Donald Hearts Vlad
A strange obsession.
One of the aspects of Donald Trump that continues to amaze is his obvious man crush on Vladimir Putin. He just admires the guy. Part of it is that Trump clearly loves the notion of being a strong man himself, and he appears to see Putin as a prototype.
Aside from the fact that an American president ought not be an admirer of an autocrat as a general matter (at least, that is the quaint way we used to think about such things), but it is also quite obviously the case that Russia is, at best, a competitor with the United States, if not an actual adversary.
I lean to the adversary side of the equation, in fact. This is not the say, therefore, that we should not talk to them. But, maybe just maybe we shouldn’t be literally rolling out the red carpet for them, either.
Side note: I have seen a number of online Trump fanboys carry on about how that flyover was a show of strength meant to intimidate Putin. This is clearly nonsense (unless you think flyovers at ball games are intended to scare the stadium full of fans). The flyover and all the other stuff were demonstrations of respect and the kind of showmanship that Trump likes. It is all performative and nothing that would scare Putin. I mean, come on.
Beyond all of that, and Trump’s inflated view of his negotiating skills, his admiration for Putin is just bizarre.
Clips like this just underscore the simplism that is the mind of Trump.
Here’s the whole quote:
“You know, I always had a great relationship with President Putin. And we would have done great things together in terms of, you know. Their land is incredible. The rare earth, the oil gas — it’s incredible. It is the largest piece of land in the world as a nation by far. I think they have 11 timezones if you can believe it, that’s big stuff. But we would have done a lot of great things we had the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax which stopped us from doing that. We would have done so great. But we have the greatest — one of the great hoaxes. I mean, there were others like the election itself and as you know, as you covered better than anyone. But it was a rigged election and a horrible thing that took place in 2020. But we would have had a great relationship but we did amazingly well considering — you know, he would look and see what happened, he would think we’re crazy with the made up Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. So we had something very important and we had a very good meeting today, but we’ll see. I mean it’s, you have to get a deal.”
First, while the timezone thing is a bit of info that might be useful during trivia night, it is hardly something that should tee up admiration. Trump’s love of big and gaudy could be dismissed as childlike if he weren’t POTUS.
Second, his obsession with what he sees as crimes committed against him is unhealthy and also dangerous. I will not seek to relitigate that matter here.
Beyond that, it is delusional to suggest that Vladimir Putin is a voice of reason on election integrity.
If we assume for the sake of discussion that they actually talked about the 2020 election and mail-in voting (and I think they probably did for the reason I am about to note), then it was because Putin knows how to play Trump. It is about flattery and distraction. And Trump is too vain, shallow, and intellectually challenged to see it. Instead, he goes on TV to confirm his vanity, shallowness, and stupidity. And Hannity, also no intellectual giant, performs the role of quasi-state media happily. After all, the money is good, and he gets to pal around with the wannabe strong man (making this a stealth entry in “Meanwhile in North Korea” series).
One more clip of Trump allowing himself to be played to conclude the post. Because, you know, Putin is the best measure of the health and well-being of the US polity.
A lot of this does remind me of a deceased family member (two, actually) who used to like to attribute the things they wanted to say by attributing those statements to someone else. I don’t discount that there is some of that going on here, but I really do think that Putin tells Trump exactly what he wants to hear, and Trump laps it up.
Trump did not come out of that meeting looking or sounding as if he’d been flattered. Reports of shocked faces on Trump staff, and Trump’s weak, defeated body language, did not result from Trump’s ass being kissed. I think it more likely that Putin forcibly reminded the Donald that Putin has some control over him. Not influence, control.
This is not a simple bromance, Trump has never in his life been as loyal to anyone as he has been to Putin. Trump allows himself to be humiliated, ridiculed and treated with utter contempt by Russian media, by Putin’s mouthpieces, and by Putin himself. There is nothing comparable in Trump’s life, nothing even close to this level of subservience. If we were talking about anyone else, any world leader, Trump would be rage Tweeting all through the night. But he dare not attack Putin.
With Medvedev as a placeholder for one term, Putin has effectively been president of Russia for 25 years. He has nearly complete autocratic control. He’s made himself possibly the richest man in the world. Of course Trump admires him. Putin is certainly a role model, and possibly a mentor, for Trump.
That’s ostensibly current US policy.
Under the existing (Biden) National Security Strategy, China is the “pacing challenge” (i.e., a long-term threat that we are basing military force design and other planning and spending around) while Russia is an “acute threat” (i.e., one of less potential risk to our interests, but actually doing so now and thus in need of immediate response). Under the Trump 45 NSS, they were given equal billing: “China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode
security and prosperity. They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow
their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their
influence.”
