Displaying the most recent of 92847 posts written by

Ruth King

The Decision That Will Define Trump Peter O’Brien

https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/middle-east/the-decision-that-will-define-trump/

I can understand President Trump’s taking his time to decide whether or not to intervene in the Israel/Iran war, given the strength of the ‘no new wars’ sentiment of much of his base.  In deference to them he did not rush into a decision.

However, he was caught up by two considerations of his own devising.  Firstly, his firm and repeated assertion that Iran will never be allowed a nuclear weapon.  And, secondly, his demand that allies step up to the plate in defending themselves if they expect US help.  Implicit in that demand is that the US will help those friends and allies who help themselves.  Israel has done that in spades.  And, in doing so, it is rendering a great service to the rest of the world.

If Trump did not support Israel at this critical time, as he has now done, how seriously should, for example, the Albanese government take his demand to increase our own spending?  After all, the effective US contribution would not involve boots on the ground.  Just dropping two or three bunker busting bombs on selected sites from virtually uncontested airspace.  It would pose no risk of escalation from other state parties because they have not already intervened against Israel.

What is the downside?  There is a risk that Iran would strike US facilities in retaliation and that, undoubtedly, would hurt Trump domestically.   It would not, however, materially damage US power. There is a risk that the MOAB bomb might not have been able to penetrate the Fordow fortifications.  But two or three strikes would probably increase the chances.  It would be surprising if it did not do significant damage.  There is speculation the facility could be 100 metres or more below the surface.  But no matter how far underground it is, there must be surface level access points, and it would be strange if Israel did not know where they are.  With modern guidance systems a MOAB can be delivered straight through the front door — or any other door, for that matter.

I believe that Trump genuinely deplores war, as I do.  However, that does not make him a member of the kumbaya brigade, any more than it does me.  No military action comes without risk.  But sometimes the risk of inaction outweighs the alternative.

How, for example, would Taiwan – already in some doubt about US resolve to defend it – feel about a decision by Trump not to take all steps available to help Israel rid the world of the risk of Iran having a nuclear bomb?

Shunned by Sanctitudinous Science Peter Smith

https://quadrant.org.au/

When coffeeing with a group of conservative friends as I do on Fridays, one of our number, Professor Emeritus Ivan Kennedy, said something to the effect that there were no scientific alternative theories to the IPCC’s explanation of global warming except for his.

I was taken aback. Surely, even within my limited knowledge, William Happer (Princeton) and Richard Lindzen (MIT) hypothesise that the effect of CO2 on warming progressively declines. Nobel Prize winner Dr John Clauser hypothesises that reflective cumulus clouds created by water vapour, engendered by modest warming, act as a thermostat to keep global temperatures down. You can read about it here if you wish. So what is going on?

Let me start by dismissing the canard that global warming is an invention. Sure, maybe the so-called ‘homogenisation’ of past land and sea temperature data has artificially steepened the warming record since the 1940s. But, for all that, the NOAA satellite data since the end of 1979 shows that the temperature in the sub-troposphere has trended up by about 0.7⁰C between December 1979 and December 2024. As this data has been compiled by Roy Spencer and John Christie (sceptical scientists) at the University of Alamba in Huntsville, we can safely assume it is trustworthy.

So the climate has warmed. Now should come the scientific fun. Competing theories jostling to best explain the data. No such fun. Blaming exploitative Western man has proved to be a sacrosanct hypothesis.

Sacrosanctity and science don’t mix. Many past theories propounded by scientific giants have eventually failed the test: Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system; Aristotle’s theory of gravity, even Newton’s. Yet a tenuous theory of the climate concocted by relative mediocrities, which hasn’t come close to accurately predicting global temperatures, is holy writ. Risible, except that political and celebrity buy-in is undoing progress wherever it results in the replacement of reliable with unreliable energy.  Think of Australia as a quintessential case study.

