What did Donald Trump do today?
He once again forgot that he needs to check with other countries before assuming they'll do what he hopes they'll do.
On July 30, Trump announced that his "Board of Peace" had "reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza." The so-called "Board of Peace" is a non-governmental agency supported by what amount to bribes from a laundry list of totalitarian dictatorships hoping to curry favor with Trump. It is headed by Trump in his capacity as a private citizen, not as President of the United States, and its charter give him permanent and irrevocable control over its membership—and therefore its budget.
Nevertheless, the 15-point plan it outlined was more or less identical to other peace proposals for the region, and got at least tepid support in the United States and abroad. Unfortunately for Trump's premature celebration, one foreign country has rejected it: Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, like Trump, is vulnerable to prosecution if he loses the protection of his office. He's used the war against Gaza as a political tool, even as his government failed to act on detailed and specific advance knowledge of the October 7th attacks that started the conflict, but is now in danger of being turned out in elections this fall. Netanyahu, whose best chance at staying in power is to revive the apparent threat posed by Hamas in the minds of Israeli voters, said Trump's plan relied on "fictitious" disarmament that would leave Israel vulnerable to further attack.
Trump, who was infuriated by news reports that he'd let Netanyahu goad him into war with Iran, has tried without much success over the years to get the Israeli leader to acknowledge his authority. During the 2025 Iran-Israel conflict, Trump demanded that Israel call off an attack on Iran, then watched impotently as Israeli bombers proceeded to their target anyway, even as he insisted on social media that they were merely delivering a "friendly plane wave." Trump's public demands weren't enough to stop an Israeli attack on Iran in June of this year, either, as he scrambled to get Iran to agree to the now-defunct memorandum of understanding.
Trump, who as usual spent the weekend at one of his luxury golf resorts, has not responded publicly and his staff may not have managed to get him to sit for a brief yet.
But it wasn't all bad news from Israel on the Middle Eastern diplomatic front today for Trump. He also got bad news from Iran.
Why does this matter?
- A president who can't understand that other countries won't just automatically do what he wants them to is too naïve or stupid to be fit for office.
- If what happened in Gaza were important to Trump beyond giving him something to tweet about, he probably would have checked with Israel before announcing it.