@James Joyner: I take the point.
But I wish that POTUS took the same point.
@Steven L. Taylor: Indeed. I have to give a lecture on U.S. Strategy and Policymaking to the student body Thursday. I’ve given it the last ten years, with gradual tweaks based on new administrations and world events. I’m still struggling with how to do it this year, in that, much moreso than the Trump 45 administration, there seems to be no strategy and no policy. Everything seems to happen on a whim.
@James Joyner:
Just write “whatever” on the whiteboard.
Lecture ends.
Retire to bar.
Tell me again how this is just a bromance. Putin cracked the whip, Trump dropped to his knees.
I don’t know why this is so hard for people to see and to accept. Trump is Putin’s bottom. Sometimes the outlandish and improbable is the actual truth.
Trump Backs Plan to Cede Land for Peace in Ukraine
After meeting the Russian president, President Trump told European leaders he now favors giving up territory Ukraine controls to Russia to end the fighting, a concession Ukraine has long opposed.
It’s right in front of our noses. Trump is subservient to Putin, and a traitor. There is no Occam’s razor that makes this a friendship.
Competitors don’t try to put Americans’ hands on each others throats, undermine their shared sense of reality, and inspire cynicism and despair. Adversaries do that.
@Kingdaddy: Fair point.
@Michael Reynolds:
And.
While I did use the phrase “man crush” I think you are letting your own views on this cloud the way you are reading this post.
@Michael Reynolds:
Trump’s problem, I think, is that, just sometimes, the realisation arises in his tiny mind that he is way out of his depth.
The plus side, such as it is, is that Trump did NOT do what Putin really wants him to do: end all sanctions, and cut all support to Ukraine.
That indicates to me that Putin does not “control” Trump.
At least, not to the point that Trump is prepared to risk both a revolt by an appreciable number of Republicans in a near-tied Congress, and a full-on breach with Europe.
He is just stupid enough to fall for the idiotic argument that “all Putin wants is a deal that gives him Donbas, which is Russian anyway, amirite?”
When Trump encounters people he can’t bullshit or litigate into compliance, he seems to default to rather pathetic attempts to ingratiate himself, and often getting humiliated, beacuse “stupid”.
A gangster “wannabe” encountering the real thing.
But still trying to avoid any possible unpleasant consequences for himself.
We shall see on Monday how far Trump is willing to push Putin’s agenda for a “truce”, and if Zelensky and whichever European representatives (Stubb and Rutte, it appears?) can work on him.
@JohnSF:
@Michael Reynolds:
If Trump could actually read, he might try reading a biography of Harry Truman.
Or of Clement Attlee.
Both rather self-effacing men, who turned out to have the stones oversee the victory over Japan, and to tell Stalin where to shove it.
Trump is so bloody wet you could pole a punt on him.
Whatever his motivation, trump just can’t say “no” to putin. And he tried really hard this time–he even set a ceasefire deadline, but then delayed it before letting it evaporate altogether as putin charmed, BS’d, and/or dazzled him during yesterday’s meeting. Trump had his diplomatic heavyweights at his side, so he should’ve been able to stand firm… Okay, maybe he wasn’t helped by that dimwitted fu**wit Witkoff, who thinks that the success of a meeting is measured by the gifts and compliments received. And maybe not by Rubio, who’s most notable achievement as SoS is denigrating and trying to deport law-abiding green card and visa holders because they’ve expressed opinions that people in the administration don’t agree with.
But now we find out that trump sat there and took it while putin demanded not only all Ukrainian territory already occupied, but also the remainder of Donetsk and Luhansk that’s still under Ukrainian control. And the absurd cherry on top was that, as reported by the Financial Times,
No wonder the meeting was followed only by brief statements and no press conference. And no wonder trump rated the meeting a “10,” as anything less would’ve begged the question as to what did not go well.
Trump wants to give up a huge portion of Ukraine to Putin and his invading force.
Neville Chamberlin gave a huge portion of Czechoslovakia to Hitler and his invading force.
Someone please explain the difference? Except that one is the fucking POTUS???
@Daryl:
And to give poor old Neville his due, he ended up declaring war on Germany in 1939.
” For it is evil things that we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution. And against them I am certain that the right will prevail.”
@JohnSF:
I don’t think there’s any danger of Trump breaking up with Putin.
