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8
JULY 19, 2018
ARKANSAS TIMES
Outmatched
I
t’s almost proverbial to say that every a freakish politibully is a coward at heart. But that’s cal accident, but wishful thinking. In politics, many they’re beginning strongmen are like Vladimir Putin: ruth- to wonder. Asked less, cunning and sadistic. As the world by CBS News to witnessed in Helsinki, a posturing blow- list A mer ica n GENE hard like Donald Trump is simply no foes, Trump’s first LYONS match for the Russian dictator. choice was “the Faced with a real thug, the trust-fund European Union.” poser cowered. As for the farce in Finland, Sen. John Thankfully, Putin is also a bloody- McCain (R-Ariz.) put it succinctly: minded realist. Because the disgraceful “Today’s press conference in #Helsinki was spectacle of Trump belittling America’s one of the most disgraceful performances NATO allies, lying about it, and then cring- by an American president in memory. The ing before the Russian dictator might oth- damage inflicted by President Trump’s erwise tempt him to do something reckless. naivete, egotism, false equivalence, and If the U.S. president is weak, the Western sympathy for autocrats is difficult to caldemocracies are still far stronger than culate. But it is clear that the summit in Russia. But events are definitely moving Helsinki was a tragic mistake.” in Putin’s direction. Former CIA Director John O. Brennan Breaking up NATO and the European tweeted: “Donald Trump’s press conferUnion has been the goal of Russian for- ence performance in Helsinki rises to & eign policy as long as those alliances have exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & existed. Trump has done everything he misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of can to help. If he’s ever done one single treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comthing to make Putin unhappy, it’d be hard ments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket to say what it was. of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are Protesters in London took pains to say you???” they marched not because they dislike Hiding in the face of Trump’s high poll America, but because they love it. Trump’s numbers among the GOP base is where. visit to Britain began with a classic dem- Even the normally sycophantic Newt Ginonstration of his intellectual dishonesty. grich, however, said Trump had made “the First Trump gave an interview to the most serious mistake of his presidency.” Sun — a London tabloid owned, like Fox Other Republicans made similarly cauNews, by Rupert Murdoch — trashing tious noises. Alas, it’s safe to say they’ll be Prime Minister Theresa May as weak and back on Team Trump within days. stupid. After that backfired, he praised Asked how he could take the Russian her leadership and denounced the Sun dictator’s word over his own intelligence as “fake news.” The newspaper then pub- director, Dan Coats, Trump said, “I don’t lished the entire audio recording of its see any reason why it would be” Russia. In interview with Trump, proving that its short, he hasn’t read the actual intelligence original story was completely accurate. assessments. That’s probably because he In the U.S., Trump followers routinely can’t. The president appears semiliterate swallow such lies whole. Disbelieving the at best, unable to parse detailed evidence. plain evidence of one’s senses is essential So he falls back on bluffing and play-acting. to political cults. So now he says he misspoke. Yeah, right. Brits, however, definitely noticed. Polls But why Russia? Why Putin, the head of there show disapproval of Trump at 77 per- a gangster state that invades its neighbors, cent, rivaling even Putin himself, whose shoots down domestic airliners, murders operatives are believed to have poisoned journalists and political rivals and assasEnglish citizens with nerve gas. Many sinates people in foreign countries with thousands marched in London, Glasgow radiation and nerve gas? and elsewhere, protesting Trump’s visit. A New York’s Magazine’s Jonathan Chait balloon float depicting Trump as an angry, makes an exhaustive and quite plausible diapered toddler was everywhere. case that Trump’s a kind of Manchurian The Washington Post’s invaluable for- Candidate whose suspect ties with Ruseign affairs columnist Anne Applebaum sia date back to 1987. He wrote, “ ‘Russians worries that “eventually, this dislike may make up a pretty disproportionate crosscoalesce into a more generalized anti- section of a lot of our assets,’ said Donald Americanism.” Jr. in 2008. ‘We don’t rely on American Such misgivings are common among banks. We have all the funding we need America’s democratic allies. Most would out of Russia,’ boasted Eric Trump in 2014.” like to think that Trump’s presidency is Case closed? Not yet.