As a rule, Donald Trump exercises caution before condemning Israeli leaders, but in recent days, the American president apparently couldn’t help himself. The New York Times reported:
President Trump’s public excoriation of Israel’s president because he has not yet pardoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his long-running corruption trial has touched a nerve in Israel.
Mr. Trump called President Isaac Herzog ‘disgraceful’ while speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday.
“The people of Israel should really shame him” for not letting Netanyahu off the hook, Trump said, referring to Israel’s president, whose responsibilities are largely ceremonial.
The trouble began in earnest in June, when the Republican published a rant to his social media platform, insisting that the case against the prime minister “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero.” He added, “THIS TRAVESTY OF ‘JUSTICE’ CAN NOT BE ALLOWED!”
Netanyahu, who’s insisted he’s done nothing wrong, is facing charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. Trump condemned the cases, not because of evidence pointing to Netanyahu’s innocence, but because the American president believes the Israeli prime minister is an ally and “a WARRIOR.” In fact, at no point in his harangue did Trump even question the charges against the prime minister on the merits.
His argument followed a child-like logic: He likes Netanyahu, so Netanyahu’s alleged crimes must go unexamined.
An Axios report added, “Trump’s comments in a post on his Truth Social account were an unprecedented intervention by a U.S. president in a legal proceeding in another democratic ally.”
That was true, though in the days, weeks and months that followed, Trump continued his lobbying campaign, publicly and privately demanding a pardon for Netanyahu, without regard for the evidence or concerns about diplomatic propriety.
Complicating matters, it’s not just Israel. When Marine Le Pen, a prominent far-right politician in France, was caught up in an embezzlement scheme involving E.U. funds, Trump threw an online tantrum and condemned the case against her as a “witch hunt.” When former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was headed to prison, Trump imposed harsh new trade tariffs on the country as a punishment for not letting Bolsonaro get away with his crimes.
Closer to home, Trump appears to have taken steps to punish Colorado because the state’s Democratic governor hasn’t freed a convicted felon the president likes.
What we’re dealing with, in other words, is a dynamic in which an American president abuses his pardon power to reward his allies, regardless of their crimes, and when he can’t issue pardons of his own, he lashes out and demands that others abuse their pardon power in order to make him happy.
As for developments in Israel, the Times’ report noted that the American president’s public condemnation “clearly stung” Herzog, who issued a statement late last week that clarified that the matter was still under review by the Ministry of Justice.
“Only upon completion of that process will President Herzog consider the request in accordance with the law, the best interests of the State of Israel, guided by his conscience, and without any influence from external or internal pressures of any kind,” the statement said.
Herzog added pointedly, “Israel is a sovereign state governed by the rule of law.”
By all appearances, that was precisely the opposite of what Trump wanted to hear.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
