Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, the Republican expressed outrage when U.S. officers interacted with overseas officers with out coordinating along with his administration. Actually, at one level, Trump talked about charging former Secretary of State John Kerry with against the law.
In 2019, the then-president — who routinely tried to get the Justice Division to prosecute political figures he disliked — insisted that Kerry “needs to be prosecuted” for violating the Logan Act, including, “He’s speaking to Iran and has had many conferences and plenty of cellphone calls and he’s telling them what to do. That’s whole violation of the Logan Act.”
Trump had no idea what he was talking about, however he however appeared satisfied {that a} former U.S. official interacting with overseas governments was each scandalous and felony.
It now seems the Republican has modified his thoughts.
As common readers know, Trump welcomed British Overseas Secretary David Cameron to Mar-a-Lago within the spring, for instance, which got here on the heels of the previous president also welcoming Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Polish President Andrzej Duda to his glorified country club. Trump has additionally reportedly had direct recent interactions with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
When The New York Instances reported on this in April, it quoted Richard Haass, a former diplomat and the president emeritus of the Council on Overseas Relations, saying the conferences aren’t uncommon within the American custom. The article added, “Mr. Trump would cross a crimson line, nevertheless, with any try to affect the phrases or actions of overseas leaders — as an example, by asking for expressions of help or that they take steps to undermine Mr. Biden’s insurance policies, he mentioned. ‘Then he’s finishing up a overseas coverage,’ Mr. Haass mentioned, including, ‘That is all nice in precept. It simply relies on the precise content material in apply.’”
That paragraph got here to thoughts this week once I noticed this report from The New Republic.
Trump has allegedly been speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avert a cease-fire deal, fearing that doing so might assist Vice President Kamala Harris win in November, in accordance with PBS. “The reporting is that former President Trump is on the cellphone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him to not lower a deal proper now, as a result of it’s believed that may assist the Harris marketing campaign,” mentioned PBS’s Judy Woodruff Monday night time.
To make sure, there’s some ambiguity concerning the reporting that the veteran journalist referenced. Axios published a report final week, for instance, that mentioned the previous American president and the Israeli prime minister have privately mentioned a attainable Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. The reporting was not independently verified by MSNBC or NBC Information, and Netanyahu’s workplace denied its accuracy in an announcement quickly after.
Woodruff may need been referring to this, or maybe another reporting.
Both method, if there’s motive to imagine Trump has lobbied Netanyahu to not attain a diplomatic settlement, as a result of the GOP nominee is frightened concerning the developments probably serving to the Democratic ticket, that may be an actual scandal. (It will even be paying homage to a controversy from 1968.)
Watch this area.
This put up updates our related earlier coverage.
This text was initially revealed on MSNBC.com
