Trump’s most recent victory, brokering an economic normalization deal between Serbia and Kosovo, included an agreement by Kosovo to normalize ties and establish diplomatic relations with Israel. As part of the deal, Serbia agreed to open a commercial office in Jerusalem and move its embassy to that city. This was frosting on the cake of the earlier deal the Trump administration engineered between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. At a stroke, the deal removed the Palestinians’ ability to veto any progress by demanding that their unreasonable claims must come first. Progress will now proceed while the Palestinians and their Iranian allies can do no more than complain and explode the occasional bomb. Note that Saudi Arabia, still officially insistent on Palestinian rights and, along with the British foreign office, on a two-state solution, granted use of its air space for the historic flight from Israel to Dubai.

But there is more, much more. American presidents have spent decades complaining about Germany’s refusal to devote 2% of its gross domestic product to NATO. Trump said enough is enough. If Germany doesn’t want to spend on what presumably is its own defense and has announced that it has no plans to honor the 2% pledge while pouring billions into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coffers to purchase Russian natural gas, Germany must not see Russia as a threat to its interests. So German Chancellor Angela Merkel cannot be worried about Trump’s decision to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany and transfer about half of them to other European countries. Some 6,400 will return to the United States.