Trump's most trusted advisors? His TV — and sometimes Melania

Independent

4 days ago

The President of the United States sits atop a vast apparatus of intelligence collection and information gathering that can harness the country's full technological and diplomatic might to bring him the latest and most accurate information on any given topic.
He can request satellite photographs that show startling details of almost anywhere in the world that isn't covered.
He can ask for 'signals intelligence' gleaned from surveillance of the world's telecommunications networks — or from the latest dispatches from spies located in far-flung spots where most Americans would not dare to tread.
But as Donald Trump has shifted his positions on a pair of major foreign policy matters — the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and America's support for Ukraine in their defense against Russia — he hasn't turned to his cabinet for counsel or really anyone in his administration for information.
Instead, the president has been moved to action by two prime drivers: the same grim images of destruction and death on his television screen that have caused even the most strident of voices to acknowledge the stark human toll exacted by war in each region, and the counsel of perhaps his closest, if unofficial, advisor — first lady Melania Trump.
In the case of Gaza, Trump came into office buoyed by the success of his hand-picked Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, in brokering a temporary ceasefire deal with the help of his counterpart from the outgoing Biden administration.
But that ceasefire soon collapsed as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed his offensive against Hamas and choked off all humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave while driving the Gazan population into smaller and smaller territory.
During Netanyahu's first visit to the White House in February, the president stoked fears of ethnic cleansing long held by pro-Palestinian groups when he suggested having the U.S. take control of Gaza and relocate the Gazan population to multiple smaller sites that would be constructed and funded by 'neighboring countries of great wealth' and located in 'other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts.'
Over the next few months, he largely left Netanayahu to his own devices as the Israeli leader continued to prosecute the war as a way to placate extremist voices in his cabinet who threatened to destabilize his government if he accepted any manner of ceasefire agreement.
But over the last few days, Trump has joined the chorus of leaders who are now loudly calling for Netanyahu to stop cutting off most aid to Gaza, citing disturbing images and stories of starvation that have broken through into even the most conservative of pro-Israel of news sources.
During a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, Trump said Israel bore a 'lot of responsibility' for what he described as 'real starvation' in the territory, directly contradicting Netanyahu's insistence that nothing of the sort has taken place.
Trump added that the images and reports emerging from the enclave 'cannot be faked'.
And when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader's remarks about concerns of mass starvation in Gaza being overstated, he replied: "I don't know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry."
It wasn't the first time the president had been moved to action by images of children in peril delivered by his favorite form of entertainment.
Months into his first term, in April 2017, he addressed reporters about images of carnage from the now-defunct Assad regime's use of chemical weapons — Sarin nerve gas — against the town of Khan Sheikhun.
'I will tell you that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me – big impact,' Trump said while speaking in the White House's rose garden, just steps from the Oval Office. 'My attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much … You're now talking about a whole different level.'
'When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, babies, little babies, with a chemical gas that is so lethal – people were shocked to hear what gas it was. That crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines,' he added.
Days later, he ordered a series of cruise missile strikes against targets in Syria, his first use of military force since assuming office three months earlier.
Trump also appeared to reverse himself on a foreign policy matter earlier this month when he overrode top Pentagon officials who'd put a hold on American weapons shipments bound for Ukraine, citing images transmitted out of Kyiv in the aftermath of Russian drone attacks against civilian targets such as apartment buildings.
A Trump administration official who spoke to The Independent on condition of anonymity said the president makes decisions based on what he believes to be the best information available to him at any given time and said his invocation of horrific televised images shows he cares about protecting children.
'He's a grandfather, he's a family man, and images of hurt or starving children anger him just as much as any in the country who has a heart,' they said.
Trump's reversals on aid to Ukraine and on the need for Israel to allow more food into Gaza have another factor in common.
In each case, the president has acknowledged the influence of First Lady Melania Trump in his decision-making process.
When he ordered the Pentagon to resume shipping defensive weapons to Kyiv this month, he described a conversation he'd had with his Slovenian-born wife following a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I go home, I tell the first lady, 'I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation.' And she says, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit,'" he said.
And on Tuesday as he returned to Washington aboard Air Force One, he told reporters that his wife thinks the situation in Gaza is 'terrible.'
'She sees the same pictures that you see, that we all see, and I think everybody, unless they're pretty cold hearted, or worse than that, nuts, there's nothing you can say other than it's terrible when you see the kids,' he said.
Megan Mobbs, the daughter of Trump's Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg, told The Telegraph that when it comes to the First Lady, Trump 'deeply values her counsel.'
'They have a very, open, conversational relationship and she is one of his closest advisers,' said Mobbs, who currently lives in Kyiv running the RT Weatherman Foundation humanitarian mission.
The former model's influence on the president might come as a surprise given that unlike most who've filled the unpaid, unofficial role of first lady, Mrs. Trump is understood to spend most of her time in New York, where she and the president's son, Barron Trump, attends NYU.
The White House would not discuss the first lady's schedule or whereabouts, but a source close to the president cautioned against discounting her influence based on where she may or not be on any given day.