Last week, anyone who didn't think "foul play" by Putin after reading reports of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny falling into a coma is either terribly naïve or a Trumpist Republican. And sure enough, after he was rescued an flown to Berlin, he was diagnosed with having been poisoned with a cholinesterase inhibitor, a family of central nervous system toxic agents.Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee released copies of Trump's pre-presidential love letters to Putin as part of their investigation into Trump's collaboration with Russia during the 2016 election.
Trump’s pandering to the Russian president was on full display in a 2007 letter congratulating Putin on being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. The letter read, “Congratulations on being named Time’s magazine ‘Man of the Year’-- you definitely deserve it. As you probably heard, I am a big fan of yours!”The phrase “I am big fan of yours” was emphasised by the now US President with a thick underline.The praiseful content doesn’t end there, with a 2013 letter containing an attempt by Trump to persuade Putin into attending a Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, an event owned by Trump himself.The letter asked Putin to be Trump’s date for the evening, reading, “I want to take this opportunity to personally invite you to be my guest of honor in Moscow on November 9th. I know you will have a great time.”In an attempt to double down on the persuasion (in true all-caps Trump-style), an added hand-written message read, “THE WORLD”S MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN!”Putin did not attend the contest.The letters are part of a more serious issue surrounding the 2016 election, with key findings from the Senate Select Committee revealing that Putin had weaponised the hacking of Democratic campaign emails, with Trump receiving assistance from various Russian pass-throughs.Further findings reveal that former campaign chair Paul Manafort was deemed a threat to US intelligence due to his contacts with Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik.The report essentially confirmed that the president had lied in a written testimony about not remembering a conversation with Roger Stone, who utilised his Julian Assange WikiLeaks back-channel to access Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails.While Trump’s unwavering love of Putin was put on full display, the report all but confirmed something more serious. Trump and his officials sought out and accepted Russian interference during the election.
Last week Juan Cole had a typically Trump-era headline at Informed Comment: Trump Walks Alone: Former U.S. Allies Britain, France, Germany Join Russia And China in Forcefully Rejecting Trump Iran Sanctions. The European countries hit Trump with a strong rebuke, thoroughly sick and tired of Trump's dysfunctional policies, and they sound more like Russia and China. Trump and Pompeo are now running around screeching that they're going to sanction the rest of the world. Trump should be dragged out of the White House and put in an insane asylum.