From the right: Trump’s Narcissism on Display
What started out as a regular Cabinet meeting quickly turned into “one of the most bizarre spectacles some have ever witnessed,” notes Jay Caruso at Red State. As reporters prepared to leave after their initial photo-op, President Trump called on his Cabinet members, who proceeded “to lavish praise on their boss” in a “nauseating display of fealty and ego-stroking.” Yet “that’s precisely what Trump wanted.” For him, “it’s still ‘The Apprentice’ and all his underlings are subjects, not people entrusted with a job to do that they’ll retain wholly on the merits.” Yes, President Barack Obama “had similar issues of wanting to be liked and respected as well as [being] the center of attention.” But why, asks Caruso, “would anybody defend the same in a Republican president?”
Culture critic: Rewriting History of the Pulse Massacre
This week marks the first anniversary of Omar Mateen’s massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, recalls Tiana Lowe at National Review. It was a clear-cut case of a self-identified “radicalized jihadist” committing “the deadliest mass shooting in American history, directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community in the name of a murdered Islamic State militant.” Yet the media are “unhappy with this narrative.” So they’ve instead “decided to pay tribute to the barbaric murder of 49 infidels with a ‘senseless violence’ narrative” — because the truth is too “inconvenient.” Says Lowe: That kind of “willful ignorance” is not only dangerous, it also leaves us “incapable of honoring the victims” by refusing to accept this hate crime’s real motive.
Foreign desk: Russia Sanctions Only Hurt Putin’s Foes
The US Senate has just reached a bipartisan agreement on new sanctions against Russia in the wake of Monday’s harsh crackdown on anti-government protestors. But Leonid Bershidsky at Bloomberg wonders if sanctions advocates “realize who they are ultimately hurting.” Is it “Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime,” he asks, “or the small number of courageous Russians he is repressing?” He notes that “sanctions have been a questionable deterrent: Putin has held on to Crimea, continued backing Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine and waded into battle in Syria on behalf of President Bashar Assad.” Indeed, his regime “is far from teetering, and it’s not internationally isolated, either.” And opposition leader Alexei Navalny has suggested that sanctions are “only pushing [Putin] to dig in deeper” and toughen repression. Fact is, “the regime takes out its hatred of the West on” dissidents.
Reporter: Why Religious Right Converted to Trump
Donald Trump’s “conquest of the White House was fueled by the contempt of a political class that never took him seriously,” says Tim Alberta at Politico. But it’s just as much about evangelicals, who “feel marginalized in a culture that they believe no longer reflects its core values or tolerates its most polarizing principles.” Most critics of widespread evangelical support for Trump have dismissed it as “electoral opportunism devoid of any moral consistency.” But many evangelicals say “they identify with Trump because both he and they have been systematically targeted in the public square — oftentimes by the same adversaries.” And Trump has shown he knows how to express solidarity “with an audience that can relate to feeling victimized.” Moreover, Trump thus far “hasn’t just been fighting their battles — he’s winning them.”
Israeli ex-envoy: Fire the UN’s Poisonous Agency
The debate over why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hasn’t been resolved usually revolves around two issues, notes Dore Gold at the Jerusalem Post: Palestinian violence and Israeli settlements. But another “critical factor” has long been ignored until last Sunday, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “called for dismantling” the UN Relief and Works Agency, which “perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem rather than solve it.” UNRWA has long “provided a breeding ground for the growth of terrorist activity” — and its 58 camps allow the refugee problem to “fester for generations.” But “you cannot resolve a conflict and perpetuate it at the same time.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann