Any American who is paying attention today and has even a token ability to think critically can see that a frightening and unprecedented turn of the historical screw is upon our country. Donald Trump is using his public appearances and statements around his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to essentially clear the Russians of any wrong-doing in both the 2016 election and in the world at large. The single most chilling incident may have been his use of a joint appearance with Putin to attack special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation only days after it indicted a dozen Russian military operatives for interference in the 2016 election, calling the probe “a disaster for our country.” To state this as clearly as possible: Donald Trump has just assailed an American investigation that has uncovered and is responding to a Russian attack on our elections while standing next to the man who almost doubtless ordered that attack.
Less chilling but equally revealing are Donald Trump’s assertions today that the U.S.-Russia relationship “has never been worse,” while claiming to have turned that situation around by his meeting with Putin. The idea that there are high levels of tension between the two countries, and that the most important thing is to tamp down those tensions, is a key sleight-of-hand that Trump is employing. First, he has effectively defined this level of tension as the main crisis between the countries, and has put himself forward as the one who can fix it. Second, having defined the crisis as an abstract matter of “bad relations,” he gives himself enormous room for maneuver in dealing with Russia, since the overriding problem from his perspective is the bad relationship between the countries.
This approach is found throughout Trump's remarks today. He said that both the United States and Russia were responsible for the deterioration in relations between them, but also tweeted that the “foolishness” and “stupidity” of prior presidents were to blame as well.
But all this emphasis on the U.S. and Russia having bad relations in need of remedy is aimed at sweeping under the rug the actual reasons that the Obama administration, and currently congressional Democrats, have taken a hard line against Russia in the first place: Russia not only interfered with the 2016 election, but has engaged in violent, destabilizing behavior that threatens global stability. These actions include Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and Crimea, assassination of civilians living in the United Kingdom, military involvement in Syria to prop up the murderous Assad regime, and attacks on European elections similar to the interference against the United States.
In stressing an “all sides are to blame” approach, the president is simultaneously delegitimizing the U.S. brief against Russia, and legitimizing the bad behavior by Russia that led the U.S., at least under Obama, to see Russia as a problem. Trump’s rhetorical approach is like saying that the problem in a marriage is that a couple’s relationship is deteriorating, not the fact that the husband beats the wife. Donald Trump points to America's bad relationship with Russia as the crisis of the moment, when the true crisis lies in the many dangerous reasons Russia has given us to be fully on guard against that country, and in the unresolved question of why Donald Trump has chosen to subordinate his constitutional duty to protect the United States to the aggrandizement of Vladimir Putin’s power.
