Against His Own Countrymen, Trump Continues to Side With Despots

It is long past time to worry, and anyone not picking up on it, at this point, is part of the problem.

We have a president who targets political enemies, shows disdain towards those tasked with keeping our nation safe within the intelligence community, and openly praises tyrants and despots.

He also has subverted the constitutional parameters of his job by disrespecting the framing of our nation. He does this by ignoring that we have three separate, but co-equal branches of government, set in place to assure that no single man could have unchecked power.

Of course, he could not step all over Congress if they did not allow it, but they do, and it didn’t just start with Donald Trump. For far too long, Congress has acted as bystanders, rather than active members of a free republic.

My fear is that what we’re seeing now is only the beginning. There is no backbone in Congress to exert their powers against the overreach of a clearly incompetent president.

For those of you who have missed out and aren’t really sure what I’m getting at, you’ve apparently been in a news blackout through the weekend.

Today, however, we’ll skip over all the talk of ignoring or instructing underlings to ignore Congress. We’ll also set aside how he has his recently appointed lackey, Attorney General William Barr targeting our nation’s intelligence and law enforcement community, in order to exact revenge for the Russia probe.

These acts are egregious to the point of chilling. Not even Nixon was this focused on creating an authoritarian regime. He certainly didn’t have the entire GOP rallying to support him.

No, today we’re going to talk about President Trump’s continuing love affair with brutal despotism, because when you understand what he admires, you’ll understand why he feels free to go so far in every other bad direction.

On Saturday, perhaps revealing his fear of a meeting with former Vice President Joe Biden in a 2020 election, Trump sided with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un over Biden.

North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that’s sending me a signal?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2019

I really don’t care what your partisan bent may be. I’m certainly no fan of Joe Biden. That being said, the depths of childishness this president will sink to should disgust everyone.

Add to that that he’s openly expressing his approval and trust of a man who has dissidents imprisoned, tortured, or executed and it should really bother you.

On Monday, the infant-in-chief doubled down on the outrage.

“Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low IQ individual. He probably is based on his record. I think I agree with him on that,” Trump said while standing alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a press conference in Tokyo.

He went on further to point out his disapproval of the administration Biden served.

“I don’t take sides as to who I’m in favor of, who I’m not,” Trump added. “But I can tell you that Joe Biden was a disaster. His administration with President Obama, they were basically a disaster when it came to so many things.”

“I’m not a fan,” he said.

I don’t disagree that the Obama administration was horrendous.

I’ll go even further and point out to those who are disgusted by Trump’s acquiescence to our geopolitical foes, but think Obama hung the moon, that the first thing Barrack Obama did as president was to launch an “apology tour.”

He went on foreign soil, as an American president, and apologized for our nation.

That’s disgusting. It’s as much of a betrayal of our nation and her values as what Trump is doing now. It made us look weak.

The difference is, with Trump at the helm, we now look weak and stupid.

While standing next to the prime minister of a nation that is near enough to be quite unnerved when Trump’s North Korean love interest acts up, he blew off concerns about recent missile testing.

In fact, he’s in direct opposition to the views of his own national security adviser, John Bolton.

“I view it as a man — perhaps he wants to get attention and perhaps not,” Trump said. “Who knows. It doesn’t matter. All I know is there have been no nuclear tests. There have been no ballistic missiles going out. There have been no long-range missiles going out. And I think that some day we’ll have a deal. I’m not in a rush.”

Once again, he’s more worried about his relationship with foreign dictators and madmen than his own Cabinet.

When asked whether he was “bothered” by North Korea’s tests, Trump responded,  “No, I’m not. I am personally not.”

Trump called the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, a “very smart man” and suggested the missile tests were meant to “get attention.”

“Who knows?” he added. “It doesn’t matter.”

It matters to those with common sense.

Abe, meanwhile, did not take the same stance as Trump, telling reporters that the tests were “of great regret.”

“This is violating the [United Nations] Security Council resolution,” the Japanese prime minister said. “It is of great regret. But at the same time, between Kim Jong Un and President Trump a certain new approach was taken and that is something that I pay tribute to.”

There’s a certain diplomatic ease being displayed there, so for that, kudos to PM Abe. I can’t be sure that I wouldn’t have whipped around in that moment and screamed in the gilded toad’s face, “HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND??”

For now, however, while reflecting on Trump’s deep admiration for and trust of Kim Jong Un, I’ll simply say: Otto Warmbier.