Pity the poor Republicans who hugged and kissed their self-respect goodbye and then boarded the Trump Train because they thought that, once he was the nominee, he would come to his senses and at least feign a sense of decorum and — just maybe — display a modicum of intelligence and understanding about the political issues, both foreign and domestic, that plague the United States.
Trump’s no-win, entirely avoidable spat with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Muslim-American parents of a brave young soldier who died in Iraq, should have been the first trigger warning that, decorum be damned, Trump is Trump and always will be Trump. How dare the Khans accuse me of being insensitive and never having sacrificed anything? It took great sacrifice to build Trump Tower! (He actually said that.) How dare they accuse me of never having read the Constitution?! I have read every chapter! (He actually called them chapters. The Constitution is divided by Articles and Sections).
Since that spat began, Trump’s poll numbers have plummeted.
And then there is his understanding of foreign policy, which, speaking of the Constitution, is, along with national defense, the president’s chief responsibility. In a recent interview with Trump, George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC’s news program, “This Week,” raised the topic of the Soviet Union’s recent territorial expansionism under its leader, Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has publicly praised on several occasions.
Noting that the GOP platform had originally called for providing Ukrainians with weapons to defend themselves against invading Soviet troops, but Trump had that language taken out, Stephanopoulos asked Trump, “Why did you soften the GOP platform on Ukraine?”
Trump’s answer was, “He’s [Putin’s] not going into Ukraine, okay? Just so you understand. He’s not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.”
In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, a part of Ukraine, and has made several incursions into eastern Ukrainian territory, Putin’s goal being to reconstruct as best he can the former Soviet Empire. Which is why Stephanopoulos said, “Well, he’s already there, isn’t he?”
Trump answered, “Okay, well, he’s there in a certain way, but I’m not there yet. You have Obama there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama, with all the strength that you’re talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this, in the meantime, he’s going where … he takes … takes Crimea, he’s sort of … I mean . . . ”
Russia is, and will continue to be, a grave threat to the world order because Putin is Putin, and because, should he become president, Trump is Trump.
