10 things Trump can do to clean up Biden’s messes abroad by Douglas Murray
https://nypost.com/2024/11/07/opinion/10-things-trump-can-do-to-clean-up-bidens-messes-abroad/
Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday was so overwhelming that even his opponents seem to have gone quiet for a bit. Relatively speaking.
No doubt they will soon start constructing a whole new set of roadblocks to throw in his way. But there is no doubt that the president-elect now has an opportunity to reshape not just America, but the world.
The free world is desperately in need of strong leadership. And the un-free world is in desperate need of containment.
Here are 10 things the Trump administration could do to clean up the Biden-Harris chaos, and bring the peace that Trump-Vance promised in the campaign:
Ukraine
Trump has promised to negotiate a settlement to the war in Ukraine. It is inevitable at this stage that this will include some land compromises for the Ukrainians.
Some of us wish that wasn’t so. But Russia needs a way out, and Ukraine needs to not lose any more of its younger generation.
The quid pro quo should be that Trump makes it clear to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that there’ll be no more invasions on his watch.
And no more actual Russian election interference in neighboring countries like Georgia and Moldova.
China
Trump’s trade war against China will be back. As it should be. But his team will have an important negotiating point.
If China doesn’t want to be throttled, then it has to give up its evil alliance with Russia, Iran and North Korea.
merica is the only country in the world that can pry China away from Russia. If the Chinese Communists do it, perhaps he might hand them a carrot in due course.
Taiwan
China — don’t even think about it.
Qatar
The slave-addled Gulf state is one of the world’s biggest sponsors of terror. Not just with Hamas but with its terrorist media arm, Al-Jazeera.
Qatar needs to be isolated and sanctioned. The US military base there should be taken away and given to a real friend — like the United Arab Emirates.
It would be a reward for its great behavior and a punishment for Qatar’s bad behavior.
And if the Qataris stick with their game of trying to buy American institutions and corrupting them, then sanction Qatar, take its stuff and leave it to the perils of its neighborhood.
Britain
During Trump’s first term in office, his team, led by the terrific Robert Lighthizer, worked to do a big, beautiful trade deal with the newly liberated UK.
Biden & Co. squashed it. But Trump can pick it back up again, and — if his weak left-wing counterparts in the UK don’t kill it — he might even be able to make Britain Great again too.
NATO
Many know-nothings like to pretend that Trump is anti-NATO. He isn’t. He’s pro-NATO, but pro-member states paying their own way, and not expecting US taxpayers to pick up all their slack.
The conflict in Ukraine has expanded NATO and made most member states raise their spending.
Trump should encourage that further, and take the credit for NATO being not only stronger than ever, but a deterrent like never before.
Turkey
Speaking of which, Turkey is a member of NATO. But it hosts one of the headquarters of Hamas, from which Hamas plans terror attacks.
Trump needs to be clear to the would-be Sultan Erdogan: Hamas or NATO. You can have one, but not both. Time to pick a side.
Saudi Arabia
The Abraham Accords, formed in Trump’s first term, should have won him the Nobel Peace Prize.
It was one of the most stunning peace deals in history, achieving what many people thought was impossible.
Riyadh has said it is still open to joining the accords, or having its own normalization agreement. Of course Biden did nothing, because it would have been an admission that Trump was onto something.
But now that Trump is back, he can add Saudi Arabia and who knows how many other countries to the deal.
Israel
Biden talked a strong game on Israel, but his administration was wet and leaky as hell.
In fact, the Biden administration spent more time trying to perform regime change in Jerusalem than it ever did anywhere else.
Now that Biden, Chuck Schumer and that gang are out, this is a good time to reaffirm the alliance.
Israel doesn’t need America to fight its wars for it. But it does need the US as a resolute ally while it finishes off Hamas and Hezbollah.
It also needs America to assert the sort of pressure the Biden-Harris administration never did to get the remaining hostages freed.
Trump has said before that they must be freed before his inauguration. Now is the time to tell Hamas’ regional backers that time is up.
The slogan for freeing the hostages — including the American ones — should never have been “Bring them home.” It should be “Give them back.” Now.
Iran
Which brings me to the single most important thing Trump can do in the Middle East.
The only reason Iran has been able to fight a seven-front war against Israel for the past year is because Biden-Harris turned the money spigots on for the mullahs the minute they came into office.
Before that, the mullahs were crawling to Trump, begging him to lift his crippling sanctions on their country.
Now is the time to slam the sanctions back on. Iran has seen its terror proxies crippled by Israeli military and intelligence in the past year. Now is the time to go for the head of the snake.
The Iranians are threatening another direct strike on Israel from Iranian territory.
In the last exchange, Israel took out the Revolutionary Islamic government’s air defense systems. There might be a reason for that. In the “tit-for-tat” of this part of the war, the next strike from Iran is imminent.
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