Trump’s not getting to make a big entrance with the helicopter seems to be a bigger deal than doing diplomacy. Trump’s jonesing for Masada goes back to his 2011 desire to have part of the Miss Universe pageant held there.
Apparently Trump has a fear of foreign travel, meaning he loves being televised getting off the plane but hates being in the other country … very America First … find the local Mickey D wherever you land. Stephen Miller must be his food taster.
But viewed another way, it’s perfectly appropriate: Masada is largely about pageantry, and specifically the pageantry of the underdog.
Now he’s about to embark on a high-profile mission to solve what may be the world’s most notoriously unsolvable conflict, and it’s a mission that combines these two passions.
In this scenario, too, he is an underdog, as an inexperienced statesman tackling a problem that’s stumped some of the most skilled diplomats for decades.
But he’s a confident underdog, one who believes he can and will make a historic deal. So why not throw some spectacle into the mix?
A contributing factor in canceling the speech at Masada during his trip may be due to giving the Russians classified code-word intelligence sourced by Israel.
Darn that Israeli air force and their flight rules for those who don’t want to struggle to get to the top.
It’s all about President Snowflake coming down the pageant runway with his specialness because if he can’t use his helicopter, he’d have to walk or take the cable car like those losers Clinton and Bush.
President Trump is canceling a planned speech at an ancient mountain fortress in Israel, according to a new report.
Trump will no longer visit Masada on Monday after authorities told him that he could not land his helicopter there, Newsweek reported, citing Israel’s Channel 2.
Trump reportedly declined to land the helicopter at the base of the historic site and then take the cable car up, as former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush did on previous visits.
Darn those little guys, Clinton and Bush. Aside from never making a speech from Masada, they understood that such a speech would signify a bias for Israel. Trump on the other hand, seems now to be on the run from his enemies, but what is he really dreading about the trip that he wants to shorten from nine to five days.
Trump reportedly believed that having a beauty contest at palace built by Judean king Herod would be a good PR opportunity
… in 2011, Trump wanted to host the Miss Universe Pageant there, according to Eran Sidis, the Knesset speaker’s chief of staff…
Trump, who owned the pageant until 2015, saw the location as good PR, though it’s unclear whether he meant good PR for Israel or the pageant. But had the pageant been held there, weather might have gotten in the way. The pageant is usually held in December, near the peak of Israel’s rainy, windy and chilly winter. Not the best place for a swimsuit contest, perhaps…
Sigal Samuel, who wrote the Atlantic article, suggests why Trump has an affinity for Masada. Trump, Samuel writes, “loves an underdog. Throughout the presidential campaign, he repeatedly depicted himself as one. Cultivating an image as a man spurned by the political establishment, the media, and liberal elites, he endeared himself to voters who likewise saw themselves as ‘the little guys.’”
Then again, media villains aways have problems with cable cars and mountains.
Trump's Razor, of course, suggests that Trump is just being an asshole.
But it's also possible that he has acrophobia in some form or another, and doesn't like the idea of swinging in the air from a cable for three minutes.
I don't suppose Trump would ever admit to such a weakness, so we'll never know unless someone leaks about it. And what are the odds of that in this buttoned-down administration?