On Aug. 15, President Donald Trump rolled out an actual red carpet to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin – accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague – as they met in Alaska, ostensibly to discuss Ukraine.
Trump’s “extremely productive meeting” with Putin accomplished nothing other than offering U.S. legitimization to Russia’s blood-stained invasion of its neighbor. Putin could have been arrested had he alighted in many countries.
Four days later, Trump lied on Putin’s behalf by blaming Ukraine for Putin’s blitzkrieg attack of Feb. 24, 2022, telling Fox and Friends, “It’s not a war that should have been started. You don’t do that. You don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size.”
Do you just let that invading country conquer you?
This, of course, is not the first time Trump has mouthed such Putin propaganda.
Two months later, Putin’s pal said Ukraine shared the blame with Russia for war casualties: “You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
During his Fox interview Trump also gushed over his relationship with Putin: “You saw that when he got off his plane, I got off my plane. There’s a warmth there that you can’t – you know, there’s a, there’s a decent feeling.”
Ah, a “decent feeling” between a guy promising to become a “dictator on day one” and a war criminal dictator who eliminates political opponents. Keep collaborating Republicans.
Within a week of the Alaskan Abyss [certainly no summit], Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, announced a cut of 40-50% of the agency’s workforce. Included among the lost jobs are those at the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which tracks other countries’ attempts to influence U.S. public opinion.
In May, the Trump administration cut 1,200 CIA jobs plus thousands from other parts of the intelligence community.
Well, Trump, who lacks the mental focus to read the reports – prefers getting his talking points from Putin.
After a 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Trump repudiated the U.S. intelligence community when asked about Russian operatives working against Hillary Clinton: “President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
This from the candidate who on July 27, 2016, said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary Clinton] emails that are missing.”
In 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian military officers for hacking more than 300 people in the Clinton camp and Democratic party organizations and orchestrating massive disinformation campaigns.
Mueller also charged the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm, with meddling in the 2016 campaign, with a 37-page indictment detailing how the Russians tricked Americans by posting pro-Trump and anti-Clinton propaganda. Also indicted were two shell companies and 13 Russians, including, according to Time Magazine, “Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who has been nicknamed “Putin’s chef” for his ties to the Russian president.”
The indictment stated these pro-Trump actions began in March 2016.
“We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. That made it tougher to deal with, but he understood it,” Trump said. “He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax.”
On Aug. 19, Gabbard revoked, at Trump’s bequest, the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence professionals. Well, if you are going to substitute Trumpspeak for intelligence reports, you do not want honest eyes to see your perfidy.
On Aug. 22, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Lt. General Jeffrey Krause, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and two other high-ranking intelligence officers.
So the fallout from the Alaska junket sounds like an “extremely productive meeting” for people of Putin’s ilk who are working to weaken our country. Gutting intelligence gathering with a Putin-partial president presiding, leaves the U.S. acting as a Russian satellite nation.
An instructive sidebar to the debacle might emerge from NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander’s assessment for MSNBC’s Jen Psaki.
Citing Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Alexander said:
“What struck me, Jen, in particular, was really just the looks on the faces of the American delegation here. Leavitt appeared to be a bit stressed out – anxious – their eyes were wide, almost ashen, at times. Those were some of the sort of images … that will stick with me as we leave here.”
I doubt if the Trump crew saw Putin laying down the law, ordering his acolyte to do his bidding. But it would not be surprising if they saw a master manipulator flatter their “stable genius” of a boss inside/out and upside/down to keep Trump [or is it Krasnov?] in the Putin stable.