Happily, despite powerful and well-funded forces out to cancel dissenters, maverick scientists keep on stirring the pot. Which brings me back to Prof. Kennedy and his collaborators. Their hypothesis can be found here. In lay terms it goes like this:

The increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since the 1960s has been caused by warming not the reverse. Other things equal, emissions by mankind of CO2 are all absorbed by the land (hence the greening) and by the oceans. Thus, on this account, there is no material net increase of CO2 in the atmosphere from fossil fuel emissions. Ergo, such emissions cannot be the cause of warming. It is true that warming has occurred, and that atmospheric CO2 has risen. The underlying chain of events is as follows.

Thank You Mr. President, Thank You America, Thank You Israel by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21693/thank-you-trump-america-israel

This tiny country [Israel], by itself, has begun putting an end to a “forever war” that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been waging on the West for 46 years. The potential success of such a David-vs-Goliath endeavor would not be possible without the strength, determination, and leadership of US President Donald J. Trump.

America finally has a president willing to act against terrorism.

This moment also makes clear that Trump’s actions are not provoking World War III, they are preventing World War III – which Iran has been threatening for almost half a century.

Now, once again, when Israel needs a true ally — not just someone to offer sympathetic words then threaten to withhold weapons — Trump has offered consistent support. “Israel has to do what they have to do,” he said.

This kind of Churchillian clarity does not cause chaos—it stops it, just as the allies stopped it in the last century in Germany and Japan. Trump and Netanyahu deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for taking one of the world’s greatest terrorist states off the table.

This kind of Churchillian clarity does not cause chaos — it stops it, as the WWII allies did in the last century in Germany and Japan. Trump and Netanyahu deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for taking one of the world’s greatest terrorist states off the table.

Strength does not invite war—it deters it. “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse,” observed the late esteemed psychologist, Osama bin Laden, “they will naturally want to side with the strong horse.” The Middle East is safer today not because of handshakes and summits and signed pieces of paper that usually one side disregards.

Russia disregarded the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Russia, the United States and Ukraine agreed that Ukraine’s borders would be respected in exchange for giving up the nuclear weapons it had at the time. And half a ton of documents showed that Iran had been cheating on its JCPOA “deal.”

The Middle East is safer today because Israel struck after… Israeli intelligence determined that Iran was on the brink of assembling a bomb — and because the United States stood behind Israel.

To those who still criticize, who still think diplomacy alone can solve everything, the answer is simple. As the great Secretary of State George Shultz noted, “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table” — in short, diplomacy works best when the enemy knows that it is backed up by force. Iran’s leaders did not take Trump’s 60-day warning seriously, probably because they did not believe he and Netanyahu had the courage to act. They also may be assuming that they can absorb a few blows and build back their nuclear weapons program after that – and precisely why it is crucial to destroy Fordow: to make sure no one can resuscitate it later.

The time for appeasement is over. For this, we owe our gratitude to three pillars: Trump, the USA under his leadership, and the brave people of Israel who refuse to be victims.

What the world witnessed this past week was not merely a military operation. It was the courageous act of a free nation — Israel — taking one of the bravest and most humane steps in recent memory to stop evil in its tracks. This tiny country, by itself, has begun putting an end to a “forever war” that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been waging on the West for 46 years. The potential success of such a David-vs-Goliath endeavor would not be possible without the strength, determination, and leadership of US President Donald J. Trump.

