President Trump is zoned in on his legacy. Like any president, he wants to be remembered in the history books as a great leader.
On the one hand, he’s always wanted to be known as the peacemaker — the president who stops wars, rather than starting them.
That’s why he is anxious to ink deals, sometimes even if they’re on bad terms, as was the case with his latest Ukrainian proposal.
But there’s another part of his legacy roadmap — the accumulation of American territory.
If you ask what was one of Thomas Jefferson‘s major accomplishments as a president, a likely response is the huge expansion of American territory through the Louisiana purchase.
And those who were originally mocked as fools for purchasing Alaska from Russia are now seen as sage visionaries.
It’s appearing more and more that Donald Trump wants to absorb Canada and Greenland to be able to place on his résumé a dramatic expansion of American territory and hegemony.
What Trump is failing to understand is that both Louisiana and Alaska were effectuated through a negotiated purchase with the willing parties. Neither were accomplished under duress and in neither case did the then-president threaten that if they didn’t take our deal, they would face military consequences. The threat to take over an allied nation such as Greenland via force or to tariff allies who don’t abide is a disgraceful stain on our nation’s history of fighting for freedom.
President Ronald Reagan, who was severely criticized by the liberal media during his tenure, has over the decades, grown in stature because of his soaring rhetoric and moral clarity.
He preached of an America that was a shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope and a bastion of freedom vis-à-vis the communist evil empires abroad. He helped provide moral clarity for Lech Wałȩsa in Poland, who helped topple the Iron Curtain.
It wasn’t the threat of a military attack that took down the Iron Curtain; it was the victory of American ideals over worn-out Soviet totalitarianism.
Little of that soaring rhetoric flows from the tweets or lips of our current president.
President Trump has the ability to embellish his résumé if indeed his capture of Màduro leads to freedom and a return to democracy in Venezuela. But alas, his original comments after bringing in the drug-running Venezuelan leader was all about how rich everyone would get from Venezuelan oil. He suggested that the current corrupt Marxist repressive regime could remain in power.
Now certainly that may be a pragmatic approach to maintain order until more democratic elections could be arranged, but the uncertainty suggests that the president‘s heart is really more with oil than democracy. Even if it turns out that he’s correct that stability is needed in Venezuela at this moment, the chances of democracy reestablishing itself in Venezuela are elevated if Trump would talk about democracy to a greater extent.
Trump’s strength abroad has emboldened oppressed people who feel that there’s finally a chance to break free of their chains.
Once Máduro fell, things began to stir in Cuba, and now we see a new Arab spring developing in Iran.
During the last Iranian revolt, then-President Obama failed to meet the moment when he could’ve supported the Democratic movement, but instead sat by silently, giving tacit approval to the mullahs.
Trump is warning the Iranian leadership not to exact its frustrations on its people, which is a good thing. But it would be so much more effective if he used Reagan’s soaring rhetoric at this point to call for the people of Iran to bring about regime change and to install a democracy. He’s slowly shifting the tide, but is it now too late?
He must steer clear of giving support to a return to the former Shah‘s family. Their crown prince has been living here in exile for decades. He kisses Trump’s behind four times a day, but how could he think he has any right to go back to lead Iran? His father was a ruthless thug. We don’t need to replace a brutal theocracy with a brutal monarchy. We must stand for democracy.
If Trump is clear about this, his legacy on a foreign policy front can be an amazing one.