Trump’s spying game
way. Trump has defied conventions ever since he announced his candidacy and does not think that has cost him.
Trump’s latest comments feed concerns that the Republican nominee is sympathetic toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and would be soft on Putin and Russian aggression if he were to become president. He has declined to denounce the Russian leader, and his earlier comments undermining America’s commitments to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have alarmed those in the foreign policy establishment.
But the foreign policy establishment is not Trump’s audience. Nor is any establishment — political, economic, academic. He thumbs his nose at these elites, as do many of his most passionate followers.
The experts can express their outrage time and again at what Trump says and does about serious issues. For Trump’s supporters, it is his very recklessness and disregard for the conventions of politics that have proven so appealing. What’s to lose if you are already left out?
Throughout the day, Democrats rushed to denounce Trump, who also said Wednesday that he would be “looking” at the question of whether Crimea, which was seized by the Russians two years ago, should be considered Russian territory.
The Democrats suggested that no matter what Trump was calling for, it was wrong. If he was calling for the Russians to hack into government information, it was borderline treasonous. If he was calling on them to violate someone’s privacy, they said, that would be illegal. Others simply said Trump had revealed his ignorance and his lack of fitness.
Trump’s defenders sought to blame the Democrats and the media for overblowing what the candidate meant by his remarks.
“The media seems more upset by Trump’s joke about Russian hacking than by the fact that Hillary’s personal server was vulnerable to Russia,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tweeted at midday.
Trump’s comments provided more evidence that the candidates speak to two Americas. Trump’s America despises Clinton and sees her use of a private email server to conduct business as secretary of state as a criminal offense that should disqualify her from high office, and the failure to prosecute her as evidence of a rigged system. Clinton’s America sees Trump as a threat to the future of the republic and a man unsuited to occupy the presidency.