TRUMP IS A GIFT TO PUTIN
The news that the FBI opened an investigation in 2017 as to whether President Trump was actually working for the Russians shouldn’t have come as a shocker. No public evidence has yet emerged from the FBI probe or from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that the president took orders from the Kremlin. And Trump has been furious in his denials.
Yet over and over this president makes common cause with the Kremlin with his statements, his policies, the many contacts between his team and Kremlin operatives. Not to mention and his bizarre bromance with Vladimir Putin. Meantime, William Barr, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, has suggested to Congress that Mueller’s final report may be kept secret, even though polls show around 75 percent of Americans want it to be made public.
However, even before the Mueller report is issued, I think one can see why Trump is so useful to Putin. I don’t believe it’s due to Kremlin payoffs or blackmail.
It’s because Trump’s core attitudes and beliefs play into the hands of a Russian leader whose primary goal is to weaken the West.
Let’s look at a few of the biggest gifts that Trump has handed to Putin.
Prime among them is the president’s hostility to NATO, the historic Western military alliance that has kept Europe safe since World War II. NATO is still vitally needed to dissuade Putin from nibbling at the territory of European nations, as he did in Ukraine, and undermining U.S. global interests.
Yet the president repeatedly scolds NATO allies while complimenting autocrats like Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte.
And we now learn that Trump repeatedly asked aides in 2018 whether the United States could withdraw from NATO, and said he didn’t see the point of the alliance. “This would be a humongous gift to Russia,” says Alexander Wershbow, former deputy decretary general of NATO and U.S. ambassador to NATO and Russia. “The Europeans are quite worried this idea could resurface.”
Trump, however, views NATO purely in monetary terms; he focuses laser-like on the size of European countries’ military budgets. He considers the alliance as a leach that is taking advantage of our country.
Similarly, in another gift to Putin, Trump cheers on efforts to split the European Union, pumping for Britain to Brexit from Europe. The president also praises autocratic leaders within the E.U., such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who are undermining democracy at home and are openly aligned with Moscow.
In other words, the president’s core instincts align perfectly with Putin’s. Trump has displayed his envy of the Russian tough guy who isn’t constrained by courts or pesky reporters. Trump even defended Putin when asked about the many Russian journalists who have been murdered, saying Americans kill people, too.
Trump’s instincts also align with the Kremlin’s in his refusal to release any details on his private meeting with Putin at the Helsinki summit. Russian intel agencies, however, know all the details, and can use them against us.
Similarly, Putin didn’t need to pay Trump to suddenly announce that 2,000 U.S. troops were quitting Syria, betraying Kurdish allies and enhancing Russian power in the region. Trump ignores the bigger strategic picture — acting on instinct and ignoring advice from those with knowledge of the issues.
In other words, Trump is a convenient Russian tool. To use Soviet terms, he is a “useful idiot” who doesn’t realize he is being manipulated. That makes him a Russian asset no matter what Mueller ultimately learns. Rubin is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Send email to trubin@phillynews.com.