By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 18, 2018 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 18, 2018 |
“A lady with balls,” is how Russian officials used to describe Hillary Clinton, something they said with both derision and respect, but note especially the “respect,” something which few in Russia would afford President Trump. Of course, Vladimir Putin wanted Trump to win — he admitted as much himself during Monday’s press conference — but whether you believe Trump colluded with Russia or not, the simple fact of the matter is, Russia wanted Trump to win because Putin knew he could manipulate and control Trump (with or without kompromat).
The results, it seems, are far better than what Putin probably could have hoped for. The President of the United States rejected the assessment of his own intelligence community and took Vladimir Putin at his word, and Putin must have watched with some glee as Trump clumsily attempted to extricate a treasonous foot from his mouth yesterday. Meanwhile, in the year and a half that Trump has been in office, he’s never had an unkind word for Putin. He continues to ignore Crimea; he looks past the mess that Russia has created in Syria; and while the State and Treasury Department bureaucracies continue to apply sanctions, it’s only over Trump’s objections. Recall that Congress had to vote to pass Russian sanctions, and though the vote was passed with an overwhelming majority in both Houses, Trump dragged his feet as long as possible before implementing them.
And when Putin won his election? Trump called and congratulated him, over the objections of his own advisors, who handed him a note that specifically said that he was not to congratulate Putin on what was an undemocratic victory. Contrast that to the 2011 election, when Clinton called into question the election results, saying they were “dishonest and unfair,” breathing life into the anti-Putin forces in Russia and undermining Putin’s victory. Ironically, Putin believed that Hillary Clinton and Obama’s State Department were attempting to interfere with Russian elections, not with cyberwarfare, mind you, but with harsh rhetoric, something with which Trump seems incapable when it comes to Putin.
It was that harsh rhetoric that provoked Putin to take action in our 2016 election in an effort to ensure that Clinton would not win. Why? Because he was scared of Clinton. He was scared that she would undermine his power. He was scared that she’d apply more sanctions; that she’d offer more resistance in Syria; that she would continue to alienate Russia from the international community (Trump, conversely, wants Russia back in the G-7).
Forget everything else: Imagine what would have happened to Russia if Clinton had won, and how she would have retaliated against Putin for interfering in our election. The already weak Russian economy would have been obliterated by sanctions because Clinton would have also been able to marshal our European allies against Russia. They’d have been completely alienated by the EU, and the economy would have faltered, which actually would have put Putin’s power in Russia in jeopardy.
Putin wanted Trump to win because Trump is weak. Because he is pliable. Because Trump would invite Putin onto the world stage and pay him compliments, speak of his power in glowing terms, and then convince the controlling party in the United States to go along, and those cowering Republicans — weaker even than their limp wet noodle of a President — would roll over after being given the slightest justification to do so.
So yeah: No shit, Putin wanted Trump to win. Hillary Clinton was his worst fucking nightmare, and in Donald Trump, he’s got a stuttering, sputtering puppet eager to do his bidding under the auspices of friendly relations with the nation that committed cyberwarfare on our country in a successful effort to install their Manchurian candidate.