This isn't a Trump thing. Rather, the insistence on democracy as the Frist Principle through which the United States will deal with you is the change in traditional US foreign policy - not Trump.

it's certainly a massive reorientation of U.S foreign policy from what it has traditionally been... because five decades of policy is enough for that to become our traditional foreign policy. Trump's foreign policy inarguably represents a significant break from U.S. foreign policy over the last fifty years. You're absolutely correct that Trump didn't invent a policy of not caring about democracy or human rights in other countries. But I don't think there's much disagreement that he's made a drastic change in our foreign policy from our traditional championing of liberty, democracy, and freedom. You clearly agree with that change, but I don't think there's any basis for claiming that this isn't a Trump choice to move away from our traditional approach to foreign policy to one from a more historic era.

So now the ME governments feel like they have more room to move towards aligning with the U.S. They know that we're not going to be trying to promote democracy or freedom anywhere anytime soon, so they've got more comfort in cozying up to us. That's why I think the Peace Plan might be more about leveraging that moment to affect change outside of Gaza, rather than an effort to carve up Gaza to the ME countries. Normalizing relations with Israel may be the bigger prize for them, not getting some useless beachfront property deals.

That's why some MAGA folks, like Laura Loomer, are so enraged. Like you, they envisioned the world as aiming for an "us vs. them" kind of Manichean stand-off - but they definitely view Islamists states as having to be firmly in the "them" category in the clash of civilizations to come. If it's a bipolar world, these guys are in the other pole.

Eagle-eyed viewers will immediately understand the connection between the squiggly line on the side of the patch and the colors of the Phoenix. Especially astute viewers will immediately make the connection to the "FBC" initials on the right.

The line appears to be China's eastern coastline. What does FBC stand for?