A Tale of Two Presidencies

President Theodore Roosevelt is known for the saying, “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” The presidencies of Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be remembered for a very different aphorism: “Speak in apologetic whispers and defund your sticks; you will go backwards in retreat.”

Those are two very different approaches to diplomacy and the realities of international affairs. It explains why both Obama and Biden were among the least capable foreign policy leaders our country has ever known.

A good example is the way they handled Israel’s wars with Hamas. In 2014, President Obama pressured Israel to exercise “restraint” and seek “ceasefires.” Doing so left Hamas in control of Gaza. Israel wanted to rid the region of terrorist thugs and obliterate their weapons and tunnels.

Obama simply would not countenance giving Israeli citizens the peace of mind that they no longer had anything to fear from terrorists who ruled Gaza.

A decade later, Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, was president. In the intervening years, Hamas’ stockpile of weapons grew and its tunnels widened and deepened, now crisscrossing the enclave for 500 miles. On October 7, 2023, 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, babies beheaded, teenage girls gangraped, and over 250 hostages kidnapped to Gaza—some American citizens.

Almost instantly when Israel began to retaliate, Biden could not resist lecturing them to “de-escalate” and seek “diplomatic solutions.” His former mentor, Obama, was so proud of his addled protégé. Killing Muslims, even if they are murderous barbarians, is so offensive to those who believe the world resembles the faculty lounge at the University of Chicago.

Killing Muslims, even if they are murderous barbarians, is so offensive to those who believe the world resembles the faculty lounge at the University of Chicago.

Stalling Israel’s victory, and threatening to withhold weapons, Biden referred to Israel’s counterattacks as “over the top” and counseled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take the win” rather than deter Iran’s funding of proxies.

Freeing the hostages—even the Americans—was a low priority for Biden. Pardoning his drug-addicted, tax-dodging son, . . . well, that was an essential exercise of presidential authority.

Now here comes Donald Trump, infamous for talking loudly and crassly, and without any compunction about shaking a big stick. As president-elect awaiting his inauguration, he is without the portfolio of his office. Yet, that’s never stopped him from talking smack. Especially now, when he wants friends and foes of the United States to be on notice that a new sheriff is in town. The old sheriff was squeamish about laying down the law and flexing American muscle. Not this one. Here’s Trump warning Hamas on social media:

“Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”

Geez. Obama just peed in his pants. Imagine what Islamists are thinking.

A tale of two presidencies, one thankfully almost over, the other one set to begin. And just in time. The Assad dynasty in Syria just ended and Sunni Islamists are destined to contribute to even greater regional instability. Iran lost yet another domino on its proxy boardgame, and its road to Lebanon is now impassable.

Hezbollah and Hamas are in tatters, thanks to Israel taking the gloves off while President Biden settled into early retirement (not all that different from his most robust day in office). Iran’s air-defense system has been dismantled, again, thanks to Israel. Ukraine is trying to hang on in its war with Russia.

Europe is embroiled in heated seesawing between its extreme right and left wings. And Islamic antisemitism has completely debased what once passed for European refinement, manifested in millions of Muslims rejecting the first principles of liberal democracy and religious pluralism, and intimidating cowering leaders afraid to offend millions of potential voters.

And who knows how many terrorists are among the millions of illegal migrants who invaded the United States during this period of immigration non-enforcement? Terrorist sleeper cells may be napping across the United States, waiting for the right jihadi moment to reveal themselves.

Thank goodness someone with a heavy hand is about to take the wheel in the White House. It will be an adjustment for most Americans who grew accustomed to the much lighter touch of lightweights. The botched Afghanistan withdrawal. The world on fire. American police precincts set aflame. Flags burned and statues defaced. Social workers carrying cookies to crime scenes.

Obama began his presidency by speaking in Cairo and apologizing to Muslims for all of America’s many misdeeds. He then proceeded to prove his ayatollah fanboy bona fides by negotiating a disastrous nuclear deal that only emboldened Iran to regard Americans as milquetoast.

Meanwhile, President Biden tolerated those on college campuses who first denied that there even was a massacre in southern Israel on October 7, then claimed that Israelis beheaded their own children and raped their sisters, and that Israel deserved whatever it is they got, “by any means necessary.” True presidential leadership would have stripped these schools of Title VI federal funding.

Instead, all this moral confusion and geopolitical dementia was made possible by an administration afraid to offend voters in Dearborn, Michigan, who ended up not voting for Biden anyway.

“Genocide Joe” proved to be “Bad Judgment, Joe.”

Instead of berating Israel, an American president should have explained to Hamas that unless the hostages are returned and it surrenders, there will be no afterlife when the United States gets done with Gaza. Those 72 virgins will see nothing but fragments of terrorists who had been promised a good time.

Qatar needed to know that its support of Hamas, and the harboring of its leadership in five-star hotels, was being looked upon most unfavorably. Egypt should have heard that America is aware that Hamas resupplied its weapons through tunnels alongside Egypt’s border with Gaza, and the $1.43 billion in American aid to Egypt was now in serious jeopardy.

Instead, the White House concerned itself mainly with the civilian casualty count in Gaza, and not associating terrorism with Islam.

Theodore Roosevelt also coined the office of the presidency as the “bully pulpit.” Given the mess the world is in right now, and America’s notorious weakness, forget the pulpit. Just bring on the bully.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”