President Donald Trump’s political foes are casting his efforts to effect genuine change in Washington, labeling this shift as authoritarian. But according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, the pearl-clutching of the credentialed elites, whose fears are about losing their own power rather than democracy, is about partisanship, not the Constitution.
He’s joined in this week’s episode by investigative journalist Ben Weingarten, who pointed out the absurdity of accusing Trump of fascism when his priority is cutting the size of government.
Weingarten also characterizes some of the changes that Trump is attempting to make in foreign policy as sensible attempts to deal with contemporary challenges rather than those of the past, particularly with respect to NATO and Ukraine. He also noted that Trump’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), rather than primarily aimed at helping the needy, was misused to “export” woke American ideas like gender ideology and DEI.
On Israel, Weingarten noted that Trump’s statements about Hamas have provided moral clarity rather than moral equivalence, as was the case with the Biden administration. His plan for Gaza is also a monumental sea change for the better since it ends the dangerous fantasy of a Palestinian state. While the comments of his envoys have come in for criticism because of their willingness to negotiate with Hamas, Weingarten believes that what Trump says matters the most.
He also praised the administration’s actions to combat antisemitism on college campuses. The defunding of schools, like Columbia University, that have enabled Jew-hatred is a crucial step. But he also endorsed the decision to seek to deport Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leading agitators of pro-Hamas harassment of Jews.
He said, “It’s utterly asinine on every single level that there would be any controversy over this when you’re talking about a non-citizen who is propagating Hamas and jihadist tropes and engaging in the acts that essentially threaten the rights of American citizens.”
He added that the U.S. “Constitution would be a suicide pact if you had an inalienable right as a non-citizen” to do that.
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