Donald Trump’s audition seems to be going well. By the time he sits down with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki next week (with no witnesses present) he will have ticked off an impressive list of tasks. Beginning in Brussels, he so disrupted and threatened the NATO alliance that the Pentagon had to go into immediate damage control mode.
Hours after President Donald Trump departed NATO headquarters Thursday, U.S. military leaders embarked on a full-scale “damage control” operation with calls to their counterparts across Europe to reassure them that America will abide by its defense commitments in the region.
The outreach, directed by the Pentagon leadership, came after Trump threatened to reassess those commitments during a gathering with NATO allies in Brussels, according to multiple current and former diplomatic and military officials familiar with the calls.
The overall message from senior military officials in a series of phone calls to members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been that U.S. military bases in their countries will remain open and American troop levels in the region will not be reduced.
But the damage cannot be undone and now no European politician could significantly increase defense spending even if they wanted to without looking like Trump’s poodle. That might suit liberals just fine but it suits Putin even better. The alliance is weakened and vulnerable border states with Russia will feel less protected and more like vassals of their domineering neighbor.
Even before he left for his trip, Trump’s verbal abuse of Europe spurred a response from E.U. President Donald Tusk who reminded the Trump to “Appreciate your allies. After all, you don’t have that many.” But Trump’s first order of business upon arrival was to launch a blistering attack on German chancellor Angela Merkel in an effort to weaken her at a tumultuous point in her government’s effort to tackle immigration policy. Do you think the Germans recognize this rhetoric?
The President warned that immigration was hurting Germany and other parts of Europe “very much,” apparently referring to a wave of refugees who have entered Europe from shattered Syria and other unstable societies in the Middle East and North Africa.
“I think they better watch themselves because you are changing culture, you are changing a lot of things, you are changing security.”
Vladimir Putin couldn’t have plunged a shiv into Merkel any better than that, but Trump had something even more deadly in mind for Theresa May. The week before the president’s arrival in the United Kingdom saw Prime Minister May’s government falter over its plans to separate from the European Union. As Paul Krugman helpfully explains here, May has been trying to sell a “soft Brexit” that would keep the U.K. within a common customs union with the Continent, but this caused several of her ministers to resign in protest. As a result, there is some doubt if she can retain the confidence of parliament. Trump made sure to take the side of her “Hard Brexit” critics and give her a solid push.
In an interview with The Sun that was conducted while he was in Brussels but published while he was dining with the Prime Minister, Trump claimed that May had failed to follow his advice on how to properly cleave from the European Union with very unfortunate results. He even said that a soft Brexit would preclude the U.K. from striking a new trade deal with America to help them offset the damage their economy will suffer from European tariffs. Trump could not have delivered a more deadly threat, as the entire premise of the Brexiteers is based on a new trade deal with the United States. Trump was saying that a soft break from the E.U. could never work because he wouldn’t allow it to work.
All of these things advance Putin’s goals. He wants to discourage Western defense spending, undermine NATO, and force border states back into vassalage. He wants a weakened European Union, and a thorough cleaving of the U.K. from the E.U. accomplishes that more effectively than anything else could. He wants weak and distracted governments in London and Berlin. And he wants America alienated from its traditional allies so that Europe will be less willing to stand in the way of his plans. All that’s really left is for Trump to cut a deal with Russia over Syria that will facilitate their unfettered control over the country.
But that will come in Helsinki, probably after Trump gets done having his private meeting with Putin and hearing how well he’s done so far. I know he’s looking forward to it.
It would seem Trump is most looking forward to his encounter with the Russian president on July 16, rather than his one-day tour in the U.K.: “Frankly Putin may be the easiest of them all. Who would think. Who would think. But the U.K. certainly has a — they have a lot of things going on.”
So, when Can We Just Admit that Trump Is Captured by the Russians?
Mueller Probe Brings Indictments Of Russians In Election Hacking Of Dems
Well that’s nice. Now all we have to do is go to Russia and catch the bastards. Of course, Trey Gowdy will insist the indictment was all the result of bias on somebodies part.
SOB the Russians hacked the e mails on July 27th, same day Trump told them to on tv and in a tweet. Suspicious eh Trey?
This is not collusion. It’s a coordinated attack in furtherance of his own campaign.
The Americans were duped, negligent or in cahoots, but so far there are no allegations regarding knowledge or motive. This is not the same as saying there won’t be any future charges of conspiracy or election impact.
Trump has been dealing with American gangsters and mafia and later Russian oligarchs and the Russian mafia since the 1980s, at least. There is no duping going along. Mueller has started with the Russians because they were determined to do whatever they could to prevent HRC’s elections.
Once Trump got the nomination, they were able to go into overdrive. Why? Because Trump already belonged to Putin because Putin’s oligarchs were propping up Trump’s real estate empire through millions laundered through shell companies and sometimes directly to the Trump Organization. The pee tape is a distraction if it exists at all. With Trump it’s always about the money.
So, it won’t be too difficult for Mueller to show a direct link and collusion with the Trump campaign and almost certainly with “Two Scoops Donny”.
Now even high treason won’t move the GOP Congress to do anything over than shrug their shoulders so the mid-term elections really are determinative at this point for the future of the nation.
A relative has been writing about Trump for many decades, We’re well aware of his mob connections
Not in the indictments of course. Mueller is building his case.
Here in the real world we already have more than enough evidence of active cooperation.
For Putin, the fact the 30-40% of each western nation he is fucking over are cheering his paid and/or compromised stooges because they think this is Winning! must be the most fun part of all.
If anything, he’s probably worried of running out of rope of all the coming metaphorical self hangings.
As nalbar noted elsewhere. this is all about the damn pee tape or something. “Is that enough now Mr. Putin sir?”
