gracchusdixit

The title of the last of these commentaries was “Hiding in Plain Sight”.  Its theme was that those who profess to bewilderment at Donald Trump’s incessant defense and protection of Vladimir Putin and Putin’s Russia should open their eyes to his real motives, which are obvious to anyone who is willing to see them for what they are—a betrayal of the nation he was elected to lead.  

Today, Trump himself dropped all pretense.  His treachery is no longer hidden.  It is on full display, exposed to the clear light of day.

Seventy-two hours ago, Robert Swan Mueller III, the special counsel appointed to investigate Russia’s attack on the 2016 election, filed a stunningly specific indictment against 12 Russian spies, who work for the GRU, the intelligence arm of the Russian military.  The indictment outlined in detail how these Russian agents stole documents and data from the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and Hillary Clinton herself.  It described how that information was “weaponized” to defeat Clinton and elect Donald Trump.  Although the indictment did not charge Vladimir Putin himself, it is impossible to imagine that this far-ranging attack occurred without his explicit consent.  

And, although no Americans were charged with crimes, the indictment clearly laid the groundwork for charges yet to come.  It made clear that Roger Stone, a long-time Trump booster and confidant, is in the special counsel’s crosshairs.  It also pointed to a “candidate for the U. S. Congress,” who asked for and received stolen documents relating to an opponent in the 2016 election.  Whoever this candidate may be, he or she committed a crime that Mueller will almost certainly prosecute.  The indictment further described an “organization” that acted as a go-between that Russian agents used to disseminate the information they stole.  That “organization” is in all likelihood Wikileaks.  It, too, may soon find itself a target of the special counsel.

Despite all this, despite the exhaustive detail of the indictment, despite the unanimous judgment of our intelligence agencies that Russia attacked the 2016 election, despite a clear warning issued just two days ago by the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coates, that Russia is attacking our political institutions “every day,” Donald Trump emerged from his so-called “summit” in Helsinki, intent on defending Putin and Putin’s Russia once again.   

“President Putin says it’s not Russia,” Trump insisted.  “I don’t see any reason why it would be.”  He went on, for the hundredth time, to smear the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” designed to sour relations between Russia and the United States, demanding to know why the FBI isn’t doing more to investigate “Hillary Clinton’s email server,” as if that had anything to do with anything.

Putin, for his part, was simultaneously more brazen and more coy.  While admitting that he preferred the election of Trump, in the hope of “normalizing” relations between Russia and the United States, he went on to deny that Russia would ever interfere with the domestic politics of another nation.  This assertion is so transparently false that even Joseph Goebbels would be left speechless.  

It is indisputable that Russia tried with varying success to hack elections in Germany, France, and the Netherlands; it had more success in hacking the most recent election in Italy; and, as we are learning day by day, it almost certainly succeeded in hacking the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom.  None of which includes Russia’s even more nefarious  interventions in Ukraine, where the object was, not simply to influence elections, but to topple democratically elected governments.  In short, when Putin joined Trump at the podium in Helsinki, he did what he always does—lie.

That, of course, is not the principal problem, because no one in his right mind would ever take Putin at his word.  The principal problem is Donald Trump.

It is no longer plausible to believe that Trump’s slavish submission to Putin, his lavish sycophancy, and his unrepentant and pugnacious defense of an authoritarian thug is merely the result of an insecure and warped personality in the psychological thrall of an adversary of the United States.  As a diagnosis for behavior on the world stage, narcissism will only take you so far.   The more plausible explanation for Trump’s behavior is that he has been politically and personally compromised.  Either he is being paid off by the Russians, or he is being blackmailed.  

When Republican Senators like Lindsay Graham or Ben Sasse complain that Donald Trump “missed an opportunity” to confront Putin in Helsinki, they are missing the point.  The President of the United States didn’t “miss an opportunity,” he seized one.  He seized the opportunity to prove, once and for all, that he is Putin’s faithful puppet.   

If there was any doubt that our Commander in Chief has betrayed the nation, the “summit” in Helsinki has proved it. We have a traitor at the top, and his treachery is hiding no more.