Trump Plays Russian Roulette with National Security
Russian Calls and Mideast Hotel Deals a Timely Reminder of Trump’s Corruption and Disloyalty
With less than a month before a transformational election, Trump’s Russia calls remind us that he is an unethical sleaze merchant mired in corruption. Trump is a profoundly damaged man with no discernible inner core or coherent value system other than manipulating his position of power for personal enrichment. His foreign policy is purely transactional, placing his interests above national security.
Donald Trump incessantly whines that his political foes smear him for his shady ties to “Russia, Russia, Russia.” But it’s fair to pair because Trump has a strange habit of cavorting with Russians, Russians, Russians, including the country’s brutal dictator Vladimir Putin. Trump’s latest unseemly relations with the Ruskies include as many as seven private phone calls with Putin while the former president has been out of office, according to “War”, a new book by Bob Woodward, the legendary Watergate reporter.
Woodward reported that Trump furtively sent the Russian president COVID-19 test machines during the pandemic. Trump’s weird camaraderie with this former KGB comrade, potentially could have saved Putin’s life, leading to his deadly war of choice against Ukraine.
The New York Times explained that Trump’s troubling phone calls with Putin were highly unusual considering the combustible geopolitical situation:
Former presidents often speak with foreign leaders, but it would be highly unusual for one to talk with an avowed adversary of the United States on the opposite side of a war without clearing it with the White House or State Department first.
Mr. Trump has refused to say that Ukraine should win the war, resisted more U.S. arms for Ukraine to defend itself and publicly said that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that do not spend enough on their own militaries.
Trump’s ongoing, clandestine relationship with Putin again raises uncomfortable questions about the possibility the ex-president has committed treason. Trump has spent years flattering and fawning at the tyrannical Russian dictator. This undignified and unpresidential groveling, included the humiliating 2018 Helsinki conference, where the former president, to his everlasting shame, took the side of Putin over the FBI regarding Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s suspect behavior leads to reasonable speculation as to why he stole troves of classified documents before leaving The White House. Like a hardened criminal, he squirreled away boxes of our nation’s most important military secrets, including those he ignominiously stored adjacent to his gilded toilet in Mar-a-Lago.
Were these Top-Secret blueprints intended for transfer to Putin, who we now know is on Trump’s speed dial? Has Trump already provided American secrets to the Kremlin? If so, what was he promised in return? Is the US military’s ability to defend our country compromised because of Trump’s probable perfidy?
Republican leaders in Congress and right-wing media have jeopardized our safety by insouciantly shrugging off Trump’s document heist. They ridiculously claimed that he only took the documents to brag to guests who visited Mar-a-Lago or his golf course at Bedminster. Meanwhile, US district judge, and partisan Trump appointee, Aileen Cannon, has largely shielded Trump from meaningful consequences or getting to the bottom of whether Trump was lying in the service of spying.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) defended Trump’s multiple calls with the Russian autocrat by rudely calling Woodward a “hack” and absurdly saying, “Even if it’s true, look, is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy?”
There is something horribly wrong with a former president, who stole classified documents, engaging in shadow talks with an autocratic war criminal in the middle of a hot conflict that involves the US military. Trump is not only undermining the nation’s foreign policy, but he is likely breaking the law. Yahoo News reports, “under the Logan Act, a federal law, private citizens may not engage in unauthorized diplomacy with foreign governments.”
Voters have a right to know what Putin is secretly plotting on calls with his increasingly delirious American puppet. Especially, because those who worked closely with Trump know he is easily led and influenced by professional handlers. Fiona Hill served as Trump’s top Europe and Russia advisor and previously explained the danger of Trump chattering with malign foreign actors:
“He was extremely vulnerable to manipulation. And that became a problem for him as a president. And what I mean by that is, he had a very fragile ego, and he was very susceptible to flattery, as well as taking massive offense, as we all saw, to any kind of criticism.”
A disturbing Vanity Fair article suggests that the revanchist Putin is trying to recruit a gullible Trump to help enact his sinister plan to carve up Europe and reconstitute the Soviet Union:
The Kremlin believes that if Trump wins in November, everything will be different…A new Yalta Conference with Putin and Trump might not necessarily take place in Crimea. My sources in Moscow, who wish to remain anonymous for security reasons, suggest that such a summit could look good on Fiji. The Pacific archipelago is conveniently equidistant from Russia and the US.
You might be surprised, but the nickname used for Trump in the Kremlin is the American Gorbachev.
For them, Mikhail Gorbachev is not a democrat or a reformer. For former KGB officers, Gorbachev is a demagogue and a narcissist who desperately wanted to please the audience but had no plan of action; a president whose policies were so chaotic that the empire began to fall apart, with different parts declaring their independence. This is wishful thinking, but Putin’s inner circle would like to believe that Trump could become just such a president.
With less than a month before a transformational election, Trump’s Russia calls remind us that he is an unethical sleaze merchant mired in corruption. Trump is a profoundly damaged man with no discernible inner core or coherent value system other than manipulating his position of power for personal enrichment. His foreign policy is purely transactional, placing his interests above national security. There is no country this grifter wouldn’t sell out, including America, for a Trump-branded hotel or other slimy arrangement.
In fact, Trump-World is already signaling that there would be no guardrails to stop self-dealing Trump if is reelected, according to The New York Times:
“The first term we did everything imaginable to avoid any appearance of impropriety, and frankly, we got crushed anyway,” Eric Trump said, arguing that the presidency had cost his father “an absolute fortune”. “We can’t just sit out in perpetuity, and I won’t,” he added. “I’m not in government; I’m in private industry.”
The election hinges on a handful of swing states, including Michigan, which has a large Arab population. Some pro-Palestinian activists in Michigan have said they would vote for Trump or no one rather than supporting Kamala Harris, which is atrociously misguided and self-defeating because she champions peace.
Such voters might want to strongly reconsider. Trump is likely to sell out Palestinian aspirations in favor of lucrative Middle East business contracts. Eric Trump is actively negotiating hotel deals in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while Jared Kushner is covetously eying Gaza as profitable “waterfront property.”
Additionally, Trump’s insular family company “has struck a deal to put his name on a new tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And on the same day in July that he accepted the Republican nomination, it announced plans to establish a Trump Tower in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.”
The thievery extends equally to domestic issues. For instance, to curry favor with Trump, Oklahoma Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters is attempting to plunder the state’s coffers. The right wing MAGA extremist is trying to funnel $3.3 million in taxpayer’s money to purchase classroom bibles for public schools.
Walters deviously specified that the holy books must include America’s founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. They also must not include commentary and are required to be leather-bound. The only Bible conveniently meeting these arbitrary standards is Trump’s tacky retail Bible, selling for $60 each.
Moreover, Oklahoma Watch highlighted the scam, revealing that while Walters is ordering 55,000 copies of the Bible, there are only 43,000 classroom teachers in the state, and only a slice of them teach history or literature. This appears to be an audacious bribe by Walters, to directly benefit Donald Trump, in order to secure future political support. (It's worth noting that Trump's "God Bless America” Bibles were printed in China.)
Whether it’s playing Russian roulette with US secrets, auctioning off national security to secure lucrative hotel deals in the Middle East, or taking bribes domestically, Trump is a mentally unstable, morally bankrupt dupe who can’t be trusted to protect America from its enemies. Trump would likely weaken NATO and create chaos in the Middle East, while emboldening Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and encouraging a Chinese attack on Taiwan. These countries know that Trump is for sale, and he will always put himself and his bank account before his country.