Why did Trump have Soleimani assassinated? Trump’s grand strategy? No. A compelling offensive action to keep us safe? No. A considered decision that he weighed carefully with other options? Hardly. It was just another example of Trump’s obsession with Obama. Soleimani is Trump’s Osama bin Laden. When his military advisors included assassination as the worst option that Trump should consider, there was no contest. Assassinating Soleimani was the only possible choice for Trump’s bruised ego in his endless struggle against Obama’s legacy.
Now, Trump can put another notch in his belt, along with the more than 40 notches already there that represent the immigrants who have died during the Trump presidency while in Federal custody by ICE and other agencies, or just after their release.
Hillary Clinton called Trump a puppet in a presidential debate, suggesting that Putin was his puppet master. Trump is being controlled by Putin. He undoubtedly receives new orders from Putin every time they talk. We don’t know the content, but we can infer what Trump has been ordered to do by assessing if this or that subsequent action by Trump benefits Russia, generally, and/or Putin, specifically. Trump’s impulsive US troop withdrawal from Kurdish areas in Northern Syria is an example. While it appeared that Trump acted in response to a brief telephone conversation with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s President. It is more likely that Trump had been previously ordered by Putin to accede to Erdoğan’s request.
Trump’s agency has been dramatically reduced by Putin’s control over him, including Putin’s effort to pin Russia’s US election meddling on Ukraine. Ironically, this led directly to Trump’s impeachment. What little agency remains is further compromised by the ghost of President Obama, who roams the halls of the West Wing. That ghost daily reminds Trump that he will never measure up to Obama. Rather than forging some of his positive initiatives, Trump has been obsessed with undoing everything that Obama did. While previous Presidents of the opposite party have undone some of the work of their predecessor, Trump has taken this to a whole new level. It is not a matter of principle, ideology, or political strategy, but jealousy, impotence, and, finally, rage.
Not only will Trump be judged as the worst President in history, but his legacy will also become dust in the wind as it is reversed by future presidents. Even the idea of a Trump Presidential Library is quaint since his presidential Twitter rants can easily be stored on a few USB flash drives. They will be the primary documentary evidence of his Presidency. His “Presidential Library” will be a small, antique desk in one of the 128 rooms in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. The flash drives will fit nicely in a desk drawer. After his Presidency, Trump will reside there until Mar-a-Lago is submerged due to the sea-level rise caused by global warming, or Trump is sentenced and imprisoned for his crimes that were still within the statute of limitations when his Presidential immunity ended. Sad.
So Many Thumb Drives, photo by Mark Wilson, March 14, 2013, (CC BY 2.0), https://www.flickr.com/photos/funnypolynomial/8591964580