Thomas friedman columns donald trump
•
Donald Trump left the White House nearly four years ago. Given his self-confidence, I suspect he is now thinking: “What could be so different? I’ve got this.”
Well, I just traveled from a reporting trip in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a conference in the United Arab Emirates to a deep dive with Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence team in London, and I think the president-elect would be wise to remember a famous aphorism: There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.
What I saw and heard exposed me to three giant, shifting tectonic plates that will have profound implications for the new administration.
The most significant geopolitical event
In just the last two months, the Israeli military has inflicted a defeat on Iran that approaches its Six-Day War defeat of Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Full stop. Let’s review:
Over the past few decades, Iran built a formidable threat network that seemed to put Israel into an octopuslike grip. It became widely accepted that Israel was deterred from striking at Iran’s nuclear facilities because Iran had armed the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon with enough precision rockets to destroy Israel’s ports, airports, high-tech factories, air bases and infrastructure.
Not so
•
Thomas Friedman's Post
•
Newsletter
With Donald Trump now declared winner of the presidential race, the United States stands on the brink of a new era, one that Trump has promised will be ‘a golden age of America’. Yet, as New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman has warned, the implications of Trump’s ambitious agenda may be far from harmonious.
Trump has vowed to end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office, impose tariffs on China, and pressure Israel to conclude the war in Gaza. But will these bold promises stabilise global tensions — or further stoke them?
In November , Friedman returned to the Intelligence Squared stage in London for his first appearance since the pandemic. In conversation with broadcaster Ritula Shah he explored whether Trump’s policies will serve America’s interests or undermine its alliances and role in global affairs.
No one is better placed or more clear-sighted than Friedman to assess the implications of this new presidency. He shared his insights into the likely consequences of Trump’s vision for the US and the world for years to come.