especially his country’s big so-called “adversaries” or rivals around the world, the likes of China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and others!


His country’s allies and friends, the likes of the European Union, the Ukraine, Japan, South Korea and Israel must have also done their homework, and were readying themselves for this expected day as Trump has re-merged from his forced absentia.


Whatever the case might be, Trump’s second term will be even more newsworthy and consequential! The issues at stake are huge and complicated, such as the illegal immigrants from South America, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the commercial war with China, NATO relations, the Ukraine-Russian war, the war in the Middle East and other problems.


If Trump and his new hand-picked team think they can handle all these issues in the span of four years, they must be either over optimistic or naïve. Remember when Trump back in the 2016 presidential race against Clinton, kept saying he will build a wall along the borders with Mexico to stop the flaw of immigrants and workers to the US and vowed that Mexico will pay the cost?


Has the new Trump’s team prepared an answer to that question? If I were part of that team, I would take a look at the US-Mexico borders and statistics today first. Trump may have the luxury of changing faces and hats of his team. But he cannot escape from his own instincts and mentality as a bossy powerful and cunning businessman as he faces a new dynamic world order, in which his country happens to be just the number one player!


The issues at stake today are much intimidating and bigger than Trump’s credentials, ambitions and instincts! Yes, he can tackle some pending socioeconomic problems at home, apply “anesthesia” techniques to address other international problems like the situation in the Middle East or the relations
with China or Iran or Russia, but he cannot ever put an end to any of the above, once for all in just four years!

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.

Related Posts

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/

Continue reading
The Middle East Octopus

By Dr Khairi Janbek

When we think of contemporary Iran, one always believes that the Arab Middle East had always been dominated by three Non-Arab American allies: Iran of the Shah, Turkey and Israel. One thinks that those “neighborhood police stations” were the guarantors of stability through their convergence, and at times contradictions in the age of Cold War and oil. However, the Shah of Iran was deposed and the anti-communist Cold War ended, but that didn’t mean that oil stopped becoming important nor that both Russia and China were no longer threats.

One would say, that the rehabilitation of Iran and possibly turning it into a negotiations partner aims at keeping the third angle of the police stations triangle going, because non of the Arab countries, no matter how much they tried, could never replace Iran, because no “Arab police station” is permitted to emerge as a third angle.

Having said that, it would be beyond naive to think that the expansion of Iran’s power and influence happened by stealth or escaped the notice of the US and NATO. After all, Iran grew to become a Red Sea country through its influence on the Houthis in Yemen, a Mediterranean country through its influence in Syria as well Lebanon through Hezbollah, and the major Gulf country through its supporters in Iraq. In fact this Iranian domination of space is what has created a common space between all its long arm organizations in the region.

Essentially, if we compare Iran to an octopus, all those various groups are its tentacles, and they all serve the purpose of Iran’s strategic interests, albeit not through a push-button approach, but through not taking any action which would not please their master Iran. Of course, this puts Iran in a strong position to be a major player in the region and an inescapable negotiations partner for the US, which is also convenient for the Americans, in order to remind their Arab allies who is their protector in a region policed by Turkey, Israel and Iran.

Of course, this takes us to the point of saying that, for all intents and purposes, for the Americans a trusted adversary is more important than distrusted friends, and that it would be absurd to think that all those long arms of Iran in the Arab world can be amputated by military means; they certainly can be weakened, but without the consent of Iran and without the right price, so long as it remains behind them, nothing much can change.

At this point, from what one can only see, is that no one in their right mind or otherwise, will permit a war to emerge in which Israel is pitted against Iran and the US as well as NATO putting all their weight behind Israel and forcing the Arabs to choose their camp. That would be the scenario of the end of the world as we know it , or with major civil wars in the Arab countries controlled by the tentacles of Iran, and no one wants that.

Dr Janbek is a Jordanian writer based in Paris

Continue reading

You Missed

Burning Muslim Civilization

Burning Muslim Civilization

Israel Kills Journalist and His Family in Gaza

Israel Kills Journalist and His Family in Gaza

‘Its as Bad as Ever in Gaza’ – UN Workers

‘Its as Bad as Ever in Gaza’ – UN Workers

Thank You Annie

Thank You Annie

Gaza Cracks Trump’s Image as ‘Peacemaker’

Gaza Cracks Trump’s Image as ‘Peacemaker’

How Israel Uses Its Legal System For Genocide

How Israel Uses Its Legal System For Genocide