Trump went in with a lot of tough talk and deadlines and sanction threats and came out mouthing the Russian position. I grant that he’s stupid. I grant that he’s an amateur out of his depth. But this man has a fantastic ability to sense a slight. So he knows Putin is clowning him. He knows he looks weak, if Trump knows anything, he knows that.
And he does nothing but submit. As he is jeered, he kneels. Does that sound like the Trump we’ve all come to know?
I don’t know the nature of Putin’s control, I suppose it could be financial, corruption, but MAGA doesn’t care that Trump is corrupt. Trump would not abase himself to conceal a sketchy Russian loan. So it’s something Trump is certain that MAGA cannot swallow. Something really bad and when we’re talking about Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend, the best friend who refuses to release the Epstein files, I’d say we’re justified in making some educated guesses.
By now Marco Rubio knows Trump is compromised. He may be spineless but he’s not an idiot, so he knows Trump cannot stand up to Putin. He knows any promise Trump makes to defend Europe is false. He should stand up like a man and admit that Trump is in effect a foreign agent and must be removed.
@Daryl:
Yeah, but …
Trump did not, as of now, give Putin what he really wants, and needs: the end of US sanctions on Russia, and the cut-off of US assistance to Ukraine.
Trump seems to be trying (because idiot), to placate Putin, while also not wanting to risk a full breach with Europe and (probably more important to Trump?) a possible revolt of pro-Ukraine Republicans in a close Congress.
Trumps is in a trap, imuho.
Monday will be the key.
Will Trump try to enforce a “Putin peace” deal, or not?
@Michael Reynolds:
I haz thoughts about what the UK government knows.
Because the Big Eye knows all. It sees all.
And especially where dear Ghislaine is involved.
fwiw I still think Trump is not directly pwned by Putin.
If he were, he would have given Putin what Putin really wants: sanctions end, Ukraine cut off.
He’s just a wannabe dimwit out of his depth.
When Trump can’t coerce compliance, he seems to revert to a rather pathetic “lets make a deal” default.
I suspect he just cannot process the reality that Putin could not give a tuppeny f@ck about “deals”: he wants to restore the Russian imperium, at whatever cost in blood or money.
Putin would have been trained in KGB kompromat. I recall reading that one of the standard tools of kompromat is ambiguity. Drop clues about minor sins you know about and hint you have worse. Let the victim’s imagination and fears fill in the blank with the worst thing you might know about. Moscow may not have much on Trump, but Trump knows what he’s done and fears Moscow might have evidence.
@gVOR10:
That is an interesting thought. The FSB would have known about Epstein.
@JohnSF:
Trump can’t just hand over the keys to the kingdom, that would blow his cover and, incidentally, burn Putin’s leverage.
Here’s my tinfoil hat story: Putin knew about Epstein and held it over Trump’s head. And when Epstein was in the joint and perhaps making threats during Trump’s first term, Putin knew some guys. Pretty good chance there were some Russian gangsters in the same facility.
I fear Trump’s fury will grow all weekend at the media coverage of his shameful performance, and Zelenskyy will cop the full force of it on Monday. It’s apparent that Trump and his staff decided overnight to change the position he’d expressed to Hannity. Now he agrees with Putin to skip this ceasefire stuff (which Zelenskyy has always insisted must precede peace talks) and proceed straight to a grand bargain ending the war. And since the only way to do that is to give Putin everything he’s demanding, Zelenskyy can expect an atrocious ultimatum from Trump, which he’ll be bound to reject.
By Wednesday, Trump will be blaming Ukrainian intransigence and interference by the EU for the war’s continuation. This is clearly what Putin prepared him for:
Heaven forfend anyone should engage in backroom dealings!
@Michael Reynolds:
Now there’s a thought that had not even wandered across my normally ultra-paranoid mind.
I may need to up my dial a tad.
Incidentally, given the history of Maxwell, and the related connections of dear Ghislaine, it would be interesting to know exactly what Mossad and (presumably) Netanyahu knows about all such.
I still default to Trump is stupid wimp who is totally out of his depth, knows it, and tries rather desperately to cover it up with bluster.
For one thing, if Putin has any dirt, it’s a fair bet HMG also does.
Dirt cancels out dirt?
@gVOR10:
@Michael Reynolds:
Dear Ghislaine was Robert Maxwell’s daughter.
And Bob was a player
Pity J Edgar H didn’t nail him.
High probability Bob’s had too much dirt re UK.
Being owner of the Mirror back in the day would have bought a lot of both influence and operational cover.
Or maybe I’m just being Mr Paranoid Qanon-alike again.
Who can tell in the wilderness of Daily Mirrors?