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.
