Chris Furlong/AP
As excruciating reports of unmitigated disaster and starving Gazans, including infants and babies, continue to pour in, President Donald Trump on Monday appeared to recognize reality.
“That’s real starvation stuff,” Trump told reporters. “I see it. You can’t fake that.”
When asked if he agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extraordinary claim that there is “no starvation in Gaza,” the president responded: “Based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”
Indeed, the remarks represented a rare and significant break from his Israeli counterpart as Netanyahu reportedly slow-walks the entry of desperately needed aid to the nearly half a million Gazans facing famine-like conditions. It may have relied on TV to get there, but to anyone who has watched the crisis reach what has long been predicted—mass starvation and death—Trump’s acknowledgment begs the question: Why not do something? The president of the United States has several powerful options that could restrain Israel, including restricting arms transfers and supporting United Nations ceasefire resolutions. The same question applies to Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, who issued a bland statement about the horror while declining to mention Israel by name.
All these politicians across the aisle see what is increasingly called a genocide. They admit to witnessing starvation. Why not do something?
Up until now, there has been much hiding behind the idea of the moderate stance, the obvious acknowledgement that there are difficult realities on both sides. That this was a complex, decades-long problem. But that, too, has fallen as even prominent Israeli human rights groups today accuse Israel of genocide with direct and scathing language. “Mass killing, both in direct attacks and through creating catastrophic living conditions that continue to raise the massive death toll, ” is how the B’Tselem, one of the two groups, outlined Israel’s actions in Gaza. “Serious bodily or mental harm to the entire population of the Strip; large-scale destruction of infrastructure; and destruction of the social fabric, including educational institutions and Palestinian cultural sites.”
Speaking to reporters from his Scottish golf course, Trump did what all American politicians have done for years. He played a learned helplessness, refusing to acknowledge the deeper choices that starve Gazans instead opting to blame Iran and shrug off “the whole place” as a “mess.”
“We gave $60 million two weeks ago, and nobody even acknowledged it,” he complained from his Scottish golf course on Sunday. “You really want at least someone to say ‘thank you.’ No other country gave anything. It makes you feel a little bad when nobody talks about it.” He repeated the complaint on Monday, too.
This is Trump’s unvarnished opinion as Gazans die in mass. That the US is the victim. That he is owed a personal note of gratitude.
None of this is a surprise coming from Trump. But what should haunt us is how familiar it all seems. Because absent the casual indifference, Trump is saying what every US politician has said for two years: Yes, we see the pain—the starving kids—but we won’t do anything about it. It’s a variation on a cruel theme.