The Art of Deception

In his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump describes a stunt he pulled a few years earlier that involved deceiving Holiday Inn executives into partnering with him on the construction of a casino. Trump, who owned a strip of land along the Atlantic City boardwalk, lied when he told the hotel chain's top brass that construction was already underway and that encouraging progress was being made. In reality ground had barely been broken at Trump's site which, at that time, was little more than a plot of empty land. On the day the executives were scheduled to appear on-site, Trump "directed his construction manager to hire dozens of pieces of heavy equipment to move dirt around the site, digging holes and filling them back up if necessary." "What the bulldozers and dump trucks did wasn't important...so long as they did a lot of it," Trump said. [Source: Business Insider, Apr. 20, 2017] 

The hoodwink worked as expected, for Trump knew that the mere appearance of activity would be enough to persuade the hotel executives to invest in his project. 

A similar trick is being played on the American people today. 

So far the Trump administration's oft-touted "mass deportations" scheduled to begin on "day one" have yet to materialize. The daily totals through the first few weeks are nowhere near high enough to make even a slight dent in the number of illegals who have entered the US over the last eight years alone. At the current rate it would take 28 years to deport the 11 million people officially claimed to be in the country illegally, and Trump's daily deportation total would have to hit at least 2,700 to reach even one million per year. In spite of his fervid campaign rhetoric, the highest single day arrest total since Trump took office is just over 1,100 and even that fell to a paltry 300 per day by late last week. NBC News reports: 

"In order to fulfill Trump's Inauguration Day promise of 'millions and millions' of deportations, the Trump administration would have to be deporting over 2,700 immigrants every day to reach 1 million in a year. And...arrests do not always equal immediate detentions, much less deportations. Of the more than 8,000 immigrants arrested in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, 461 were released, according to the White House."

To distract from these lackluster numbers, the blustering border czar Tom Homan is routinely situated in front of television cameras to huff and puff and issue hollow threats to illegals about the imminent crackdown set to begin any day now. The final touch is added when news cameras capture footage of ICE agents in major cities going door-to-door giving the appearance of activity by the new administration, while the actual figures concerning arrests and deportations continue to fall. It seems the deception has been successful enough to satisfy a large portion of the MAGA base, many of whom can rarely be accused of investigating things too deeply.

Juxtaposed with Trump's inability to enforce domestic policies is his considerable efficiency in supporting Israel.

Just over a week after his inauguration -- which, symbolically, was held inside the US Capitol for the benefit of a champagne-sipping crowd of billionaires that included former 'Never Trumpers' Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Sergey Brin, while his MAGA base was left out in the cold -- Trump signed an Executive Order to 'Combat Antisemitism in the United States.' The order, which calls on the Department of Justice to prosecute Americans for so-called antisemitism, "takes forceful and unprecedented steps to marshal all Federal resources to combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our streets" and ominously asserts "It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence." 

Within days of Trump signing the order, five major universities (Columbia, Northwestern, Portland State, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) were placed under investigation by the Department of Education for allowing "antisemitism" -- i.e., criticism of Israel's genocide -- to flourish on their respective campuses. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to X to formally thank President Trump, "on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people...for his executive order to fight antisemitism and support for terrorism on American campuses."

On February 4, Trump met with Netanyahu at the White House and was curiously gifted a golden pager by the Israeli leader in what can easily be perceived as a not-too-subtle threat. If so, it would seem that Trump got the message. During his press conference the 47th President reiterated his support for the forceful relocation of the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza (down from 2.2 million in 2023) and added that he would consider deploying US military personnel to the region to assert U.S. sovereignty over the Gaza Strip: 

"The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area [Israelis]...do a real job, do something different." 

Trump's statement may have come across to some as just another sensational off-the-cuff remark but, in fact, it's entirely in keeping with previous statements both he and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have made about Gaza being a "phenomenal location" with "very valuable waterfront property," as well as with Netanyahu's "Gaza 2035" initiative.

