So What have We Done?
President Trump met with Vladimir Putin yesterday and many in America are breathing a sigh of relief. Trump didn’t seem to give away “the farm”; he (maybe?) seemed to be on an “even field” with the “KGB Master.”
And that’s the problem. President Trump met with Putin, and placed Putin’s Russia on an even playing field with the United States. Does Putin belong there? Currently, Russia is ranked 12th in the world by GNP (gross national product) with the US 1st, China 2nd, and even Canada and South Korea rated ahead (10th and 11th). The United States GNP is over 14 times greater than Russia.
And while Russia still has the second largest military in the world (and arguably the biggest nuclear force) that military force has been used to sustain the Assad regime in Syria, takeover Crimea from the Ukraine, threaten several other Eastern European states, and put down factions within the Federation. And, of course, the Russian security apparatus has assassinated its opponents, and attacked the US by effecting the 2016 election. Just yesterday they were accused of attempting to penetrate US energy infrastructure.
Putin made his own “deal with the Devil” when he took power in Russia in 1999: he allowed the “kleptocrats” to continue to loot the people of Russia, as long as they agreed to support him. And he took care of himself, with a current projected net worth of over $200 Billion. Not bad for a former KGB colonel.
So when Trump sat down with Putin for over two hours, he validated Putin’s desire to make Russia “an equal” to the United States. Putin’s ultimate goal is to regain the Russian Empire, the old Soviet Union, and to regain the power and prestige of the Stalin/ Khrushchev/Brezhnev glory days. Trump sat down with a leader of a sovereign state of organized crime, a murderer, and a dreamer of world conquest. Trump treated him as an equal, while proceeding to continue to ignore our world allies, most notably Angela Merkel of Germany. He even felt it “proper” to leave his daughter in his place with the leaders of the world, clearly not concerned about the message that sends.
No, President Trump didn’t give away “the farm” in talking to Putin. He didn’t become hypnotized by Putin’s dead blue eyes. Trump treated Putin as an equal – just what Putin needed.
