Former President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018.
Column By John Young
With the death of Alexei Navalny, we are reminded once again how Vladimir Putin meets Donald Trump’s definition of “smart.”
Indeed, a fellow “genius.” So much in common.
Back when Trump took the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013, he wrote Putin a gushing letter inviting him to attend and wondered via tweet if Putin would “become my best friend?”
Best friend? Well, so many dictators, so little time.
Unable to make the pageant, Putin sent Trump a gift: an ornate lacquered box containing something.
The key to his heart? We could only speculate — until intelligence experts verified the gift Putin provided: not a trinket but a service: the full force of Russia’s Internet Research Agency – 1,000 employees strong — to help Trump win the presidency.
Read about it in “LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media,” by P.W. Singer and Emerson Booking.
Now, toward a return to office and a “Get out of prison” card, Trump is making sure Putin knows that best-friend feeling is intact.
Our non-president, from his Taco Bueno-style Florida haunt, is blocking aid to Ukraine through spineless marionettes he controls in the House of Representatives – just as he blocks a bipartisan effort to shore up border security because it’s an “issue” he wants to use in his own presidential campaign.
Worse, he’s threatening NATO countries with the dissolution of the treaty, implying that if he became president again, he’d let Russia do as it wishes in an invading way.
That threat is based on the bogus claim that the allies aren’t paying their “dues.” As if he were an expert in paying what he owes.
Dues? As the British say: bull crackers. (The Swedes? The Fins? Someone. Back me up, here.)
The agreement behind the 75-year alliance is that members keep defense spending at 2 percent of gross domestic product.
A few countries come up short of that, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that European nations will hit the 2 percent target collectively this year.
The “dues” canard is a message for low-information voters, and of course for Trump’s man Vlad.
Observe Trump’s behavior and what he promises to do should he regain power, and know why Putin plucks at his heartstrings. These are vultures of a feather.
Trump threatens to use the weight of the federal government to punish enemies – just like Putin. To do so, he says he’ll purge anyone for whom the Big Lie sticks in the throat.
Trump believes that the Jan. 6 riot was a beautiful thing, that people who killed a security officer and pooped in the halls of the U.S. Capitol were patriots.
Trump will watch the upcoming Russian election with an eye to how Putin achieves the 98 percent support he expects.
One way Trump and fellow Republicans have sought to achieve this is to make voting increasingly difficult. The opening episode of this season of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” revolves around the crime of handing a bottle of water to a Georgia voter. Truly oppressive — I mean, impressive, GOP.
Meanwhile, we await the Supreme Court’s ruling on whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution. He says it’s about all presidents to come, but it’s all about him, naturally.
I’m starting to wonder if we should root on a stunning “fully immune” ruling from the court.
In that case, Joe Biden could have Trump arrested for being a critic of his government, just as his best friend Putin did with Navalny.
Trump could sit in the northernmost cell in America, something just outside the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and rail against the scary notion that any leader would crack down on dissent in such a brutal way.
Then, one day after a brisk, 36-below walk in the exercise yard, Inmate Orange could down a Diet Coke injected with a splash of state-sponsored anti-freeze, feel “not well,” and expire.
Biden then could cancel the next election and jail anyone who complains. You know: Be like Putin.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email him at jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