Three days after meeting with Bibi, Trump broke "a long-standing precedent for congressional review of major weapons sales" by approving a $7.4 billion arms transfer to Israel after Congress halted a proposed $1 billion "arms sale" to the Zionist state that would've been paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. A Feb. 7, 2025 report in Reuters provided some details about the transfer: 

"U.S. President Donald Trump's administration announced on Friday that it had approved military sales to Israel worth some $7.4 billion, despite a Democratic lawmakers' request that the sale be paused until he received more information...The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington for meetings with Trump, administration officials and members of Congress. Representative Gregory Meeks...denounced what he termed a decision to break with a long-standing precedent for congressional review of major weapons sales...He said the decision showed a lack of respect for Congress as a co-equal branch of government. 'In the United States we do not have kings -- we are a democracy rooted in the Constitution, governed by laws,' Meeks said." 

The $7.4 billion transfer comes on the heels of Trump's 90-day pause on all foreign aid (with the exception of Israel of course!) and his decision to stop funding the UN's Palestine relief agency UNRWA, both actions resulting in the Palestinian people being unable to receive adequate medical supplies, food deliveries and other vital resources necessary for survival. 

After ensuring Israel was provided the necessary munitions to 'finish the job' in the Middle East, Trump took aim at the international courts that have been a thorn in the side of Netanyahu & Co. since shortly after October 7.

First he signed an executive order cutting aid to South Africa, citing, among other things, the genocide case brought at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel: 

"In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the international court of justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military and nuclear arrangements." 

He then signed an order imposing economic and travel sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its chief prosecutor Karim Khan over the court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The order accuses the ICC of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel." The ICC is the world's only permanent global tribunal for crimes against humanity, aggression, war crimes and genocide, all of which Bibi and Gallant are patently guilty of carrying out. According to Time.com: "The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and Gallant used 'starvation as a method of warfare' by restricting humanitarian aid, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials deny the charges." 

Making a mockery of Israel's denials, Yoav Gallant himself told the media shortly after 10/7: "We are imposing a complete siege on the city of Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly."

Trump's ICC executive order has been condemned in a joint statement by 79 nations including France, Germany, Spain and Brazil, expressing "regret" at "attempts to undermine the court's independence, integrity and impartiality." For his final trick Trump lifted sanctions on 30 of Israel's most extreme settler groups in the West bank, and re-imposed "maximum pressure" sanctions on Iran targeting her oil network which supplies extraordinary amounts of discounted crude to China. 

Trump, like many swindlers, is a showman who manipulates public perception with the virtuosity of someone who has spent years working in television. While millions of MAGA diehards actually believe his actions are motivated by a consideration for the public welfare, the reality is that Trump is first-and-foremost beholden to mega-rich political donors who are always guaranteed a return on their sizeable deposits. It's been reported in the Israeli press, for example, that in return for her donation of $100 million to Trump's presidential campaign, ultra-Zionist Miriam Adelson expects annexation of the West Bank. So too does Israel's extremist Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, who wrote on X after Trump's landslide victory in November, "the year 2025 will, with God's help, be the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria," making use, like U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, of the Biblical name for the territory comprising the West Bank. 

If there's one takeaway from Trump's first three weeks in office it's that, in matters of foreign policy at least, it doesn't appear he will do anything other than fulfill his obligations to the wealthy donors who returned him to the White House. Due to his ability to manipulate conservative perceptions, however, it's unlikely there will be any meaningful opposition from his base.

On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill enshrining Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday. Shortly before signing the legislation Reagan received a letter from Republican Governor Meldrim Thomson pleading with him to veto the bill on account of King being "a man of immoral character" who had "well established" communist affiliations. Although sympathetic to Thomson's grievance, Reagan refused to hinder passage of the bill, replying, "On the national holiday you mentioned, I have the reservations you have, but here the perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality. Indeed to them, the perception is reality."

Reagan's insight is as applicable to Donald Trump in 2025 as it was to MLK in 1983. The popular image of Trump as an intrepid adversary of the Deep State holds powerful sway over the minds of many Americans but stands in contrast to the reality of him as a shabbos goy, operating primarily on behalf of his billionaire donors, Netanyahu and the state of Israel. I can think of no other political leader who could shut down the US economy, appoint a clown like Tony Fauci to spearhead a national pandemic response, give $500 billion to Sam Altman and Larry Ellison to produce AI-generated mRNA vaccines, and still receive historic levels of support from conservative Americans. Again, as that other great paragon of conservatism Ronald Reagan said, "the perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality." Few would know better than the former Hollywood actor-turned-politician who, as the 40th president of the United States, granted amnesty to over 3 million illegal aliens without suffering even the slightest damage to his stellar legacy.