What’s Next in the Middle East? Trump Leaves G7 for Real Work. Israel Foe Mamdani: Polling Well in New York’s Mayor’s Race. & More
A truly remarkable sight: An Iranian newscaster, heavily veiled because she is a woman, is gesturing to make a point. Then the studio explodes while she is on air:
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, shattering glass and plunging the main studio of Iran’s state broadcaster into darkness. As the news anchor scurried from her seat, debris fell from the ceiling and smoke wafted across the screen. Off-camera, a male voice cried out “Allahu Akbar” – “God is great”.
In other news, Israel has killed Iran’s current top military commander, Ali Shadmani, just four days after he was appointed (guess what happened to his predecessor?). The man of the hour is President Trump. The New York Post’s cover is a split screen of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the current Ayatollah with the headline “Tug of War.” The president has been strong for Israel, an ideal ally that can fight its own battles, but the Ayatollahs must have an atavistic belief that they can manipulate American Presidents. Wonder how they got that idea?
President Trump cut short his G7 trip to Alberta, Canada, posting on Truth Social as he departed that “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran.” Trump is back in Washington with the National Security Council on alert to meet. A New York Post editorial urges President Trump to “step up and end the Iranian threat once and for all”:
If Iran won’t give up its nuke program — completely, quickly and verifiably — Trump shouldn’t hesitate to use America’s big, beautiful bunker-buster bombs to finish the job.
Israel has already made progress in de-nuking Iran, hitting its largest uranium-enrichment site, Natanz, and its Isfahan facility, and wiping out many of the regime’s top nuclear scientists and military leaders.
Mark Levin of the popular “Life, Liberty and Levin” on Fox is of the same mind. “Isolationism Is the Same as Appeasement—and It’s Keeping Trump, Netanyahu from Transforming the Middle East” is the headline on Levin’s op-ed. Expressing a different view is Sohrab Ahmari’s “The Regime Change Maniacs Are Back. Iran Is in Their Sights and They’ve Learned Nothing” at Unherd. President Trump rejected a G7 call for a ceasefire, saying he instead wants something better: an end to the war, contingent on Iran’s giving up nukes, including enrichment of uranium for supposedly peaceful ends.
As a somewhat chastened regime change maniac, who repents her avid support for the disastrous Iraq invasion, Ms. Must refers you to Hot Air’s post “If the Iranian Regime Falls, What Will Follow?” by David Strom. The Free Press has a fascinating piece by Iran expert Jay Solomon headlined “Washington War Games: How the U.S. Prepared for Iran Strike.” As far back as February, Solomon says, members of the Trump administration met with Iranian dissidents for dinner at “an exclusive, tree-shrouded apartment building near Woodley Park.”
A few words about President Trump at the G7. The New York Times had a dumb piece on how the G7 members would “manage Trump.” “Flattery or Discipline?” the Times asked, but Trump dominated the G7. He was disciplined in his answers to questions (almost all reporters’ questions were addressed to him). The era when a more malleable American president wandered into the shrubbery to confer with his imaginary friends is over. Regarding Trump’s support for Israel and fight against antisemitism, maverick Dems Mark Penn and Andrew Stein thank the president for “doing another Mitzvah” in support of Jews.
Zohran Mamdani, who’s consistently polling second in the race to be New York’s next Mayor (Andrew Cuomo polls as the frontrunner), is not a mitzvah-doing kind of guy. Mamdani has a “history of anti-Israel activism.” Josh Appel writes about Mamdani in City Journal:
His antagonism toward Israel is long-standing, ideological, and far more radical than even that of moderate critics of the Jewish state. It’s been front-and-center in his political career—unlike, for example, getting work done in Albany.
Mamdani has said he would not send law enforcement to campus encampments as was done this year. If Chicago is a harbinger, there’s no reason to believe many New Yorkers won’t embrace a “Why not the worse?” voting strategy. The city will use ranked voting. Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo has been keeping such a low profile that Kirsten Fleming refers to Cuomo’s “disappearing act.”
“Dad went to war last night,” is what the accused Minnesota assassin texted his family as he began his murderous rampage that left a beloved Democratic political figure and her husband dead and another couple fighting for their lives. This and other strange details are included in Matt Vespa’s report in Townhall on alleged assassin Vance Luther Boelter and his wife, Jennifer.
Wall Street columnist Gerard Baker writes that the Minnesota assassinations “give rise to the usual wave of opportunism on both sides.” Baker writes about the demonization of political enemies. I think he misses one thing: conservatives immediately have the sickening knowledge that if there is any way, no matter how tenuous the pretext, they will be blamed.
The mainstream media is up in arms that President Trump is directing ICE to intensify deportations in blue cities. But there is a good reason for that—these are the sanctuary cities that serve as magnets for illegal immigration. Because of Trump and ICE’s efforts, a reported million illegals have self-deported. Townhall comments:
It’s amazing what happens when you boot the slave labor pool out of the country. President Trump’s immigration policy of mass deportation, securing the southern border, and the enforcement of federal immigration law has only done one thing: increased working opportunities for Americans and increased wages. One million illegals have self-deported, and wages have grown.
Meanwhile, PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser characterizes the Dems’ “pitch to win back Hispanic voters” as “We need illegals to do our lawns and wash our dishes.” Kruiser notes:
The power players at the Democratic National Committee live in constant fear that American minorities will one day realize en masse that Dem politicians have never done much for them. Or anything at all. …
White leftists have been rattled by the fact that they no longer have complete control over minority groups that they’ve never looked at as individuals, but have only ever seen as reliable, monolithic voting blocs. You can see in their eyes that they truly believe that doubling down on support for any illegals — criminal or not — is their way back into the hearts of voters they’ve pushed away.
Dare I Call It a Mexican Standoff: An editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “Rand Paul’s Standoff on the Border.” Paul has a plan to reduce spending on the border, which the editors argue could be made without diminishing control of the now-closed southern border.
Wow! You’ve got to see American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten (and recently resigned member of the Democratic National Committee) jumping up and down as she speaks at “No Kings Day.” “Another ad for homeschooling!” says a conservative wag.
Speaking of education, blue states no longer lead. Republican states are banning ineffective teaching methods and rapidly improving student outcomes, according to a piece in City Journal. Rah, rah: Read about the Mississippi Miracle!
Got to Love Her: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s epic eye roll after conferring with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron is setting social media on fire. Then, President Trump slammed Macron for saying that the reason Trump was leaving early was to broker a ceasefire. Pauvre Macron!
Ms. Must can’t believe she didn’t know what day it was! Yes, yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Descent Down the Golden Escalator. Matthew Continetti mused on the anniversary in “A Decade of Trump.”
Yeah, J.D., I Have a Cat: There is a feel-good story in (of all places) the New York Times about New York’s hardworking bodega and deli cats. The cats are “interviewed” in a video entitled “Shop Cats.” This cat lady can’t wait to see it.