Trump has never shown embarrassment or contrition for his sexual behavior. Not going to start now.
I think they are propping up his empire. His wealth is critical to his self image and power.
There isn’t any doubt that Mueller’s indictments are systematic and calculating. Today’s demonstrate that indeed the Russians did wage cyber warfare against the US.
The teases that Mueller lets drip out, like the one where Trump stood in front of a rally and asked the Russians to find HRC’s emails…only to see in Mueller’s indictment the nexus moment where later that same day the Russians began spearphishing and more hacking.
Mueller’s calculating how he lays his story out. Russians proved to hack first then he’ll tie in various Americans, but he has to lay out the Russians first.
And there’s a good chance we’ll see not just the Russians indicted but some Middle East actors as well.
Except for that whole ‘back into vassalage’ thing, it’s pretty much a bog-standard left agenda, and if by ‘back into vassalage’ you mean ‘out from under US vassalage’ it all works pretty well.
Die Linke and Labour may part company on the EU, for example, but it’s a programme with wide support.
Why are we complaining when we’re getting what we want?
Ezra Klein has a bit of a different view.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/13/17568246/trump-uk-europe-nato-theresa-may
Regardless the effect is the same.
Putin definitely has something on Trump, and what that is, is right in front of our faces. Its not the “pee” tape; that’s a distraction Trump and Putin are happy to have us obsess over. Besides, Trump has shown himself to be practically impervious to embarrassment, still going obliviously forth in the wake of self-inflicted indignities that would have had the average person hide in shame.
What Putin’s got is far less salacious, but more mundane and at the same time more consequential to Trump than what’s being imagined. To wit:
Don Jr:
“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets,” Donald Jr. said in 2008. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
Eric The Lesser Trump:
“We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
https:/themoscowproject.org/collusion/eric-trump-funding-need-russia
They don’t rely on American banks because they can’t. Given what he had to work with, Trump has been a piss-poor businessman whose deals have left a lot to be desired and whose only talent is self-promotion. They say he’s a good salesman, but that’s only when the product is himself, “Art of the Deal” be damned. After the multiple bankruptcies, track record of conning partners and stiffing vendors, Trump’s proven to be a risky investment.
Practically nothing moves in Russia without Putin’s blessing, especially money. He could disappear any one of these oligarchs on a whim. If at any point in time Putin were to command Trump be cut off, he would be, at which point his empire would crumble and it would be apparent to all he’s not the billionaire but nothing more than a cheap, bigoted, smarmy huckster of steaks, ties and Trump degrees. Had it not been for Russia, Trump would likely have been, for the last decade or so, making his money hustling on the hotel huckster circuit, holding “seminars” on how to get rich, and selling “degrees” at Trump University.
This is what Putin has on Trump, and he’s calculated that there isn’t anything the GOP will let Mueller do to him (or themselves) that would be worse than the effects of Putin cutting him off financially. Its why he didn’t release his tax returns, why he’s disparaging his own intelligence agencies, and why everything he does on the world stage “mysteriously” goes to the benefit of Putin, and these instances have been so numerous to this point that cannot be explained away as coincidences.
Its also explains why a US president is having an unprecedented private meeting — no witnesses present, with an adversary of whom we now have solid evidence directed the undermining of our elections, not to mention working openly to blow up the western alliance. This is a status meeting, where Trump is meeting with Putin to get his marching orders from here on out. Putin will probably tell him, you’ve done well with my bidding, with your only mistake having fired Comey.
What scares me are what those marching orders are going to be.
Trump yelled “Russia hack her emails,” Republicans cheered, the media laughed and shrugged, and Russia hacked her emails and more.
Trump is now touting a Red Wave this November, Republicans have done nothing to secure the vote, and the media again is laughing and shrugging such statements off….yet Mueller just told us Russia hacked election boards and registration software.
Not to put on the tinfoil hat, but what are the odds Putin will tell Trump not to worry about November, the vote will come out in Trump’s favor.
It’s not like rigging 20 house seats and 2 senate seats would be that hard and that the media wouldn’t dismiss such a result as “well, Democrats just fell short. America IS a fundamentally conservative nation, so must have been their terrible messaging to the Economically-Anxious-Working-Class.”
Putin’s marching orders will likely be along the lines of, keep doing what you are doing, and don’t worry about your own dumbassery because it helps my goals. Be careful not to go too far in criticizing me or Russia, like you did with the pipeline, to provide cover. As for 2018 don’t worry, keep doing what you are doing, tweets and all, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Putin is no fool. What he has accomplished with Trump has got to be the greatest known intelligence coup of all time. He knows the only thing standing between exposing and destroying Trump, the greatest asset he’s ever had, and disaster, is a republican majority. Its foolish to think they won’t use what they learned in 2016, make adjustments and take action in 2018 to do all they can to prevent the republicans from losing the majority.
Let’s be honest: the republicans KNOW the Russians hacked the election in their favor in 2016, and KNOW they will do so again in 2018. And they welcome that help, just as they did in 2016. You have that strange, hat-in-hand pilgrimage to Russia those GOP senators took, on July 4th no less, and then stranger still is Trump’s unprecedented meeting with Putin in virtual secret from the US government and public. No president in history would have ever been allowed to do that, but Trump is, with the blessing of the GOP. Something is truly up, folks, and its willful ignorance at best to pretend its not.
If the GOP thought for a second the actions of the Russians or any foreign power or entity would help the democrats, we would have seen action from them and Trump to not only put laws in place but hold endless hearings to make sure the public knew these efforts were done to help democrats. They would broad brush the entire democratic party as treasonous.
If the GOP continues to refuse to take action to safeguard the election then the Democrats need to take a page from Trump’s book and say they won’t respect the results unless they win.
Your last sentence is my worst nightmare – and quite possibly the only sane response to this insane situation.