Smoke and Mirrors

This week has been one of mixed emotions for me.

Elation that the final living hostages have been liberated — tempered by disgust at the triumphalism surrounding trump. Watching him bask in the praise and glory he’s been receiving in Israel made me feel sick to my stomach. It was like watching a drug addict take his fix. In trump’s case, the addiction is narcissism, and the drug is adulation — heaped on him not only by Israeli leaders and the public, but also by analysts and media commentators, which has been confounding to watch.

Yes, trump deserves some credit for helping secure the release of the last twenty living hostages. But not the standing ovation we’re seeing. A little perspective is in order: the Biden administration managed to get 110 hostages released. The so-called “trump plan” is, in fact, a rehash of the ceasefire framework negotiated earlier by Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

Of course, timing is everything. In every film, it’s the ending people remember. And humility rarely earns applause in politics. If there’s one thing trump truly excels at, it’s hyperbole — turning minor accomplishments into monumental ones and claiming credit for what others have done. I'm just tired of watching people fall for it.

Still, let’s clarify what actually happened. No “peace deal” was signed — and the media should stop calling it that. What was agreed to was a ceasefire, and it’s already starting to unravel. Instead of demilitarizing, Hamas is doing the opposite. They’ve claimed victory and taken to the streets of Gaza as a self-styled “police force,” re-establishing control through public displays of power and executions.

The document signed in Egypt wasn’t signed by either Israel or Hamas. It was called a “joint declaration,” slightly more consequential than a communiqué, and was signed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, trump, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In other words, it was mostly PR.

If there was any doubt about the decline of western democracy, that was put to rest in Egypt, watching trump humiliate all the other leaders - their sycophancy together with the media's complicity.   

My question to Americans is this: At what point do you begin to see that the trump presidency for what it actually is, little more than smoke and mirrors — a performance designed to conceal the most corrupt presidency in U.S. history?

According to Forbes, trump’s personal net worth has jumped by nearly $3.4 billion in the first ten months of his second term — about $2 billion of that from cryptocurrency ventures, the untraceable currency of choice for crooks and corrupt politicians (read: bribes).

The rest of the trump family has profited handsomely as well. Jared and Ivanka have become billionaires in their own right. Jared has raised $4.6 billion from investors in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, and has already invested more than $2 billion in twenty-two companies. Eric and Don Jr. have joined in too, enriching themselves by roughly $750 million and $500 million respectively, much of it from crypto and real estate licensing deals across the Middle East and Asia. The family’s total enrichment from the presidency is estimated at more than $7 billion — and we’re only ten months in.

How do Americans not see that under trump, the office of the presidency, like every cheap product he’s ever slapped his name on, is for sale? Accepting the “gift” of a $400 million jet from Qatar wasn’t enough of a “for sale” sign? And what did Qatar get in return? Among other things, reportedly, a base for the Qatari Air Force — on American soil.

Meanwhile, trump has shut down the government while collecting billions in tariff revenue — effectively raising taxes on ordinary Americans — even as he cuts taxes for the wealthy and slashes benefits for the neediest. Does this get the public’s attention? Not so much.

What does raise Americans’ hackles? Apparently, the release of files on a wealthy, well-connected, dead pedophile. Maybe. Unless trump can keep the smoke-and-mirror show running long enough to distract them indefinitely.

And honestly, I wouldn’t bet against him. He knows you can never underestimate the American appetite for distraction — or the media’s willingness to go along with it. In the post-truth attention economy, spectacle is all that matters.