In retaliation for a sanctions bill passed by an overwhelming majority of Congress and reluctantly signed by Trump, Vladimir Putin has demanded that the United States reduce our diplomatic staff by 755.
Trump responded by thanking Putin:
“I want to thank him because we’re trying to cut down on payroll, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people, because now we have a smaller payroll,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “There’s no real reason for them to go back. So I greatly appreciate the fact that we’ve been able to cut our payroll of the United States. We’ll save a lot of money.”I am reminded of a scene from Animal House:
Trump is really baffling: he goes out of his way to insult allies like Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Jeff Flake, and Jeff Sessions. These are people whose support he needs to accomplish everything on his agenda.
Trump then makes crazy apocalyptic threats against a whack job in North Korea with nuclear weapons without consulting his staff.
Trump reportedly fired campaign manager Paul Manafort, who's under investigation for colluding with the Russians, because Manafort treated him like a child:
"You think you've gotta go on TV to talk to me? You treat me like a baby!” Trump said.
“Am I like a baby to you? I sit there like a little baby and watch TV and you talk to me? Am I a f--king baby, Paul?”
When enemies, friends and allies disrespect Trump he is full of piss and vinegar. But when Russia says "bend over!" Trump asks "how far?"
Does Trump think that looking like Putin's bitch is what his supporters want to see? Does he think he's being funny? If he doesn't want to avoid further diplomatic tussles he could simply say nothing. But instead he digs the hole he's in with Russia even deeper.
Clearly, Trump is afraid of Putin in a way that he's not afraid of anyone else. Which means that Trump either has a real hard-on for Volodya, or Putin has something on him that will totally destroy Trump.
The FBI raid on Paul Manafort's house in July is an indication that the Russia investigation is getting closer to home. It looks like Manafort was involved with money laundering at Russian-owned Cyprus banks, along with Russian oligarch Oleg Derepaska and American real estate, with some involvement by Trump.
Manafort has worked with Kremlin-backed Ukrainian puppets in Eastern Europe for years. What if Manafort himself is the vector of collusion between Russia and Trump? Manafort worked as Trump's campaign manager for free. This guy never does anything for free: someone was obviously paying him for the time he spent with Trump.
During the Republican national convention in 2016 Manafort did Russia's bidding by removing language from the Republican platform calling for support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. This looks like collusion.
Was Russian paying Manafort to be Trump's campaign manager, like they paid Manafort to run political operations for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president backed by the Russians?
In the end, Trump will probably argue that the involvement with Russia was all Manafort, and the collusion ended when Manafort was fired. But Trump actually fired Manafort because he treated Trump like the child he is. Trump and surrogates like Flynn and Kushner continued to have questionable contacts with the Russians even after the election.
And Trump is still kowtowing to Putin to this day.
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