Reports broke today about how President Trump convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the recent peace deal with Hamas.
That is the good news. The bad news is that in Trump’s bragging about his influence before he took office, he may have just buried himself in legal problems.
Trump’s boast is reminiscent of the allegations the GOP made against John Kerry for a possible Logan Act violation during the 2020 election cycle.
According to the report that just hit, Trump gave Netanyahu an ultimatum that more or less sealed Israel's agreement to the peace deal that was being negotiated with Hamas.
Trump told him, "Bibi, you can’t fight the world. You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you."
The president's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, then stated that Trump told Netanyahu that he would not support him any longer unless he agreed to the peace deal.
Witkoff stated, "It was a very blunt and straightforward statement to Bibi…that he has no tolerance for anything other than this.”
Now comes the ugly part of the report, but we have to go back to the 2020 cycle when Kerry started to come under fire for a possible violation of the Logan Act due to his talks with Iranian officials in the middle of the campaign cycle.
Trump commented at the time, “What I’d like to see with Iran, I’d like to see them call me. You know John Kerry speaks to them a lot. John Kerry tells them not to call. That’s a violation of the Logan Act and frankly he should be prosecuted for that.”
The Logan Act makes it a felony for individuals to act on behalf of the American government without the proper authority, which, to be honest, I thought Kerry was doing, but the media and Democrats furiously defended the Democrat, a fact that Trump can use in his defense if he comes under attack for the next part of this report.
I firmly believe that Kerry was telling Iran to stiffen up against Trump’s demands, and that once Biden came into office, things would be better. If you recall, this is when Trump had Iran on the ropes with stifling sanctions that were crippling its economy, and just when Iran seemed ready to cave, Kerry came into the picture, and negotiations were broken off.
During Trump’s recent interview with TIME, he stated, “All of those attacks were done in auspices with, actually, with me directly. You know, with Israel doing the attacks, with the pagers and all that stuff.”
He continued, “Look they’ve been, Israel’s been very respectful of this country. And they let me know everything. And sometimes I’d say no, and they’d be respectful of that.”
Keep in mind, the timeframe to which Trump is referring was immediately after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel. Trump was not in office then, and he was not given any authority by the Biden administration to have diplomatic conversations with Israel.
I suspect that Democrats and the liberal media will pounce on this and go after Trump for a violation of the Logan Act, but again, the fact that Kerry was never prosecuted and was also defended by Dems and the media gives the president some ground to stand on here. But we all know how this works, as there are different rules for the right than there are for the left. Just saying, don’t be surprised if this blows up in Trump’s face.
