Reality show star and alleged
president Donald J. Trump looks so sad watching his ex-boyfriend across the
prom hall, doesn’t he?
“Mission accomplished! None of that
silly human rights stuff holding us back anymore.”
The death of George H. W. Bush is
giving an embattled Trump cover to cancel press events and avoid
questions about Russian collusion, but Vladimir Putin’s spokesman is talking
freely — and showing the receipts.
Working alongside Putin at the G20
meeting in Buenos Aires, Dmitry Peskov “has displayed what he says are two
emails from President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer asking for help
getting the Trump Tower Moscow project off the ground,” according to the AP. But:
“We told them that the presidential administration isn’t involved in construction projects, and if they are interested in making investments we will be glad to see them at St. Petersburg’s economic forum.”
Peskov said they never heard from
Cohen again.
Facts are facts: Trump’s former
personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty this week to an indictment by
Robert Mueller’s special counsel, implicating his former boss in a scheme to do
business with a sanctioned Russian bank in pursuit of a Trump Tower Moscow
through the summer of 2016. Mueller has receipts.
So this Kremlin spin is not about erecting a wilderness of mirrors. It is about the new world order that Trump has made possible by smashing American soft power.
Confirming the kompromat while minimizing collusion makes Trump look like the eager one, the weaker one, the beta in the relationship. It marginalizes him, and by extension, the United States.
As if that was not bad enough, Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also managed to miss Trump in Argentina.
That has to smart, for Donald had given his good friend verbal cover for the bone saw assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, not to mention his full blessing for the apocalyptic Saudi war in Yemen.
That has to smart, for Donald had given his good friend verbal cover for the bone saw assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, not to mention his full blessing for the apocalyptic Saudi war in Yemen.
Trump, of course, blamed his
staff. “It only wasn’t set up,” he said according to CBS News. “I mean, I would — I would have met
with him, but we didn’t set that one up.”
Yet the prince was able to connect
with Putin in a very public way while Trump watched from afar, sidelined and
shut out by the two powers whose respect he craves most, and which did the most
to help him get elected. He thought they loved him, but it turns out he was
just being used. Sad!