Kennedy Feared Embarrassing the Presidency. Does Trump?

John F. Kennedy understood something that Donald Trump still has not learned.

Before agreeing to let filmmaker Robert Drew’s camera crew follow him for what became Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, Kennedy reportedly set down a condition: “If you embarrass the presidency, you’re out. If I do something that would embarrass the presidency, don’t let me do it.”

That sentence should be taught in every civics class in America.

It does not mean Kennedy was perfect. No president is. It does not mean that politics was ever as noble as we sometimes imagine it to have been. But it does show that Kennedy understood the presidency was larger than the man occupying the Oval Office. There was such a thing as embarrassing the presidency. There was such a thing as conduct unworthy of the office.

That brings us, unfortunately, to President Trump.

According to a report cited by The Times of Israel, Trump recently exploded at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call about Lebanon and Hezbollah. The reported language was vulgar, personal and demeaning. Netanyahu’s office denied the worst parts of the account, while acknowledging that the call was tense. Fair enough. We should be cautious about treating every anonymously sourced report as courtroom evidence.

But the broader problem cannot be denied.

Trump has a habit of treating disagreement as betrayal, diplomacy as domination and allies as subordinates who owe him public gratitude. That is not strength. It is not statesmanship. And when the ally in question is Israel, facing Hezbollah rockets, drones and the evacuation of northern communities, the problem becomes more than bad manners.

It becomes dangerous.

Many of us who care deeply about Israel have supported many of Trump’s policies. We appreciated his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. We appreciated the Abraham Accords. We appreciated the end of the Obama-era habit of treating Israeli concessions as the starting point of every Middle East conversation. We appreciated the willingness to speak plainly about Iran and its terror proxies.

Those things matter.

But good policy does not excuse bad conduct.

There is no rule requiring supporters of Israel, conservatives, Republicans, Zionists or anyone else to pretend that every Trump outburst is brilliant strategy. Sometimes an outburst is just an outburst. Sometimes vulgarity is not refreshing authenticity. Sometimes it is simply vulgarity.

And sometimes the president of the United States needs to remember that he is not hosting a reality television show. He is leading the free world.

Israel is not an employee. Israel is not a tenant. Israel is not a contractor at Mar-a-Lago waiting to be paid or punished. Israel is a sovereign nation and America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Its prime minister, whether one supports him or opposes him, is the elected leader of a democratic country at war with terrorist armies on multiple fronts.

No American president, Democrat or Republican, should speak to him as if Israel’s security decisions are personal favors to be granted or withdrawn depending on whether the president feels sufficiently appreciated.

The issue here is not whether the United States has influence over Israel. Of course it does. America is Israel’s most important ally. Presidents have always pressured Israeli prime ministers. Eisenhower pressured Ben-Gurion. Reagan clashed with Begin. George H.W. Bush pressured Shamir. Obama pressured Netanyahu. Serious allies can disagree, sometimes sharply.

But serious allies also understand boundaries.

A president may say, “We believe this operation will harm broader American strategy.” He may say, “We need time to work a diplomatic track.” He may say, “We disagree with your assessment.” He may even say, “No.”

What he should not do is turn a grave security discussion into a performance of personal dominance.

That is especially true when Hezbollah is not a theoretical problem. Israelis in the north have lived under fire. Communities have been emptied. Soldiers have been killed. Families have been waiting to return home. The people of Metula, Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee do not need lectures about “quiet” from Washington while Hezbollah decides when to violate it.

If the United States wants Israel to hold its fire, then the United States must be prepared to ensure that Hezbollah holds its fire too. A ceasefire that restrains Israel while Hezbollah reloads is not diplomacy. It is an invitation to the next war.

This is where Trump’s style becomes substance.

When he boasts publicly that he turned Israeli troops around, when Israeli sources reportedly dispute whether those troops were ever on their way, when he announces understandings with Hezbollah that are unclear or immediately contradicted by events on the ground, he does not project strength. He creates confusion. And in the Middle East, confusion is not harmless. Enemies watch. Allies wonder. Civilians pay.

Trump’s defenders often say, “Look at the results.” That is a fair argument when there are results to defend. But character and conduct are also results. So is the dignity of the office. So is the way America’s friends understand American reliability.

I do not expect Donald Trump to become John F. Kennedy. I do not expect him to speak in polished paragraphs or carry himself with old-school restraint. That is not who he is, and his supporters knew that long ago.

But there is a difference between being blunt and being crude. There is a difference between applying pressure and humiliating an ally. There is a difference between demanding strategic restraint and acting as if the presidency exists to settle personal scores.

Those of us who have defended Trump’s better policies should not be asked to defend the indefensible.

We can say that moving the embassy to Jerusalem was right. We can say the Abraham Accords were historic. We can say the campaign against Iran and its proxies is necessary. And we can also say that a president who speaks about allies this way diminishes himself, his office and the country he represents.

Kennedy worried that he might do something to embarrass the presidency.

Trump should try worrying about that too.