I didn't think the Trump administration could get any worse, but this last week he proved me wrong. In just the last week, he has attacked NATO -- threatening to go it alone if the other countries don't increase their military budgets by January, and saying the U.S. doesn't get much from NATO anyway (even though the only country NATO has sent troops to defend in the United States after 9/11).
Then he went to Great Britain -- where he interfered in British politics, threatened to damage trade between the U.S. and Britain if they don't initiate a "hard Brexit", and finished the visit by labeling the European Union as our number one foe.
All of that would have been bad enough, but Trump wasn't done. After arriving in Helsinki to meet with his favorite dictator, Trump tweeted that the poor relationship between the U.S. and Russia was due the United States "foolishness and stupidity" -- and the Russian foreign ministry was quick to agree. It seems that Russian aggression around the world, and it's computer attacks on the United States are not important. But putting sanctions on Russia and investigating them for their attacks on the U.S. democracy are unacceptable in Trump's eyes.
Frankly, I think Trump's actions in the last week border on being traitorous. He seriously damaged our relations with our best allies, and appeased the enemy who attacked us. Then he met in secret with Putin. We'll never know what happened in that meeting, since both Trump and Putin are known to be incessant liars.
In just a few days, Trump has done immense damage to world peace and stability.
Here is what legendary journalist Dan Rather had to say:
There has been no shortage of historic summits in American history - but nothing like what is happening today. No American president has ever appeared as a supplicant to a foreign power who attacked us - an attack that the intelligence community says is ongoing. No American president has been so eager to placate a hostile foreign power. And no American president has been under a credible shadow of allegedly conspiring with a hostile foreign power. No American president has so attacked our allies and heaped scorn on his fellow citizens while heaping praise on a hostile foreign power. No American president has been so ill-prepared for diplomacy and statecraft and then insisted on handling negotiations with a hostile foreign power alone. We do not know what was discussed. We will not be able to trust what President Trump or Putin say was discussed. Their words fail even the most minimum standards of political truth telling. This is a historic summit indeed, but historic in terms of the damage it can (and likely already has done) to our nation and a democratic world order.
