President Trump ‘Wins’ Nobel Peace Prize! Threatens to Invoke Insurrection Act. Teixeira on Democrats and ICE. Greenland. New Health Plan Empowers People. More.
Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, who has finally received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Well, sort of.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who won it last year, gave the president her Nobel. The Nobel Committee is accused of “compromising” the Peace Prize by not foreseeing that Machado would give it to Trump. LOL.
Domino Theory Backwards. Former CIA officer Martin Gurri writes about the global benefits Trump reaped by grabbing Maduro. Gurri charges that legacy media analysis was “pathetically shallow.”
Fresh off his Peace Prize “win,” President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis.
Don’t do it, urges an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. Obstructing ICE is a crime, the subhead says, but it doesn’t justify military intervention. From the editorial:
Triggering the Insurrection Act might be White House aide Stephen Miller’s fondest wish, or so it seems. But it could incite more protests, and it might cause more voters to wonder why the country is so unhappy in the second Trump term. It would surely motivate more Democrats to vote in November unless there is a broad threat to public safety that law enforcement can’t handle.
Yet there is no denying that some ICE opponents seem eager to incite agents into a belligerent response. They are taunting ICE agents in the street, recording them on their phones, and often using their own SUVs to obstruct ICE vehicles. Obstructing a federal officer in the course of doing his duty is illegal and deserves to be prosecuted. Acts of civil disobedience have a long and sometimes noble history, but the actors must also face the legal consequences.
Prominent law professors and AEI Fellows Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer give background on the Insurrection Act. Ruy Teixeira, the Liberal Patriot who is an AEI fellow, had a very important column yesterday on the ICE situation and Democrats. In “The Bankruptcy of the Democrats’ Elvis Presley Approach to Immigration,” Teixeira writes that the only policy his party has on illegal immigration is, “Don’t be cruel”:
Conspicuously lacking has been any recognition that, in fact, interior enforcement against illegal immigration is an entirely legitimate law enforcement operation and that ICE is the government agency charged with these legitimate activities. Therefore, what ICE does is presumptively legitimate not illegitimate.
Democrats are being mighty quiet about it. Instead, characterizations of ICE as a modern-day Gestapo, Nazis, an occupying force, etc have become so common as to be unremarkable. This attitude has led Democrats down a path where their policy on interior enforcement against illegal immigration seems to amount to: “Don’t do it! Don’t be cruel!”
Mark Hemingway argues at The Federalist that the goal of anti-ICE protests isn’t ending violence but ending enforcement of immigration law. Rich Lowry writes that the Minneapolis protesters are forcing President Trump’s hand on the Insurrection Act:
ICE officers are operating among a hostile population, significant elements of which consider them an occupying force — and are determined to expel them.
This is “Free Palestine” for the anti-ICE crowd.
The protests intensified after an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan here illegally in the leg. The illegal was stopped at a “targeted traffic stop,” but the situation worsened when he fled, and subsequently he, joined by two fellow illegals, beat the ICE agent with a shovel. More on the shovel beating suspects. The New York Times has the 911 calls from immediately after Renee Good’s death. A lawyer for Good’s family says Good was “concerned” by ICE agents but was not following them. Good was shot four times, according to the Minneapolis Fire Department. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urges Minnesotans to record actions of ICE agents on their cell phones to compile “a database of ICE atrocities.”
Unlike Minnesota, Iran has been the site of an untold number of atrocities inflicted on people by their own government. Iran has stopped slaughtering protesters, but only because they are being held hostage in their homes by men with machine guns. We do not know what President Trump, who publicly said the slaughter in Iran had stopped, is planning.
National Review’s Jim Geraghty says Trump opens himself up to the “TACO”—for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” a beloved Dem smear—charge if he fails to help Iran. Rich Lowry, also of National Review, says Trump must “Erase Jimmy Carter’s Iran Shame.”
While we wait to see what the U.S will (or will not) do in Iran, the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel finds President Trump’s behavior regarding Iceland puzzling in a column headlined “Operation Total Nuuk Submission“:
Resetting Venezuela after more than two decades under a socialist dictatorship won’t be quick or easy. Overthrowing a half-century of Islamic authoritarianism in Iran is hard and holds huge risks. Convincing a handful of fishermen and a few million Hygge practitioners to give the U.S. essential—if not formal—run of Greenland is simple, and pretty much already done. So why won’t Donald Trump just declare victory?
It’s a question up there with Winston Churchill’s riddle-mystery-enigma, all the more so given the obvious White House benefit in clearing a few foreign-policy headaches from its charger. It’s certainly a sight better than Operation Total Nuuk Submission, which requires agitating the whole of the European Continent, weirding out allies, and posturing over title like a persnickety real-estate agent. …
Yet somewhere in the drum-banging Mr. Trump amped himself up into this week’s declaration that “anything less” than Greenland “in the hands” of the U.S. “is unacceptable.” “One way or another, we’re going to have Greenland,” he insisted. And so it is that the U.S. is scorning an offer of near-free rein, out of annoyance at the lack of formal closing papers. It isn’t enough to have Greenland submit; it must become the 51st state (or maybe the 54th, depending on Canada, Mexico and the Panama Canal zone)—and like it.
To what benefit? Putting aside the feelings of the Greenlanders—who rightly resent being voluntold for statehold—the risks likely outweigh any rewards. Formal annexation of Greenland would make Russia’s day, a green light for Vladimir Putin to unleash his next round of conquest. Russia would recommit to its Ukrainian land grabs, expand control in Georgia and Moldova, and potentially take action against the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, where tensions are already rising. It could also poison rapidly expanding European alliances for increased Arctic control. …
Some of this may be ego. Mr. Trump seems at times to be wishcasting himself as James Monroe, William H. Seward and James K. Polk, fixated on the next great territorial expansion, 21st-century MAGA style. Some of this may be poorly considered management decisions, as in the choice to give a key role in talks to Mr. Vance, who riles Europeans and can be found in a thesaurus as an antonym for “diplomatic.”
National Review suggests the U.S. could buy Greenland for $750 billion if we weren’t so broke. Amid the brouhaha, don’t underestimate the strategic importance of Greenland. NATO is taking note of this weird situation. FYI: Nunk is the name of Greenland’s capital.
Don’t underestimate either the importance of the Trump administration’s new health plan, unveiled yesterday. It is designed to introduce transparency and put the power into the hands of patients. Forbes comments:
If properly implemented, the plan has the potential to transform U.S. healthcare that has been largely unaffordable for millions of Americans. Just under half of U.S. adults say it is difficult to afford health care costs, according to a KFF poll. However, as currently articulated by the Trump administration, the “Great Healthcare Plan” has a host of uncertainties that will shape what the ultimate impact of this initiative will be for the American people.
Also important is Robert L. Woodson Sr.’s “Black America Needs a Moral Rejuvenation.” Summary of Mr. Woodson’s advice: “Stop whining about racism, honor Martin Luther King’s legacy, and confront the enemy within.”
In closing, the Daily Caller reports that former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was hit with a lawsuit from the ex-wife of her former bodyguard. The suit alleges an affair. Apparently, the missus won’t be filibustered.
The office will be closed for Martin Luther King Day on Monday.
