Susan Wright on the Right
What could go wrong?
Everything.
We’re just above a week away from the Helsinki, Finland summit between President Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Many (myself included) see this as the absolute worst of ideas. Trump is not ready. He has neither the temperament or the intellect to understand what he’s walking into, and his brilliant plan is to walk in alone, with no foreign policy aides or anyone to keep a record of what is said.
He’s doing this while his campaign team is being investigated for conspiring with Russia. If it is his goal to dispel the notion that he’s less an American president and more a Russian asset, this wouldn’t be the way to do that.
One person who saw the nonsense early and had concerns was former national security adviser H.R. McMaster. He had real concerns about Trump’s man-crush on a former KGB agent.
A new report covering the upcoming summit quoted McMaster from his time in his Cabinet position.
“The president thinks he can be friends with Putin,” McMaster said, according to a report published in The Washington Post on Friday that cited U.S. officials.
“I don’t know why, or why he would want to be,” McMaster was quoted as saying.
McMaster was released from his living nightmare position in April and replaced by someone who appears to be more amenable to Trump’s affections for Mother Russia, John Bolton.
Donald Trump doesn’t want anyone blocking his goal of making the United States a sidekick in service to Putin’s goals of world power.
Trump publicly scolded McMaster in February after his national security adviser said there was “incontrovertible” proof that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
“General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!” Trump tweeted at the time.
No doubt, we’ve had far too many on both sides of the aisle willing to court Russia, in some misguided attempt to wield them as a tool. Trump, however, is publicly prostrating himself before our greatest geopolitical foes, and he has a host of clingers and supporters who are willing to act like the Cold War never happened – or worse yet – who are willing to believe Ronald Reagan was wrong.
On Thursday night, while rallying in Montana, the president blew off the concerns of those who feel his meeting alone with Putin is a bad thing.
“They’re going ‘Will President Trump be prepared, you know, President Putin is KGB and this and that,’” Trump said. “You know what? Putin’s fine. He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re people. Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I’ve been preparing for this stuff my whole life.”
Do you know who isn’t fine? Trump spent that same rally insulting former President George H.W. Bush and Senator John McCain (both war heroes, both dying, so neither likely to fight back).
He insulted the #MeToo movement, and while I can understand having a debate on the issue (Has it done any good? Is it being abused?), ridiculing it and dismissing it, outright, is just wrong.
He went after Senator Elizabeth Warren. I get that she did something underhanded. She once claimed Native American heritage to benefit in ways she was otherwise not entitled to, earning her the nickname “Fauxcahontas” from some pundits. Trump gets this continuously wrong and calls her “Pocahontas,” which many consider to be an insult to the memory of the real Pocahontas. Why was he even talking about her? He was in Montana. She’s from Oklahoma and is a senator for Massachusetts.
Trump went after everybody but Putin.
Putin is “fine.”
If there was any further need to worry, you have to take into consideration the phone calls between Trump and Putin. Reports are that Putin has been using those calls to “soften up” Trump.
White House officials told the Post that Putin “complains” to the president about “fake news” and the foreign policy “deep state”–or establishment—that is “conspiring against” their relationship. Officials are concerned that Putin is playing on Trump’s favorite complaints, “inexperience and lack of detailed knowledge about issues” during the calls.
The problem is that Trump is easy to figure out. All it takes is a little praise and he would sell out his own mother. He is not a man of principles or intelligence. He is the perfect mark for somebody like Vladimir Putin.
That would be fine if it was only Trump who would be suffering the ill effects of rolling over for a Russian strongman. Unfortunately for us, Trump is president, and we’re currently saddled with a Congress that has no will to oppose his horrible ideas. When he rolls for Putin, he rolls the nation.
As a matter of fact, Trump sent a handful of Republican lawmakers to Moscow this past week, ahead of the upcoming summit. Ironically, they spent July 4, the anniversary of this nation’s independence, making deals with Russia.
They emerged from that meeting, suggesting a lifting of sanctions that were put in place as a result of Russia’s aggressive actions in Ukraine, in order to “do business” more openly with them.
Despicable, and a total abandonment of our responsibilities to the world.
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