Okay – Trump Gets Some Credit for Isis Leader’s Death [EDITORIAL]

For what feels like the first time in his presidency, President Trump can rightfully take responsibility for his actions – well, at least some credit.

This past week, President Trump announced in a very grand and awkward fashion the death of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Initial announcement of the event was “teased” out by the president through a weird tweet which was then followed by a very graphic and excruciatingly long press conference.

Trump appears very proud of the event and seemingly expects full credit for the suicide of the Isis leader – but does he actually deserve credit for the entire event?

On the surface, we believe Trump can take a little praise for the death of al-Baghdadi. For any president in this situation, by initiating the raid that lead to the death, there is some recognition that can be handed out. Trump is no exception to this concept.

Due to the fact Trump set up a raid and successfully initiated it via the military, the death that was then a product of the event can be given to Trump as his responsibility.

There is, as with everything Trump does, stipulations that come with this potential credit.

The board does find it hard to comfortably give Trump the recognition he craves when he would not give Obama the same for the death of Bin Laden. The situations were nearly identical up until how the actual death was carried out. Both, in the end, however, ended up responsible for the death of terrorist leaders.

The hypocritical tendencies shown by Trump in these times are where the board really struggles when it comes to the decision of giving Trump recognition. We believe Trump still deserves credit for the initial raid, but it was a tougher thing to decide on giving his attitude towards Obama during that time.

Critics on the other side may bring up the fact that this was a suicide, meaning that Trump nor anyone in the military physically had a hand in the death of al-Baghdadi. In the broad scheme of things, we do not believe that is really a viable reason to discredit the president.

The actions of the event, in our eyes, resulted in the death. Broadly speaking, the raid is actually what ended up killing al-Baghdadi. Without the raid, we believe the Isis leader would still be alive thus this still gives Trump some credit for the death. Even though it was a suicide, as grim as it may sound, the actions of the raid lead to the suicide.

Ultimately, we believe Trump rightfully has the ability to take some credit for the death. He did successfully initiate a raid that resulted in the death, but by these standards he also should have given Obama the same kind of recognition.

We also do find the way Trump announced the events alarming, which also could be another reason for hesitation around giving him praise, but, in the end, he did successfully take out al-Baghdadi.

This editorial was based on the deliberations of a JAMS 504 editorial board.