Trump is trying to lose the Cold War

If Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama had said what President Trump did in the last week, Republicans would be drawing up articles of impeachment.

Trump led off his misadventure in Europe by again trashing the democratic alliance that helped the United States win the Cold War. After describing the European Union as “a foe,” he cozied up to Vladimir Putin, who has called the collapse of the Soviet Union “a disaster.” Putin could not have scripted his meeting with Trump and the subsequent news conference any more to his liking.

Merely by appearing with Putin, Trump legitimized a murderous kleptocrat who over the last four years has made Russia a rogue nation to the civilized world. Trump’s capitulation came a day before the fourth anniversary of the shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine. Nearly 300 people died. All evidence points to Russia.

Trump then sold out the United States by accepting Putin’s denial of interfering in the 2016 election.

Though he backtracked Tuesday, when he spoke at the high-profile summit, Trump undercut the conclusion of every American intelligence service, the U.S. Senate and every key national security official in his administration. Trump ludicrously blamed poor U.S.-Soviet relations not on Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea and his support for a war criminal in Syria, but on Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Yet Mueller’s indictment last week of 12 Russians provides a detailed look at how Russian intelligence agents – who operate only with Putin’s approval – sought to help Trump, Putin’s preferred candidate. They hacked Democratic accounts and tried to penetrate state elections systems, including Florida’s. They released damaging emails about Clinton. They laundered money.

Further, the indictment makes clear that this threat to our national security continues.

Yet when Trump had the chance to confront Putin publicly, he backed down. As with evidence that contradicts his belief on every subject from global warming to the size of his inaugural crowd, Trump ignores what he doesn’t like.

Former CIA Director John Brennan said Trump’s performance meets the standard for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” adding that they were “nothing short of treasonous.” Any Republican who does not acknowledge the outcry such actions by Clinton or Obama would have produced is being dishonest.

Trump tried to characterize the Putin meeting as a responsible resetting of relations between the two main nuclear powers. He noted that America and the Soviet Union kept up dialogue even during the Cold War. We would make two points.

First, Trump is selective in his wish for dialogue. He has overturned Obama’s opening to Cuba, which has no nuclear weapons. We are a spectator to the island’s political future.

Second, all presidents have understood the need to work with Russia when necessary. Obama did so in crafting the Iran nuclear deal and the 2010 update to the arms limitation treaty. But no president until Trump has so recklessly embraced a Russian leader.

“Republican patriots, where are you?” Brennan asked on Twitter. Sadly, but not surprisingly, many self-proclaimed GOP patriots ran for cover.

Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for the Senate, criticized Putin, but did not criticize Trump by name.

Ron DeSantis, whose ads tout his backing for governor from “the Big Man himself,” blamed the election hacking on Obama.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed the findings of the intelligence agencies. Like Scott, however, he didn’t call out Trump.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., backed Trump’s performance. On July 4, of all times, eight Republican lawmakers visited Moscow and groveled before Russian officials. This from the party that for decades accused Democrats of being soft on communism.

Apparently, it is enough for most Republican congressional leaders that Trump gives them what they want – right-wing Supreme Court nominees, anti-consumer deregulation and tax cuts weighted toward corporations and the rich. They can forgive all else. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., at least acknowledged that accepting what Trump called Putin’s “incredible offer” of help with the Mueller investigation “would be like bringing ISIS into a joint terrorism task force.”

Trump began helping Putin even before taking office. He advocated Britain’s departure from the European Union. The split helps Russia. Brexit backers then tried to help Trump’s campaign.

As president, Trump has pulled the United States out of a key Pacific trade deal, the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran deal. He has invented reasons to pick fights with Western allies, weakening the United States and raising Russia’s potential influence.

At one point Monday, Trump winked at Putin. One does wonder what they said in private and what leverage Putin might have over Trump. Maybe that’s actually the leastawful explanation.

The other possibility is that Trump wants to end the alliance that has brought so much security and prosperity since the end of World War II. Whatever the reason, Trump’s actions over the last week prove that he is singularly unqualified to be president.