The similarity between Donald Trump’s gushing endorsements of Kim Jung-un and Vladimir Putin this past weekend is vintage appeasement. Trump’s crass disdain for the suffering millions, who live under rule-of-law violating regimes, in North Korea, Russia, Syria, China, Turkey, Hungary, and his bullying of the people of Canada („I’ll make Canadians pay for the words of their PM”) is not fake news, but harsh reality. It’s identical to how Chamberlain threw the people of Czechoslovakia, Eastern Europe, and the democratic resistance in all of those countries under the bus in 1938, thereby emboldening the fascists to double down on their opponents everywhere. Kristallnacht, the first step to the massacre of the Jews, was launched in November 1938 by Hitler, even before the ink had dried on the Munich ‘peace’ document. [...]
Ultimately one has to ask: why is Trump doing this? Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman’s answer, unfortunately, will not do. Donald Trump and his bullies have not lost their minds but are using them according to their own logic. They are fully at home on a playing field that rejects fair play, where strong-arm tactics and the use of deceptive language dominate. This is why Trump is tougher on Trudeau than on Putin, why he shall never confront China, and will sacrifice the entire Western Alliance if he’s allowed to do so and realign America with the authoritarian tide sweeping across the world. He is non-ideological. He uses the language of the evangelists, strictly for tactical purposes, to get out of the traffic jam on his way to his bank or to a Stormy Daniel. He will not back regime change in the direction of Western liberal values, because that is counter to his interests. He’ll offer a protective umbrella to any fly-by-night authoritarian wannabee, because they are the “tough cookies” he understands, they are the ones he can wheel and deal with in the same way he wheeled and dealed with the sharks in the New York real estate market, intimidating his suppliers, not paying his bills, ripping off anyone he could along the way. Grab’em by the pussy and see ya later alligator.
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