Trump's Putin on speed dial isn't funny, it's frightening

Let me clarify, according to Bob Woodward's new book WarDonald Trump sat on a treasure trove of stolen US state secrets at Mar-a-Lago and did Vladimir Putin have a speed dial button for regular private chats during his stay? After he tried to overthrow our government?

And Putin is now aiding his election campaign by flooding our electorate with toxic disinformation? And there are people who would actually vote for this guy?

What, wait, there's more?

Also, according to the same book, did Trump actually make a special effort to provide Putin with COVID testing kits at a time in the pandemic when many Americans couldn't get them? Apparently Putin even warned Trump not to tell anyone that he provided the medical care package to the COVID-paranoid Russian dictator and war criminal.

And all this after Trump left office? After the Russia scandals that plagued his government? After you made a chummy with Putin at a meeting in Helsinki in July 2018 and publicly supported him at the expense of the US intelligence community? In part, this happened after (and possibly before) Putin's escalation of his invasion of Ukraine?

At any point in our history, such revelations about the protracted confrontation with one of our most dangerous enemies would have spelled political doom for any American politician.

But about half of the American public — the Trumpy half — has already gotten used to the idea of ​​electing a convicted rapist plotting a coup as president. This is just a scandal that probably seems a little more colorful. That crazy Trump, you'll think, that rascal. Who knows, they'll probably attribute this all to the “Russia hoax,” which was never actually a hoax, while paradoxically whispering to their friends that it just shows Trump playing three-dimensional chess with the ignorant Putin to keep him he in line.

They probably see Putin as Trump's useful idiot. Surely it's not Trump who is the useful idiot. After all, he's the guy behind those awesome $400 gold sneakers they're wearing and the NFTs they'll use to pay for their retirement. He's not an idiot. Sure, maybe someone around them is an idiot, but not our Donald.

Admittedly, America's allies may not be so optimistic about the growing evidence of Trump's “special relationship” with the Kremlin. As you may recall, they were the ones who first warned about Trump's ties to Russia. According to a recent book by former British spy Christopher Steele, some of the secrets Trump hid in the bathrooms and ballrooms and who knows where else at Mar-a-Lago were among “some of the most sensitive” secrets in the British Navy.

While the British Defense Ministry has denied the claim, other Trump-related security risks, such as Trump's handover of top-secret intelligence by the Israelis to the Russian foreign minister in spring 2017, have long been known.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

As a result of this leak and other damning revelations about Trump, allies have long worried that leaking key information to the United States could have serious consequences if Trump regains the presidency, regardless of the apathy, passivity or worse of some American voters. Should this result in them withholding such information, it would directly jeopardize U.S. national security.

But can you blame them? Especially when Team Trump's response to such allegations is so deeply disingenuous and exaggerated that it sends the message that the entire campaign is more of a carnival freak show than a worthy attempt to hand over the nuclear button once again, more of our secrets, and control of the most powerful military in the world to Trump.

In that response, he called Woodward, one of America's most respected and respected journalists, “truly insane and deranged” and “a total scumbag who has lost his mind and is slow, lethargic, incompetent and overall a boring person with no personality.” “ .”

Talk about projection. That could have been omitted from any objective account of a recent public appearance by Trump.

As Washington Post Columnist Catherine Rampell tweeted After revelations about Trump's gift of a COVID test to his Moscow pal, it's “hard to believe this guy is a coin toss away from a second term.”

It's also the reason for a commercial released This week, “generals, secretaries of defense, secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, CIA directors and National Security Council leaders under Democratic and Republican presidents, Republican members of Congress, former Trump administration officials and even Vice President Cheney” concluded that “There is only one candidate qualified to lead our nation in this year’s election, and that is Kamala Harris.”

In another year, such statements might be viewed as electioneering on Madison Avenue — although the fact that literally hundreds of such national security officials have publicly endorsed that conclusion, and that many of them belong to the opposing political party, is extraordinary.

But with each passing day, there is further evidence that Trump is not only confused, rapidly deteriorating mentally, a man of deeply flawed character and judgment, and someone who would say anything to get elected right now the desperate attempt to stay out of the slammer. It also poses a real, very serious threat to U.S. national security.