According to renowned historian Timothy Snyder, yesterday’s bombshell resignation of National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent is a sign of the “crackup of the Trump elite.” Kent resigned over his objections to the war on Iran, accusing Trump of starting the conflict due to “pressure from Israel.” This, says Snyder, is indicative of a key fissure in the MAGA movement.
Snyder starts by explaining that “Kent never should have been the director of the national counterterrorism center” in the first place, asserting that “he had no qualifications for this position” and in fact had “anti-qualifications,” pointing to his sympathies for Russia – a country known for supporting terrorist groups – as well as his history of blatant antisemitism.
But regardless of Kent’s qualifications or lack thereof, Snyder says his resignation “signals a certain clash within the pro-Trump elite between people who are out and out antisemites and people who are so-called Christian Zionists.”
These factions have two very different goals, Synder explains. The antisemite camp wishes nothing but “ill” for Israel and the Jews, “which they treat as interchangeable.” Christian Zionists, on the other hand, “think that a war in the Middle East might be a good thing,” because it will propel both Jews and Christians toward the Biblical apocalypse. With these differing outlooks in mind, the two camps tend to disagree on certain foreign policy issues.
Snyder says that this fissure may play a decisive role in the upcoming November midterms and the security of the US electoral system in general “because if Mr. Trump is going to succeed in breaking the November election in order to stay in power, he’ll have to have around him a tight, cohesive elite that really sincerely believes – for whatever set of bad reasons – that it’s worth sacrificing the republic for this person.”
The historian is referring to what many believe is a Trump-led effort to steal or otherwise manipulate the midterms. Over the past year, we’ve seen his administration raid election offices in key districts while gutting the agency tasks with preventing cyberattacks on voting infrastructure, and he’s currently pushing Congressional Republicans hard to pass the SAVE America Act, a piece of legislation that opponents say will disenfranchise tens of millions of voters while rigging the election process in favor of the GOP.
But according to Snyder, Trump may be losing the confederacy he needs to achieve such aims.
“Objectively,” says Snyder, “I think what we’re seeing is the beginning of an elite crackup which makes that kind of coalition and therefore the theft of an election less likely.”