Trump, Brandishing the Big Stick at Hamas, Takes a Page From Theodore Roosevelt

President Trump may not “speak softly,” but he does “carry a big stick.” Telling Hamas that if all hostages are not released by the time he’s sworn in, there will be “hell to pay,” he’s invoking President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy posture.“Those responsible,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday, “will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America.” He concluded in all caps, “Release the hostages now.”Trump said that “if the hostages are not released before January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the U.S., there will be all hell to pay,” that phrase also rendered in capital letters, “for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity.”On Saturday, Trump’s hostage affairs envoy, Adam Boehler, wrote in the Hill that Trump would not shy away from using military force to secure the estimated 100 people being held in Gaza. Five American hostages, he said, “remain alive in Hamas’ hands.”Three weeks after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, Trump was blunt. “If you try to kill our citizens,” he told Hamas in remarks at a New Hampshire rally, “we will kill you. If you spill a drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of yours.”Such rhetoric gets Trump branded a “cowboy,” as it did Presidents Reagan, George W. Bush, and Roosevelt. The term was an insult for much of American history, ever since the Revolution when cowboys undermined the patriot cause by rustling herds for the British.Roosevelt bristled at the label, making the distinction that in the Badlands he had been not a cowboy but a ranchman — and a sheriff. Regardless, his success in ensuring peace robbed the insult of its sting. Ever since, when subjected to injustice, Americans have longed for a cowboy to ride into town and rout the bad guys.Roosevelt was confronted by a black hat at Tangier, Morocco, in 1904. On May 18, the leader of a group of bandits, Ahmed al-Raisuli, kidnapped an American, Ion Perdicaris. His stepson, Cromwell Varley, a British citizen, was also seized.Raisuli demanded a ransom of $70,000 — about $2.5 million today — and other concessions to release the hostages. As with Hamas, each time a deal was close, Raisuli increased his demands, trying to squeeze out all he could.Roosevelt, like Trump, wished to avoid war, but he knew that failing to confront Raisuli would encourage others to snatch American citizens. With negotiations stalled, he pressured Morocco’s sultan and Raisuli by sending part of America’s Great White Fleet to Tangier.This was winding up the big stick after Raisuli took speaking softly for weakness. At Roosevelt’s direction, Secretary of State John Hay sent a telegram to America’s consul-general at Morocco laying out a new policy. “We want Perdicaris alive,” it read, “or Raisuli dead.”The Sun reported on June 2 that Roosevelt had told the sultan that he’d act “independent” of other nations to get the hostages back. “If any harm should come to Perdicaris,” Morocco would be expected to “compel Raisuli, the bandit chieftain, to pay for it with his life” — or America would.Along with France and Britain, the Sun expected Roosevelt’s declaration “to impress Raisuli more emphatically” than “diplomatic means” alone. The paper added that there were, by then, “seven American warships at Tangier” to show that the cowboy meant business.When the sultan suggested paying the ransom first, the Sun responded with a June 19 story headlined, “Don’t Trust Raisuli.” The State Department agreed. By this time, the big stick had grown thanks to the Royal Navy battleship Prince of Wales arriving at Tangier.By June 24, the Sun reported that the State Department had “received no reply” to Hay’s message “that the American government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.” Sources told the paper that the bandit had blinked and freed both hostages.Four days later, the Sun confirmed the good news. “Profoundly grateful to the American government,” Perdicaris cabled the State Department, “for securing my release.” Roosevelt took his win and didn’t pursue Raisuli, expecting “that the sultan will take the initiative” to do so.The peaceful resolution came as a relief to Roosevelt. Although he had been told during the faceoff that Perdicaris had given up his American citizenship and was a Greek national, it didn’t matter. Raisuli had snatched Perdicaris believing that he was American, and that could not stand.Some of the hostages held by Hamas also have dual allegiance. However. as with Perdicaris, there’s a larger issue at stake. Allowing terrorists to seize Americans — naturalized or native — would set a dangerous precedent, putting a target on every citizen who travels abroad.Like previous presidents dubbed “cowboys,” Trump won’t speak softly to the ilk of Raisuli and Hamas. He knows that sometimes a leader must shout for America’s enemies to hear that harming our citizens will be met with a big stick.

Trump, Brandishing the Big Stick at Hamas, Takes a Page From Theodore Roosevelt

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