Putin Himself in as King
| American dictator: A worst-case scenario |
| Where does it end? As infuriating as Friday’s fiery berating of Volodymyr Zelenskyy was for democracy advocates, a series of Russia-friendly actions that preceded it— and implications of what could follow — left many even more worried. With the fate of Ukraine the least of their concerns. Donald Trump appalled observers when he and his VP spouted Kremlin talking points at Zelenskyy at the White House and castigated him before the press, right before the two were to lunch together and presumably sign a peace deal to end the bloodiest land war in Europe since WWII. But in the weeks leading up to this disturbing fiasco, published media reports revealed the following: * Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, scrapped task forces that policed U.S. sanctions on Russia and cracked down on foreign-influence ops by Russia, China and other American adversaries. * His DOGE outfit, led by Elon Musk, hired a 19-year-hacker for its cyber security team who has ties to The Com, a notorious band of thieves specializing in extortion, ransomware, child porn, and the stealing of cash and cryptocurrency. Wired called The Com a “haven” for criminality, a group that mimics gangs like Cozy Bear, a Kremlin-backed bunch that’s broken into the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments and last year got its hands on Microsoft’s source code. * A Trump-ordered action exposed the names of numerous CIA agents via an unclassified email, which one former spook called “a counterintelligence disaster.” * Another Trump order relaxed security clearances by eliminating background checks for senior staff in his administration, opening the door to foreign spies blackmailing those hires, experts told the Washington Post. * Russia celebrated Trump’s freezing the funds of USAID, the foreign aid organization that curries goodwill overseas by feeding starving people and providing life-saving medicine for free. It also spent millions helping Ukraine get its energy grid back online following Russian bombing and cyberattacks, one of which left residents in freezing temperatures in February. Putin’s government called USAID a “machine for interference.” * One key supporter of Trump — U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah — said the U.S. should bolt NATO, echoing what Musk has said on that subject, a move that likely would end the alliance, a priority for Putin. Trump said he wants Russia back in the G7, another key Kremlin goal. And the hits keep coming. Today we learned that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth ordered the Defense Department to shut down offensive cyber operations against Russia, a longstanding campaign to counter Putin’s attempts to disable the U.S. power grid, infiltrate software and IT systems, and steal intel related to our support for Ukraine’s defense efforts. Among their success: compromising “at least 50 Ukrainian devices,” and creating AI-generated fake videos that impersonated Tom Cruise and Elon Musk, according to a report by Microsoft last year. The move baffled Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida. “The Russians are attacking us every day,” Gimenez told Fox Business. “If they keep attacking us — and they do it every single day — they should be fearful of our capacity to inflict damage on them. So I really don’t understand where that’s coming from.” What is one to make of these moves by Trump, who’s been cagey when asked when and how often he’s talked to Putin? How to explain this coddling of a murderous, repressive regime with expansionist designs, a hatred of the United States and the capability to annihilate us with the push of a button? To many, it would appear that Trump is mindlessly enamored with his Russian counterpart and getting played for a fool. You can judge him harshly for many things — vulgarity, cruelty, depravity — but Trump’s political acumen cannot be questioned, not after he survived an epic array of scandals and blunders to emerge as the most powerful president in American history. Conniving is what he does best. So yes, he might look like a patsy now, but his record of cunning manipulation suggests that Trump’s approach to Russia, like virtually everything else he does, involves a scheme to benefit only himself. It’s not a stretch to imagine a plot in which he and Putin agree to carve up the world, to divide the spoils of being superpowers who can impose their will on other nations through their unmatched nuclear arsenals, military might, wealth and technology. Can we discount that Trump, who vowed to be dictator and declared himself king, might soon drop all pretense of conforming to the law and simply take possession of Canada, Greenland and the Arctic? If he were to do so, only Russia could stop him, but under this dark scenario Putin would allow it as long as Trump let Russia reconquer Ukraine. That could also mean ceding Eastern Europe to him; Poland, Belarus, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia might be his for the taking. This hypothesis could explain Trump’s craven fawning over Putin and his hostility toward NATO. Maybe he’s made a deal with Russia that includes North Korea, which Trump has obsequiously