Trump high-fiving

I think Trump is on a high, or to put it more succinctly, I think Trump thinks he's on a high. After months of knockbacks with almost everything he tried, he got the Senate to pass his huge tax reform (eh, billionaires' tax gift), the Supreme Court voted in favour of keeping his travel ban on six Muslim-majority nations while all the court cases are being resolved, employment is rising, the Stock Market looks like a ballistic missile, up up and away into the stratosphere, and he played golf with Tiger Woods. So an increasingly confident president - ignoring for one moment the Mueller problem - thinks to himself, "right, while I'm riding high, let's do the Jerusalem thing". So the massively leaked announcement about the US recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and the US embassy moving there from Tel Aviv, is duly brought off the campaign shelf. Never mind the phone calls from Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France etc warning Trump to reconsider. The Israeli lobby of course are delighted, but I can't think of anyone else in the universe who will welcome this move. But Trump is feeling bullish, for him it was one key campaign promise he always intended to keep and now was as good a moment as any to splash it all over the place and to leak it in order to prepare the world for the expected retaliation. Over the last few weeks, Trump will have read many articles about how China and, in particular, Xi Zinping, the Chinese leader, are eating into America's greatness, making smarter moves, and pushing the US president down the list of Important People. Now Putin has intimated he wants to stay president of Russia until 2024, matching Trump's presidency if he wins a second term. So, Trump had to try and put himself back at the head of the game, but as a consequence, stirring up trouble throughout the Middle East and upsetting many of America's closest allies. He won't see it that way of course. He will see it as a bold move that should have been made years ago. Only he, Donald Trump, is brave enough to sweep away any hopes among the Palestinians that in some future peace deal they will be given a new capital for their nation state - East Jerusalem. Did Trump listen to all the arguments from his advisers - is Rex Tillerson still considered a valuable adviser? - or did he just say: "This is what I promised in the campaign, the whole country voted for me, so this is what I will do. Full stop."