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Beyond breaking news and headlines and war, as Michael Ordman’s dazzling compendium shows, Israel’s researchers, scientists, and social institutions remain at work 24/7 to retain resiliency and continue vital development of technology that helps humanity from the Jordan River to distant seas in every continent. rsk

 

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Cutting off the head of the snake. By now most readers will have read how Israel caught Iran by surprise with the most audacious and successful preemptive strike since the six-day-war.  The awesome events of Fri 13 June 2025 will be written down in many future history books. See here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-857577
 
Air superiority in 48 hours. In just 48 hours, Israel achieved full air superiority over Iranian skies. In Israel’s preemptive military campaign operation “Rising Lion”, 200 Israeli jets struck critical Iranian targets and Israel now operates freely in Iranian airspace. https://israfan.com/p/israel-air-superiority-iran-operation-rising-lion
 
Baby saved after Iranian attack. A 3-month-old baby was pulled out alive and in good condition from the rubble in Rishon Letzion in the aftermath of the 3rd Iranian barrage of ballistic missiles fired indiscriminately at civilian residences in the greater Tel Aviv area. Shortly afterward, the infant’s parents were also rescued.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-rescue-team-pulls-baby-from-rubble-after-missile-barrage/
 
Advanced tech helps rescue Israelis. Police officers rescued a family from the rubble while searching the scene of a projectile impact in central Israel. The police stated that the rescue was conducted using special technological means, which allowed safe entry to the damaged area and removal of obstacles.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/410160
 
Puppies rescued. Israeli rescue forces retrieved two puppies from a Bat Yam home damaged by an Iranian missile strike. The Bat Yam Municipality took custody of the two mixed breed Labrador retrievers, and evacuated them for initial medical treatment while trying to locate the owners.
https://www.jns.org/two-puppies-rescued-from-rubble-in-bat-yam/
 
New Barak Magen destroys Iranian drones. For the first time, the Israeli Navy used its new “Barak Magen” air defense system to shoot down eight Iranian drones. In addition, it can intercept cruise missiles and high-trajectory missiles, thus protecting key infrastructure e.g. offshore gas platforms and cities along Israel’s coast.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-navys-new-barak-magen-shoots-down-uavs-1001512977
 
Repatriating Israelis. El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa are working to bring home thousands of Israelis each day who have been stranded abroad by the closure of Ben Gurion International airport. Israel is unique in that its citizens are desperate to travel from a relatively safe place to a country in the middle of a war.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-airlifts-start-bringing-home-stranded-citizens/
 
Haredi woman captains first repatriation flight. El Al operated the first repatriation flight from Larnaca to Israel, led by the haredi captain Nechama Spiegel from Beit Shemesh. Spiegel, a mother of seven and the first haredi captain in El Al, made the flight as part of a series of flights approved by the government.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/410229
 
Resilience domes. The Municipality of Sderot in southern Israel has launched a Resilience Accelerator to invest in resilience technologies and mental health. It comprises entrepreneurs working from within the crisis who are addressing trauma capacity issues, lack of accessibility, and waiting times.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-858049
 
Iranian state financial systems hacked. A cybersecurity attack has disabled Iran’s Sepah Bank, closely tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Also, Iran’s cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex, which reportedly has been used to bypass Iranian sanctions, has been hacked, with reported losses estimated at $80 million.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-linked-group-claims-cyberattack-on-iranian-bank/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rj118vge4el
 
From wedding to war. (TY Sharon) Not sure if this is good news, but it includes examples of how Israelis are accustomed to major changes of circumstances from one day to another.
https://rjstreets.com/2025/06/16/leaving-jerusalem-for-a-wedding-and-waking-to-war/
 
Thanks! (TY Yanky) Secular Boaz Golan is the lead presenter on Israel’s Channel 14. Viewers were in for an unexpected surprise when on live TV, Golan announced that the Jewish nation must give thanks to the Lord for the miracles we are witnessing. Donning a big kippah, he recited the gratitude Psalm 100 – Mizmor L’Todah.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1382423826363413
 
You did great. This newsletter editor signed up to be a “champion” in the MyIsrael campaign to raise funds for desperate Israeli families adversely impacted by the war.  The campaign raised over £1.1 million, of which over £12,000 was thanks to generous VeryGoodNewsIsrael readers.  If you still wish to donate, see link below.
https://www.charityextra.com/myisrael/michael-ordman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctVU58TNb6M (info about MyIsrael)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4-wKGM5es-4 (personal plea from MyIsrael CEO Danni Franks)
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Bioengineered skin to speed healing. Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Sheba Medical Center have developed replacement skin for grafting in burn victims. Bioengineered from the patient’s own cells, it is stable, robust, and flexible and can achieve wound closure in half the time of standard therapies.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-develops-bioengineered-skin-that-can-speed-healing/
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202501745
 
