The Slumlord and the Used-car Salesman: The Atlantic Connection between a President and an Ambassador!!
By: Mohamed Brahimi
Tags: Morocco, Polisario Western Sahara, Israel, David T Fisher, Abrahamic Peace Deal

On a list of society’s most vilified characters, American would probably show less contempt to pimps than they would to slumlords and dodgy used-car salesmen. These two evoke the worst kind of emotions. Americans regard them with unreserved scorn and their mere mention is often followed by several maligned descriptors

Donald Trump first gig was in real Estate. His humble beginnings were in scooping up distressed properties and turning them into rental income. The stories of Trump not fulfilling his responsibilities as a landlord are countless. Trump had an arsenal of attorneys on his payroll. Tenants who dared to challenge him in court were often bled financially and forced to give up their court battles with hundreds of dollars in the hole. Trump was a Bona fide slumlord and the sheer number of lawsuits filed against him is enough to corroborate this fact.

When it comes to the world of car dealerships, David T. Fisher is big name. His profile shows someone with a very distinguished record in philanthropy and fine art. That alone puts him on the other end of the ethical spectrum with Trump. As far as used car salesmen are concerned, David Fisher does not fit that profile. People often recall horror stories of deception that would make anyone cringe at the thought of buying a used car. Mr. Fisher’s benevolent endeavors served him well but the reputation of people in his trade didn’t escape unscathed. Car salesmen will always be portrayed as the biggest hawkers of bait and switch, distortion, and spin.

David Fisher is also the same person who Trump named to serve as the US ambassador to Morocco. Mr. Fisher occupied an office that was left vacant for three year. He caught the tail end of Trump’s term and his tenure as ambassador was thus short lived.

Dealing with a slumlord warrants a heightened level of prudence. But when that slumlord partners with a used car salesman, you get the sinking feeling that anything they sell you will amount to nothing short of a pyramid scheme or a lemon. I am not referring to the citrus fruit rather the dud

This is why Trump’s choppy non sequitur Tweet didn’t generate too much exuberance among Moroccans who actually understand the man’s quid pro quo modus operandi. Trump and for that matter the US foreign politics machine doesn’t believe in free lunches. The most naïve layperson should wonder about the catch. We knew that recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces would come at a hefty price, and it did. Indeed, Trump’s proclamation laid out an arrangement where Morocco had to normalize its relationship with Israel. This part was conveniently left out of the tweet as it pulls the veil off the “political barter” that needed to take place. Pragmatism is the crutch that many helpless Moroccan politicians posited to justify their acquiescence to Trump’s deal. Trump is also a showman and a master of TV ratings who then ordered his Ambassador in Morocco to summon his skills from his old car selling days. Fisher sprang into action and presented Morocco with a new map where Morocco’s territorial integrity is affirmed. You don’t have to be an International legal jurist to know that erasing a line on a map is not really how sovereignty is established. I felt as if Morocco was just given what car dealers call salvage title of a land that it already owned. Dr. Cherkaoui, conflict scholar practitioner and former member of the United Nations Panel of Experts, took a scrutinizing look under the proverbial hood of the car and warned that Morocco is being sold a clunker. He sounded the alarms and cautioned that the fund were insufficient and Morocco could potentially be left holding the empty bag. Dr. Cherkaoui astutely asked :”Jared Kushner is coming to cash Netanyahu’s check, when is Morocco going to cash Trump’s check”. Dr. Azzimani, Professor at Trinity college, didn’t hesitate to call a toad a toad. He, like most informed analysts who expressed caginess towards Trump’s proclamation, were chided as unpatriotic. “We are the real patriots. We clashed with separatists who were armed with swords during our university days. We deconstructed their rhetoric and became vulnerable to their violence and threats” Dr. Azzedine Azzimani commented. Dr, Cherkaoui has even received threats for being a voice in the wilderness and for not jumping on the pack mentality bandwagon. He proudly and assertively acknowledges his roots. He is equally as assertive about a president who has a reputation for ditching partners, stiffing employees, and filing bankruptcies.

America talks a good game about harnessing win-win relationships but hegemony traditionally does not settle for anything less than Zero sum games. In the practice of foreign policy, countries typically behave like a user car salesman. They overpromise and underdeliver. They tend to be a group of fast talkers who try to convince their clients that the oil leak is a perfectly normal sweaty exhaust pipe. Much like the Abrahamic peace deal, Morocco, I am afraid, is being offered an extended warranty where every single devil is hidden in the fine prints and the details.

Even if one were to believe in American pure altruism, doesn’t it feel like Trump is spending the last days of his lame duck presidency proving yet again that he’s either cruel or callously out of touch. It would stand to reason for him to devote every waking moment dealing with a Virus that took the life of nearly 400K Americans or attend to the long lines of starving Americans waiting their turn at food banks.