As Trump's shutdown continues to cause suffering for 800,000 innocent federal employees and others, I'm still shocked by his cavalier comment concerning those impacted. “They'll adjust, they always do.” Spoken like a true trust fund baby born with a silver foot in his mouth.
Of course Trump has no end of self-inflicted problems. Saturday night, Fox TV host “Shouting” Jeanine Pirro asked Trump, “Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia?” Curiously, nowhere in Trump's 354 word rant did he say, “No!” (Or even “nyet.”)
Two days later, Trump denied he worked for Russia, imploring“It's a big, fat hoax!” (Which actually also describes Trump.) I was reminded that Nixon infamously denied he was a crook and Clinton denied he had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Russia came up in the 2016 debate when Trump angrily pointed his finger at Clinton, saying, “Putin has no respect for this person.” Hillary calmly responded, “That's because he'd rather have a puppet as President.” Like a school yard bully, Trump interrupted childishly, “No puppet. You're the puppet.”
Saint Augustine once said, “A lie disturbs the universe.” In his presidency, Trump has told over 7,000 lies. Lying hasn't become his second nature, it's his first. So, if you're feeling a little “disturbed,” it's no wonder. Actually, if you're not, you're not paying attention.
I first had my concerns about Trump and Russia in December 2015 when primary candidate Trump phoned into the “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC. As excited as a school girl before the prom, he bragged that Vladimir Putin had just called him “a genius.” (Actually, according to one translation, Putin had said that, like a shiny object, Trump draws attention to himself.)
Joe cautioned Donald, “You do know that Putin kills dissidents and journalists, don't you?” After a long silence, like a child whose candy has been taken away, Trump responded, “Yeah, well we kill a lot of people, too.”
The next Trump “red flag” (pun intended) came when he hired, for free, Paul “Collusion” Manafort, now a convicted felon, to run his campaign. Manafort had worked for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska who has close ties to Putin and for pro-Putin governments in former Soviet republics.
The Manafort hire seemed suspicious, but no one thought Trump would win the nomination. Marco Rubio said, “We can't ever let a con artist be the leader of our country.” And in May, 2016, Lindsay Graham tweeted, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.” (Now Graham calls Trump “sir.”)
Then, after Don the Con secured the nomination, a plank in the GOP platform mysteriously disappeared. And curiously it was an anti-Putin plank providing defensive weapons to Ukraine to protect itself against Russian aggression. What a coincidence!
When asked about the missing plank, Trump pleaded ignorance.(Something he does very well.) Then at least a dozen pro-Russia Ukrainian nationals attended the Inaugural, though no one can remember such an occurrence for any past president.
It's shocking the number of things Trump has said and done that do Putin's bidding. The list includes 5 secret conversations with Putin. Once, Trump even demanded the translator give him the notes and ordered her never to speak to anyone about it.
The seemingly endless list includes the Trump tower meeting and the oval office meeting with Russians during which an ebullient Trump told them he fired “that nut job Comey” and that “the pressure is off.” Even though it was in our White House, Putin insisted and Trump acquiesced that no American journalists be in the room. Trump inadvertently (?) revealed a classified military secret throwing the Israelis, who provided us the intelligence, under the proverbial bus.
Recently Trump has defended Russia's invasion of Afghanistan, lifted sanctions against companies controlled by Deripaska, and has talked about withdrawing from NATO. Vlad hasn't been this happy since he assassinated his first journalist.
Even the government shutdown that Trump said he was proud to have caused, has to warm Putin's heart, assuming he has one. America in disarray is Putin's dream and Trump has delivered, wittingly or unwittingly. (Meaning either Trump is a traitor or incredibly stupid, or some combination.)
And yet, I'm more optimistic than I've been in over 2 years. Nancy Pelosi has informed Trump that, unless the shutdown ends, he can't give his State of the Union in Congress. (Maybe he'll tweet the SOTU?)
And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who, at 29, is the youngest female Congress member in history, went to the Senate today looking for missing Mitch McConnell to bring the bill to end the shutdown to the floor. She started the brilliant hash tag, “Where's Mitch?” which is blowing up Twitter.
As for Trump becoming Putin's puppet, the former KGB officer must be asking himself, “Where's the challenge?” Easy for him to say.
For more, Google “Where's Mitch?” and “Trump Clinton puppet debate.” Jack is at facebook.com/jackneworth, twitter.com/jackneworth and jackdailypress@aol.com
