Sad. Since Donald Trump's tweets became a national phenomenon, the word Trump uses frequently to put down his enemies has been appropriated by the president's critics to mock his behavior and his policies. Critics might instead deploy a more descriptive word that cuts deeper: weak.
Trump seeks the approval of the world's strongmen to fill a desperate need for the strength he lacks. Powdered rhinoceros horn is hard to come by these days.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, in particular, is Trump's avatar of strength. Trump is loathe to offend him and overeager to please. Trump practically licks his hand when the two meet.
Reporters see Putin's influence behind Trump's conspiracy theories about Ukraine that got him impeached this week. It is clear by now what Putin suggests Trump accepts as true.
The Washington Post reported Thursday evening that Trump repeatedly told senior aides that Ukraine had worked to keep him from winning in 2016. Trump's insistence led many (who spoke to the Post anonymously) to think "Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine’s culpability," the Post reported:
One former senior White House official said Trump even stated so explicitly at one point, saying he knew Ukraine was the real culprit because “Putin told me.”
Yeah, that's disturbing. Just not disturbing enough for the sycophants with which Trump surrounds himself to do anything about.
One man's opinion, but if the president of the United States told *me* that he was basing his foreign policy on disinformation from Vladimir Putin, I'd shout my head off the very first minute, damn the consequences - not wait 30 months and then tell a reporter on background
Philip Bump Friday evening examined the timeline of the Trump-Putin communications for which we have record compared to the timeline of Russian 2016 interference Trump still disputes. There were "a total of 20 phone calls or one-on-one meetings from the day he won the election until this July." Trump's infamous call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky occurred July 25. By Dec. 18, the U.S. House had impeached Trump for it.
What's missing from Bump's timeline is where Paul Manafort fits into it. Manafort officially became Trump's campaign manager on March 29, 2016, but Manafort was a presence in Republican political circles long before than. The two had interactions and mutual acquaintances going back decades. Manafort's involvement in Ukraine goes back to 2004. Manafort reportedly began working for Russian aluminum billionaire Oleg Deripaska in 2006, a man with close ties to Putin. Manafort mounted an effort for Deripaska to "influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government."
Manafort now sits in prison convicted of tax and bank fraud.
There are a long list of things we still do not know about Trump's call for investigations of the Bidens and Ukraine, David Graham writes in The Atlantic. What Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is doing in Ukraine and where his indicted associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman (and their paymaster, Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash) fit into the Trump saga remains to be unpacked. Not to mention what culpability Trump administration players bear.
We are where we are and Trump is where he is because for all his bluster and bullying, Trump is a seriously damaged human being. Feral in his instincts, a slave to his impulses, perpetually insecure, morally lost and confused, and for all his fame, pathologically needy. The illusion of strength he projects "strongly" impresses the weak-minded. But their approval is junk food to him. What he craves is acceptance by those with real power and the will to wield it. Men like Vladimir Putin. Men as "profoundly immoral" as he is.
More disturbing is what the transformation of the Republican Party into the Party of Trump reveals. On Wednesday, House Republicans accepted comments from officials from "the third most corrupt nation on earth" (Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky) over the sworn testimony before Congress of dedicated, career U.S. public servants the way Trump in Helsinki accepted Putin's denial Russia interference over the sworn testimony of career U.S. public servants who work for him. For all the patriotic affectation, for all the chest-thumping bluster about God and country, Republicans subjugated themselves to Trump as easily as Trump bends to Putin's will. Trump bows to Putin. Republicans bow to Trump. White evangelicals first among them.
What the House debate revealed this week is how far a large percentage of Americans who fancy themselves stalwart heirs of the nation's founders have moved towards restoring the monarchy, or worse.
I hope you will continue to check in here at Hullabaloo as we sort all this out during this tumultuous time. I don't think it's ever been more important to stick together. You can count on us to keep an eye on this unfolding drama seven days a week even when you find it too stressful to do it yourselves. If you have he means to help support this blog for another year, I would be very grateful. Again, thank you so much for reading and supporting my work all these years. It means the world to me. --- digby