courted for years and conceivably could act as a check on China. We could be looking at a new power axis: The Big Three. What would China do? Ally itself with Western Europe, India, Japan? China has the third largest set of nukes and the largest standing army in the world, with about two million active soldiers, but the next biggest three, when it comes to boots on the ground, are The Big Three: the U.S., North Korea and Russia. Should all this be true, one thing would be required to get the process started: ending democracy in the U.S.Is that too much to envision? The idea of embracing despotism here has been circling for years, championed primarily by Curtis Yarvin, a programmer and conservative political theorist who once told a crowd that we need to “get over our dictator-phobia.” His yearnings to abolish democracy have been cited by JD Vance and Michael Anton, the director of policy planning at the State Department. Every component needed to turn America into a land-grabbing autocracy is already in place. * Trump has defied the courts, railed against judges, and violated terms of the Constitution. With his administration facing nearly two dozen rulings against it, some Trump allies have suggested he simply disregard those decisions and do as he pleases. Supporters also have begun trying to impeach judges to get what he wants. All while the White House is battling more than 100 lawsuits, setting the stage for more courtroom showdowns and more attacks on judges. * He flirted with martial law when he summoned the National Guard to attack and disperse a group of protesters during his first term, leading to speculation that Trump might ultimately convert members of the military and federal law enforcement into his personal security force.* He’s has pined about jailing his opponents, and vowed to weaponize the FBI, the IRS and other investigative agencies to go after anyone who displeases him. * He wants to shut down negative press by banning news organizations he doesn’t like. David Enrich’s piece in today’s New York Times details Trump’s attacks: lawsuits, threats and investigations to try to silence media outlets and cow individual reporters. * He’s mused about giving himself a third term, which half the country believes he will try to achieve, though it’s not allowed by the Constitution. President for life? Putin awarded himself that designation. Trump surely must want the same. * Strongmen often assemble their own private militia, and Trump is reviewing a plan by Blackwater CEO Eric Prince to deputize a “small army” of 10,000 private citizens, who would be given guns and badges and enlisted to help round up illegal immigrants. The group, according to the proposal, would include military veterans and former law-enforcement officials, but there’s nothing in Prince’s 26-page pitch that would prevent Trump from recruiting members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, neo-Nazis and other extremists. Given that Prince wants $25 billion in public money to fund this operation, and that there are only so many immigrants to arrest and deport, one might wonder what other services these newly empowered agents could provide for their president. Protesters can be a powerful force of change, but those who demonstrate against Trump might face the Army, Guardsmen and federal law-enforcement officers. Or white supremacists with pistols and a mandate to inflict maximum pain on resistors. Who else, domestically, could thwart Trump’s plans? He’s turned Republicans into brow-beaten sycophants. Democrats are fighting in court, and there are mounting groundswells of opposition in Town Hall meetings in which constituents angrily demand that their Congressional reps do something. But if the law means nothing to Trump, if he continues to ignore court rulings, if he shrugs off any action from the Hill, the last line of defense would fall to governors and local law-enforcement. And how would they respond? Would they go toe-to-toe with federal adversaries? If there’s hope to avert what might well be coming, it’s this: Americans have no experience living under the boot of a despotic thug. We don’t take kindly to Big Brother telling us what’s what. Our character is based on the personal qualities you find in an oppressed but resourceful outcast: rugged independence and self-reliance. Most every early immigrant who came here in the formative years of our nation, and many who have come since, experienced something awful and vowed to seize hope, to make the most of the freedom in their new home. And while the rise of history’s worse dictators commonly requires people of conscience not stepping up and saying no, we are not the type that caves when faced with a daunting challenge. But we also have a propensity to settle our differences with violence. We are at our most basic a cowboy culture. When things get really bad, as many fear is soon to happen, we reach for a gun. That is where we stand. A nation-changing power struggle is about to unfold. Can we avoid a bloodbath? And if widespread violence erupts, can we somehow emerge with our democracy intact? It took a million Americans dying of Covid to vote out Trump in 2020. Will a million more have to perish before he’s out for good?—Brad Hamilton |
