Just 11 days ago, I wrote: “Distracted as we are by the melodramas in our own backyard, it’s easy to forget that Trump continues to wound our national pride by debasing himself to his master in Moscow.”
Little did we know.
I wrote those words after Trump abruptly ordered a major U.S. troop withdrawal from our bases in Germany – a veritable gift to Vladimir Putin, who has long sought a reduced American footprint on his western flank. That episode further confirms Trump’s well-earned reputation as a weak appeaser. But now, in retrospect, that episode looks like chump change. What we’ve learned this weekend – from intelligence leaks to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal – is textbook dereliction of duty:
American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan – including targeting American troops…Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion. The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March…
(The intel finding) was included in the President’s Daily Brief, a written document which draws from spywork to make analytic predictions about longstanding adversaries, unfolding plots and emerging crises around the world. The briefing document is given to the president to read and they serve as the basis for oral briefings to him several times a week…
Officials developed a menu of potential options – starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step...
To review: Trump has known for months that Putin’s operatives have offered money to whack American troops – but he has done nothing about it. Perhaps his re-election MAGA slogan should be: “Killing Americans at Home and Abroad.”
The common definition of a traitor is someone who betrays his country. But Merriam-Webster has a definition that fits Trump even better. A traitor is someone who “is false to an obligation or duty.” Trump should resign today.
Fat chance. Instead, he’s tweeting today. He says The Times made up the whole story from fake sources. (Naturally, he didn’t mention Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal.) He says that “nobody’s been tougher on Russia than the Trump administration.” (That’s the Orwellian opposite of factual reality.) And I’ve saved the best for last. Trump says that “nobody briefed or told me” about the Russian bounties on American soldiers.
Pick your poison, folks:
* He’s flat out lying, because of course he was briefed. That kind of intelligence is always in the President’s Daily Brief.
* He knew all about it, from the PDB, but he didn’t care about the bounty on American troops because he’s beholden to the Moscow overlord who worked so hard to help him get elected.
* He was given the PDB, but he didn’t bother to read it – or listen to his briefers.
* He’s telling the truth that he wasn’t briefed or told, because our intelligence people have learned to shield him from bad news.
What is clear is that U.S. intelligence sources, fed up with Trump’s non-response to Moscow’s most deadly provocation, decided to blow the whistle by leaking the story to The Times and The Journal. What is clear is that Trump had the gall this month to address the graduates at West Point – while knowing all along (or opting not to know) that a foreign enemy has targeted our troops abroad, without any repercussions. Indeed, Trump wants to invite Putin to a G7 summit in America.
Trump tried another response this morning: “Nobody wants a low IQ person in charge of our Country.” He was referring to Joe Biden. But here’s what “low IQ” Biden says about the bombshell news: “Not only has (Trump) failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, he has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin…It’s a betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation, to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way.”
But has the Republican rank-and-file condemned Trump’s traitorous inaction? Of course not. There once was a time when the GOP took pride in being tough on Russia. Alas, the party of Ronald Reagan has morphed into the party of Neville Chamberlain.
Naturally, if President Barack Obama had ever done zip about a Russian bounty on American troops, and if Obama had claimed he had never been briefed, Republicans would have declared a national security emergency and contended that the scandal was even more outrageous than his wearing of a tan summer suit. But, as we well know, Republicans hew to the cult of Trump and if appeasement is on his agenda, so be it.
The good news, however, is that Trump’s betrayal of America will likely further damage his awful re-election prospects. And the latest devastating ad from The Lincoln Project (helmed by disaffected Republicans) has a great tag line: “When Trump says he stands by our troops, he’s right. Just not our troops.” Are voters this year supposed to be OK with a guy who defends Confederate statues more than American soldiers?