Donald Trump Un-American

or how trollishly unpatriotic can the FG get?

Apr 01, 2022

The political Right found a savior in Donald Trump and Donald Trump found a fawning audience. In the midst of the political jockeying in the 2016 presidential primaries, it was fairly obvious who had won the hearts and souls of Republican voters newly infused with Tea Party activists.

Disgruntled, disillusioned, and disaffected voters went from political nobodies to self important naysayers to anything they couldn’t understand or that seemed unfair. Given that their income levels mostly fell well into the bottom half, their opposition to federal spending, debt limits, and deficits was populist angst more than actual pocketbook politics. The GOP’s predilection for spending little and handing tax revenues to the wealthy suddenly found itself with political base that would eagerly vote against their own economic interests. The success of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the wealthiest American and corporations did not transcend to other policy arenas.

Foreign policy, long the perceived strong suit of the Right, became divisive and discordant during the Trump Administration. Institutionalists, interventionists, and fierce anti-communists were supplanted by isolationists and crony-capitalists, who saw totalitarian regimes as new markets for American corporate investment. Foreign policy battles were being fought between desks in the State Department, National Security Council, and at the intelligence agencies during Trump’s presidency to rein in Trump.

Worse still, it was Trump’s personal financial interest more often than not that guided his foreign policy manuevers and machinations. And it was ever more so with regard to Putin’s Russia than anywhere else.

Trump, who has long sought a massive eponyous Tower in Moscow, sought Putin’s help in releasing Hillary’s emails1 as a candidate and backed Putin on every policy position vis-a-vis Ukraine as President, even when members of his own Cabinet opposed him — in 2019, Energy Secretary Rick Perry insisted that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not corrrupt like past Ukraine Presidents but a sincere reformer.

Trump’s malfeasance towards Ukraine (to Putin’s benefit) and attempts to create a quid pro quo for U.S. military equipment (that Trump could not legally withhold) led to his First Impeachment2. The quid pro quo is important here because it’s clear from both the Mueller Investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and in a recent interview Trump gave to John Solomon, Donald Trump has no issues with asking Putin for political help3. And just like Trump’s First Impeachment, the political foe Trump was seeking to get “dirt” on was Joe Biden.

In the Solomon interview, Trump restated right-wing tales about alleged business deals between the wife of Moscow’s ex-mayor, Yury Luzhkov, and Hunter Biden. At a key moment in the interview, Trump said “She gave him $3.5 million so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it.”

Just to be clear, the former President has sought assistance of a foreign government to undermine the President of the United States — a year after he tried to subvert the certification of the election of the same President which led to his Second Impeachment. And the former President is now asking for help from a foreign power that the United States has puts its money and military equipment behind stopping.

Or in realist terms: Donald Trump is undermining U.S. foreign policy and is asking an enemy of the United States to help him do so. Democrats would do well sow the same realism with voters.

US Politics Reconsidered

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