Huge EU grant to slow down aging. Prof Liat Ayalon, of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, is one of the United Nations’ Healthy Ageing 50: leaders transforming the world to be a better place to grow older. She has just been awarded a 2.5 million Euro grant from the European Research Council to advance her HALFLIFE project.
https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2025-06/erc-2024-adg-results-sh.pdf
https://cris.biu.ac.il/en/persons/liat-ayalon   https://liatayalon.com/
 
Israeli therapy cured 33% of “no-hope” myeloma patients. (TY Ron M) A third of 97 “terminal” myeloma patients are still alive after five years thanks to Car-T cancer treatment, originally invented by Israeli scientists. These were the findings of an international study, including Israel’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/s1wwwo11xgl
 
Trial success for delayed-release antibiotic. Israel’s PolyPid (see here previously) reported positive Phase III trial results on its delayed-release antibiotic treatment applied at the site of surgical infections. The reduction in the risk of infection after surgery was 58% in the 800-patient trial.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-polypid-reports-positive-phase-3-surgical-infection-drug-trial-1001512420
 
100,000 bacteria vs virus tests. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s MeMed (see here previously) reached a major milestone of more than 100,000 patients tested with its MeMed BV, the company’s flagship technology that accurately distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections in just 15 minutes.
https://www.ourcrowd.com/startup-news/memed-bv-surpasses-100000-patient-tests-underscoring-adoption-of-rapid-host-response-diagnostics
 
How paracetamol works. For decades, scientists believed that paracetamol relieved discomfort by working only in the brain and spinal cord. Now, Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists show that the AM404 active metabolite which it releases, shuts off sodium channels to stop pain signals while they are still at nerve endings.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-study-finds-acetaminophen-drug-works-by-first-blocking-pain-in-nerves/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2413811122
 
Doctors return on cargo ship. Dozens of doctors, who were at a European medical conference, have boarded a merchant ship on a special rescue voyage back to Israel. Among them are doctors from Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center, Rambam Health Care Campus, and Sheba Medical Center.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/syrcegjexg
 
BGU trains more doctors. Israel’s Ben-Gurion University has partnered with the Sagol Network to launch the Sagol Medical School for International Health. Its 4-year MD program, open to all Israeli citizens, uses hi-tech, global health, and AI to train Israel’s medical leaders. Currently, some 160 students are enrolled in the school.
https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/bgu-launches-sagol-medical-school-for-international-health/

‘Jews Not Allowed’: The Attempted Erasure of an Ancient People by Nils A. Haug

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21681/jews-not-allowed-the-attempted-erasure-of

For those Jewish scholars and experts from abroad, often invited by the local community in Australia to visit and share their views and expertise, there is news: you might not be permitted to come to Australia.

If, however, you are a dedicated Palestinian from Gaza, you are most likely welcome in Australia –little vetting required.

In Europe, Jew-hatred in France is on the rise again….. French President Emmanuel Macron, possibly to please his growing Muslim constituency, intended to recognize “steps toward” a borderless, atrociously governed, terrorist Palestine State – contrary to the interests of Israelis, the region, and especially the Palestinians.

“If France is really so determined to see a Palestinian state, I’ve got a suggestion for them: Carve out a piece of the French Riviera, and create a Palestinian state. They’re welcome to do that… but they’re not welcome to impose that kind of pressure on a sovereign nation.”– US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, i24news.tv, June 1, 2025

Are Macron’s government and others not only denying Israel, and its majority Jewish population, the necessary arms to defend itself, but also seeking to recognise a hostile Islamist state inside another country’s borders? What is “chutzpah” in French?

