Trump partners with Putin to make Russia great again
Michael D'Antonio is the author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" and co-author with Peter Eisner of "The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence." The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author's. View more opinion articles on CNN.
(CNN)Donald Trump is musing about how two years of his presidency have been stolen (he actually wrote "stollen")
and sharing a big supporter's Twitter post about how he deserves
"reparations" because he's been subject to a "coup" that limited his
success.
This kind of
authoritarian talk is the sort of thing you might expect from a tin pot
dictator or an autocrat like Vladimir Putin. And it makes you wonder
what the Russian and American presidents have been talking about.
Ever
since he held a beauty pageant in Russia, Trump has sought to cultivate
a bromance with the head man in Moscow, musing about whether he would
become his "new best friend" and periodically cozying up when he should have been laying down the law.
Most recently Donald chatted with Vlad in a lengthy gabfest -- Russia said it lasted 90 minutes
-- that raised, once again, the question of whether Trump might
actually want Russia to repeat the 2016 attack on the American election
system because it may have helped him gain the Oval Office.
After his chat with Putin Friday,
Trump sounded like a lovesick teen as he said he just knew that the guy
on the other end of the line was smiling as they discussed Russia's
attack on the 2016 election. According to Trump, Putin "sort of smiled
when he said something to the effect that it started up as a mountain
and ended up as a mouse."
Trump said that he didn't mention anything about Russia targeting the 2020 election, although his own director of national intelligence says an attack is expected.
He touched lightly on Russia's current meddling in Venezuela and
didn't mention Putin's efforts to gain influence in the Middle East or
the Korean Peninsula. After hanging up, he tweeted,
"Tremendous potential for a good/great relationship with
Russia...Nice!" You'd almost think he wants Putin's help, going into
the 2020 campaign.
Although it is
alarming to see an American president dominated by a Russian leader in
the way Trump is being played by Putin, no mystery obscures this
relationship. The Russian president, a ruthless, KGB- trained autocrat,
understands Trump's game because he has played it himself, at a higher
level, for decades. And surely, he recognizes in Trump much that is
familiar. What they have in common, beside the need to deny Russia's
interference in American democracy, includes:
1.) Vanity -- Trump and Putin both want to be beautiful men. Vladimir works out
so he can be photographed in manly shirtless splendor or filmed playing
hockey. Trump's herculean hairstyling efforts and orangey glow reveal
an obsession with looking young.
2.) Greed -- Despite never drawing a big salary, his critics maintain that Putin has become one of the richest men on earth. Though he may be far less wealthy, Trump has been more open about his wealth obsession, devoting enormous effort across many decades to the pursuit of riches and to burnishing his image as a billionaire.
3.) Lack of conscience
-- Trump's vile talk has divided the country and created a mood of
distrust. Under his immigration policy, children have died and families have been ripped apart. This record pales in comparison to Putin's brutal reign, which has seen allegations of political assassinations, which Putin has called "ungrounded," but the record suggests a common sensibility. )
4.) A penchant for lying -- As the Rand Corporation warned in 2016 report, Putin's government uses a "firehose of falsehood"
technique to overwhelm efforts to debunk its lies. Invariably some of
the misinformation is accepted as truth. That Trump practices this
lie-a-minute technique is confirmed by the fact-checkers at the
Washington Post, who report Trump has issued more than 10,000 false or misleading statements as president.
5.) Cronyism -- Putin favors massively wealthy Russian oligarchs who, in turn, use their money and influence to benefit him. This includes creating enterprises like the Internet Research Agency, which carried out internet attacks on the 2016 election. Trump's massive tax cut benefited people at the top far more than others. Not surprisingly, rich political donors who snubbed him in the past are now funding his re-election campaign.
The
big differences between the men fall into two categories. The first
group can be listed under the heading of "perspective." The second
could be gathered under the term "competence." In both, Putin holds a
distinct advantage.
The Russian
President's perspective is well-informed and oriented toward the long
term. During his rise through the ranks in the KGB agent, his years in
St. Petersburg. and his dominance in Moscow he showed a keen eye for how
power is gained and used across Russian society and around the world.
He recognized that the appearance of control can be almost as valuable
as possessing it, and gradually made others believe his authority was
even greater than it was, in fact.
At home and internationally, he saw opportunities to expand his influence -- usurping the US in Syria for example -- and moved swiftly to capitalize on these openings.
Along the way he played up the notion that he was restoring his
country's place as a world leader, thereby appealing to Russians'
patriotism.
While a
younger Putin was studying Russia, the world, and the dynamics of power,
Donald Trump spent his time in the pursuit of his own wealth and fame.
Ignorant of history, science, and even how the government works (he thinks he can fight impeachment in the courts).
Trump's perspective rarely considers much outside of his own personal
interest. His politics and policies revolve around short-term concern
for his core supporters and their loyalty to him.
Putin's
advantage when it comes to competence is far more important than the
edge he gets from his broader perspective. In helping Trump win the 2016
election he made himself the arbiter of Trump's legitimacy and may have
planted in the President's mind twin fears.
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One
is Trump's fear of being unmasked as a fraud. The other is his fear
that he cannot win on his own. Now that Putin holds the keys to Trump's
self-image, he can count on him to dance to a Russian tune. American
experts warn of Russian cyber-aggression. Trump accepts and repeats
Putin's denials, including his claim that he isn't involved in
Venezuela's current political crisis. Two days after Trump and Putin
spoke, the foreign ministers of Russia and Venezuela met in Moscow.
With Trump under his thumb, Putin is free to cause whatever mischief he
wants and to rearrange the geopolitical game -- siding with China,
embracing North Korea, influencing South America -- without fear of
being checked. For 2020, the Trump campaign slogan might as well be
Make Russia Great Again.