Pro-Palestinian activists at Sydney University, Australia, a recent investigative report revealed, have been freely disrupting university lectures, shouting antisemitic slogans and carrying banners declaring “Jews not allowed.” According to the report:

“Jewish workers and students experienced antisemitism daily whilst on campus, creating a workplace of fear, anxiousness and a fear of retribution towards Jewish workers and students because they were Jewish people.”

As has become typical in the West, the report’s recommendations were ignored and a full investigation of the university not undertaken.

For those Jewish scholars and experts from abroad, often invited by the local community in Australia to visit and share their views and expertise, there is news: you might not be permitted to enter Australia. Your visa, even if approved at some earlier stage, could be revoked and you might be silenced. The governing leftist Labor Party may not want you there.

If, however, you are a dedicated Palestinian from Gaza, you are most likely welcome in Australia, with little vetting required. So, come join the many thousands who are there already. Come create your very own “private Idaho,” just as many of your fellow Islamists have already done in Europe.

Scheduled to speak to thousands of people at a fundraising event in June for Australian Friends of Magen David Adom (the offical Israeli ambulance and medical emergency service devoted to saving lives of all people), Hillel Fuld had his visa revoked at the last minute. Fuld, an American-Israeli who describes himself as “a proud Zionist, a tech columnist, advisor to Google and Microsoft, and a father of five,” has over the past 20 months posted on his X and LinkedIn accounts commentary about Hamas’s war on Israel.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, “responsible for importing thousands of Gazans to Australia without adequate security checks,” stated his reason for revoking Fuld’s visa as “‘islamophobia rhetoric’ which risked inciting discord against Australia’s Muslim population.”

Fuld, therefore, was supposedly a “threat to the ‘health, safety or good order’ of Australians.”

Over the past few weeks in Australia, the following incidents against Jews were reported without much consequence:

Ringleader of anti-Israel protest receives slap on wrist for assault – WATCH

Gaza comes to the City to Surf
Club bans ‘fatophobia’ and Zionists

Local Labor Party branch calls for antisemitic measures

Jews targeted at Newcastle surf event
Extremist ‘anti-racist’ to speak at NSW Government-sponsored organisation’s event

Western Sydney couple get slap on the wrist over antisemitic graffiti

In the overall scheme of things, these events might seem trivial. Jews, regrettably, are often the “canary in the coalmine” – meaning, how Jews as a defenceless minority in the diaspora are treated, portends escalating future actions not only against them but other minorities, and eventually all citizens.

With Fuld, the issue is the curtailment of freedom of speech. Facts are denied a platform, in order to make space for alternative narratives that suit the prevailing political trend. This issue should be of concern to all citizens.

More than a decade back, Charles Small noted about the US:

“Anti-Semitism is a deep, deep hatred, and once we permit this hatred to exist or target one group, it’ll only be a matter of time before other groups are targeted.”

Small was the director of the Yale University Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism until it was closed down by the university after only a few years. Small’s words in 2012 were far-sighted. A decade or so later, we see widely-supported, violent anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist events at Harvard, Yale and University of Pennsylvania, among others institutions (see Appendix). Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, UC Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota are currently under federal investigation.

In Europe, Jew-hatred in France is on the rise again. In early June, French dockworkers prevented a shipment of military goods destined for Israel intended to assist it surviving an onslaught of jihadists from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran and its own West Bank. French President Emmanuel Macron, possibly to please his growing Muslim constituency, intended to recognize “steps toward” a borderless, atrociously governed, terrorist Palestine State – contrary to the interests of Israelis, the region, and especially the Palestinians. To justify his actions, and Macron has been lobbying other European nations to follow suit.

Christopher F. Rufo, Ryan Thorpe Gavin Newsom Sipped Cabernet While Los Angeles Burned The California governor attended a luxury wine-tasting during the recent riots.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/los-angeles-riots-california-governor-gavin-newsom-wine

As riots engulfed Los Angeles and mobs vandalized public buildings, incinerated vehicles, and assaulted law enforcement officers, California governor Gavin Newsom was enjoying a swanky wine-tasting party in Napa Valley.

The wine-tasting was held on the afternoon of June 7, 2025, at the Odette Estate Winery, which Newsom co-founded in 2011. Dubbed “Vineyard Vibes,” the event was a fundraiser for the PlumpJack Foundation, founded by Newsom’s sister, and featured “contemporary yet sophisticated” wines, live jazz music, and locally made pizza and smash burgers. “It’s the perfect kick-off to summer fun,” read promotional language. “The fete will take place on the Winery Crushpad, where we’ll gather for music, food, conversation, and delicious wine!”

A source who photographed Newsom at the event expressed shock that the governor was in attendance, given that riots had broken out in Los Angeles the day before. “I couldn’t believe it,” the source said. “He was just walking around like this was an everyday occurrence.” Newsom was at the wine party for at least 90 minutes, according to the source, who said that when the governor finally left, he appeared to retreat to the inner rooms of his winery.

U.S. Attorney Narrowly Avoids Murder Attempt by Illegal Alien Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/06/19/us-attorney-narrowly-avoids-murder-attempt-by-illegal-alien-n4940983

When a United States attorney can’t walk the streets of Albany without facing a knife-wielding illegal alien, we’ve officially reached the breaking point. This isn’t just another crime statistic to file away—this is a federal prosecutor being hunted like prey by someone who shouldn’t even be in our country.

United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III of the Northern District of New York learned firsthand about the consequences of Joe Biden’s open borders. On Tuesday evening, as he left his downtown Albany office, Sarcone found himself face-to-face with Saul Morales-Garcia, an illegal alien from El Salvador who had already been deported once before sneaking back across our border in 2021. What followed was a terrifying chase through the streets of New York’s capital city, with Morales-Garcia brandishing a knife and screaming threats in Spanish while making slashing gestures across his throat.

Sarcone’s response reveals everything you need to know about the character gap between law-abiding Americans and the criminals flooding across our border. After initially fleeing to the safety of a nearby Hilton Hotel lobby, the U.S. attorney made a decision that probably saved lives. Rather than staying hidden while his attacker disappeared into the crowd, Sarcone deliberately drew Morales-Garcia’s attention back to himself, knowing full well the maniac might charge him again with that knife.

Court Rules on Trump’s LA National Guard Deployment Catherine Salgado

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2025/06/20/breaking-court-lets-trump-keep-natl-guard-in-la-n4940982

An appeals court has once more ruled that the president of the United States does have the authority to keep the National Guard deployed in Los Angeles to put down the dangerous, and even deadly, anti-ICE riots.

A federal appeals court issued the decision in favor of Donald Trump late Thursday, blocking District Judge Charles Breyer’s order to put California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has largely sided with the anti-immigration crazies, back in control of the National Guard in LA. Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney shared screenshots of the decision and noted that it was unanimous, with a Joe Biden appointee joining in with two Trump appointees on the decision.

The decision stated, “We also conclude that the other stay factors — irreparable harm to Defendants, injury to Plaintiffs, and the public interest — weigh in Defendants’ favor. Thus, we grant the motion for a stay pending appeal.”

The judicial panel found Newsom’s claims of the National Guard escalating the situation and interfering with law enforcement were “too speculative.” The lack of proof for the complaints against Trump led the judges to rule in Trump’s favor.

Misunderstanding Trump? There’s a reason why Putin didn’t invade Ukraine during Trump’s first term. Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.frontpagemag.com/misunderstanding-trump/

Many are now demanding that Trump act abroad in the way they think he had promised and campaigned–which can be mostly defined as how closely he should parallel their own version of MAGA.

But Trump’s past shows that he never claimed that he was either an ideological isolationist or an interventionist.

He was and is clearly a populist-nationalist: i.e., what in a cost-to-benefit analysis is in the best interests of the U.S. at home and its own particular agendas abroad?

Trump did not like neo-conservatism because he never felt it was in our interests to spend blood and treasure on those who either did not deserve such largess, or who would never evolve in ways we thought they should, or whose fates were not central to our national interests.

So-called, optional, bad-deal, and forever wars in the Middle East and their multitrillion-dollar costs would come ultimately at the expense of shorting Middle America back home.

However, Trump’s first-term bombing of ISIS, standing down “little rocket man”, warning Putin not to invade Ukraine between 2017-21, and killing off Qasem Soleimani, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and many of the attacking Russian Wagner Group in Syria were certainly not Charles Lindberg isolationism but a sort of Jacksonian—something summed up perhaps as the Gadsen “Don’t tread on me”/ or Lucius Sulla’s “No better friend, no worse enemy” .

Trump’s much critiqued references to Putin—most recently during the G7, and his negotiations with him over Ukraine—were never, as alleged, appeasement (he was harder in his first term on Putin than was either Obama or Biden), but art-of-the-deal/transactional (e.g., you don’t gratuitously insult or ostracize your formidable rival in possible deal-making, but seek simultaneously to praise—and beat—him.)

Similarly, Churchill initially saw the mass-murdering, treacherous Stalin in the way Trump perhaps sees Putin, someone dangerous and evil, but who if handled carefully, occasionally granted his due, and approached with eyes wide open, could be useful in advancing a country’s realist interests—which for Britain in 1941 was for Russia to kill three-quarters of Nazi Germany’s soldiers, and, mutatis mutandis, for the U.S. in 2025 to cease the mass killing near Europe, save most of an autonomous Ukraine, keep Russia back eastward as far as feasible, and in Kissingerian-style derail the developing Chinese and Russian anti-American axis.

Trump was never anti-Ukraine, but rather against a seemingly endless Verdun-like war in which after three years neither side had found a pathway to strategic resolution—a war from the distance fought between two like peoples, one with nuclear weapons, and on the doorstep of Europe.

Trump’s Careful, America First Approach to Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program Trump’s MAGA base trusts his judgment—even if stopping Iran’s nuclear threat means a one-time strike, not a new war. By Fred Fleitz

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/20/trumps-careful-america-first-approach-to-irans-nuclear-weapons-program/

he mainstream media has been in overdrive this week, claiming that President Trump’s MAGA base is prepared to revolt if the president decides to drop bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment site because this would violate his America First principles to keep America out of new and unnecessary wars.

President Trump answered these criticisms decisively when he told The Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer that, since he originated the America First concept, he alone decides what it means. Trump also told the reporter that stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon aligns with America First principles:

“For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.”

Trump’s statement did not come as a surprise to those of us who have studied his America First approach to U.S. national security and why this groundbreaking approach to foreign affairs was so successful during Trump’s first term. (Full disclosure: I edited a book on this topic published in May 2024 titled An America First Approach to U.S. National Security.)

There is no question that the America First approach repudiates the failed foreign policies of prior Republican and Democratic presidents who embroiled our nation in endless wars and doomed nation-building efforts in areas of the world where there were no U.S. strategic interests. This approach is also a backlash to efforts by Democratic presidents to enmesh America in globalist trade agreements and treaties that were favored by the liberal elite but harmed U.S. security and the American worker.

This led to Trump’s America First approach to U.S. national security. A primary requirement of this approach is a competent and decisive president who exercises strong leadership, appoints exemplary national security officials, and implements a coherent and effective foreign policy to protect America from foreign threats and promote its interests abroad. The America First approach requires a strong military, the prudent use of U.S. military force, and keeping U.S. troops out of unnecessary and unending wars.

The America First approach is not America alone. It means working in alliances and with partners to promote regional security while requiring alliance members and allies to carry their full weight in defending security in their regions.