Here are part of the answers:
1. From NY Times excellent article today on James Baldwin - the depth and breadth of thought and discernment has been flattened and equivalized in ways that reduce, if not eliminate, a moral certitude. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/opinion/james-baldwin-public-morality...
2. From a CNN article a few days ago: "Yet this is the kernel of the Trump strategy at play: to seize upon a partial fact, remove its context and then woefully exaggerate its consequences. He does the same when it comes to NATO spending."
3. From a separate analysis today there was a study which quantified that those Republicans who do not engage in social media to be the key to his supposed 'win' in 2016. Said another way, the biggest medium of input was TV and that means that Fox News was their primary (only) source of information - a disastrous way to put all your eggs in one basket.
4. Read the book 'Falling Upward' (by Richard Rohr) - written in 2011 - and you'll be scared by the revelation that many (most?) of those who are voting for him - across occupations, social classes, education levels, etc. - likely are those who never built a foundation of truth and contemplation AND never will.
It takes a warped individual to lead a warped group but that's the marriage we are dealing with on a regular basis. As he now proclaims himself to be the only source of truth, some sort of civil unrest if not civil war is sure to ensue in the years ahead!
41
One Word : Treason.
39
A question for the ages and future historians will be: How did so many spineless elected officials manage to become the majority in Congress in the years leading up to the rise of Trump. It is because of them that he is able to trample the reputation that America has spent the past 240 years developing. That he stocks his cabinet with gutless sycophants is perfectly understandable; he cares for no one but himself, blood kin included and he will do anything to surround himself with moral reprobates. Why American voters stocked Washington with a herd of sheep is the real shocker and the mystery to be investigated by future historians.
47
It’s not like we dems didn’t see this coming.
Too bad your paper was all-in for Trump during the campaign.
14
Are trump supporters members of a cult? It sounds like a cult.
7
The NY Times has an official circulation of over 2 million, and probably many more read the NY Times unofficially, although there is a pay wall which keeps many readers out.
But the US has 326 million residents, so NY Times opinion is likely not representative of the US as a whole.
The NY Times is said to have a liberal bias. Thomas Friedman has a liberal bias and also a bias towards the brightness of a technological future. Both the NY Times and Friedman seem to favor continued growth.
But what about the 326 million out there? Many of them feel deserted by what they consider to be a liberal elite.
I have a PhD myself, and consider myself well-educated. I do not buy many of the NY Times positions.
Many of those 326 million are supporters of Trump. It is discouraging to realize that the NY Times makes almost no effort to understand why.
Many of them say, liberals have broken their promises. Why not try something new?
They see the Immigration and Reform Act of 1986 openly defied by liberals who declare certain cities sanctuaries for what appears to be illegal behavior.
Why is drug addiction a crime and not crossing the border illegally?
Why do we not send back people who enter the country illegally?
Why is it that American cannot afford universal health care? Many in middle America are dying.
Why is it that the NY Times emphasizes global warming in every issue but never its cause, population growth?
Why do liberals abandon the due process rights of men?
8
he only place for Donald Trump is a prison with a lifetime sentence at hard labor, with no opportunity for pardon or parole.
17
"America First or Trump First?"
Silly question.
6
And maybe Mexico will pay for the wall, and we'll have better cheaper healthcare, and climate change will turn out to be a Chinese hoax, and infrastructure will fix itself, and inner cities will be rebuilt, and there will be no one in this country except for phony Christian white folks, and we really will be tired of winning. Maybe.
20
Halo.
Look Tom, looks that situation in your neighborhood has not only NOT changed, but, it has just been more severly continued.
Let me pin point one warning, some ways of conduction are not suceptible of variance. We have here a classic, primium case.
Ok, but going back toward phases, take into account that so far during the time , ALMOST, three years, all áreas have been subjected to change, BUT,, BUT, (he) has so far, not has touched two, TWO.
Religion, and Drugs. So save some space for coming columns. Regards.
2
Trump reminds me more and more of Huey Long, who held many wild rallies during his 1927 run for governor of Louisiana. Described by the press: "...a thousand people witnessed a cheap vaudeville performance, the chief actor in which Long was uncouth in manner and speech, preaching demagoguery of such arrant type that almost every utterance was an affront to an intelligent audience." And we all know what happened to Huey Long ("a man of shameless ambition and ruthless vindictiveness"). If Richard Nixon and Huey Long had a baby, that would be Mr. Trump.
9
There have been several false warnings of either Russian or American mass missile launches and to date leaders on both side have had the wisdom to wait before responding.
There has never been a leader as unstable, angry, uninformed, cold-hearted, impulsive as Trump.
And Trump is ridding his regime of all moderation.
The world can only pray that there is some remnant of caution in the senior ranks of the American nuclear war commanders.
4
Trump is an incompetent manager. I have major issues on his policies, but his performance in hiring and keeping people has been a disaster.
10
Anyone who pays attention can answer this question without even reading Mr. Friedman's column. With Mr. Trump, he always comes first, his family is second, then everyone else.
Trump exudes contempt for everyday Americans. His "America First" slogan is deception itself. It wins votes from people who are willing to forgive him anything as long as he expresses their sense of anger and helplessness. By the time they recognize their error in voting for Trump, the damage will be done.
Thank goodness for the three men who are standing up to Trump, as others back down and back off. We need more of the former and none of the latter.
7
No mystery about what is wrong with trump.
The only things that have ever motivated and explained trump are money and the desire to be the BMOC. (boy does that date me.)
He has no convictions, no world view, no intellectual life, no empathy even for family.
Every action of his is motivated by rapacious greed for money or else the desperate twists and lies he has to use to cover his myriad scams and machinations.
Every single policy, domestic or foreign from Planned Parenthood to Putin can easily be traced to his pursuit of Money.
24
"simply the crude fulfillment of campaign promises that emerged from Trump’s gut"
Bingo. There's the whole story of these terrible times, almost on the head of a pin. Trump's gut is virtually all he's got to think with. His run for president was a gut reaction against a world that values capacities he lacks. He instinctively recognized the subjects and tropes that would get a visceral response from others, and he used them to propel a meteoric career without troubling himself to consider where it might end or what consequences it might have along the way.
Meanwhile he acts out a different set of consequences: the rash deeds that are compelled by his own demagoguery.
5
Why is Trump so often seated in this posture, hunched forward, with his fingers touching? Is he praying over his physical assets? Or defending them from attack?
4
Why has the G.O.P. so "...completely folded and with the few Trump advisers with spine neutered or fired" reminds one of the "For want of a nail" proverb
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
Trump has identified various nails in the Greasy Pole. Just as in his business career he relies on everyone needs something.
So the Republican Governor doesn't speak out because he is planning to run for Congress. The Republican Congressman doesn't speak out because he is eyeing a Senate run. The Republican Senator doesn't speak out because he is eyeing a Presidential run. Thus everyone is kept in line.
17
Most Trump voters don't pay close enough attention and genuinely don't understand what he says and does. If Trump hadn't had a TV show for those years he'd never be president today. Call me elite if you must but then try having a conversation with a Trump voter about the last two years and you'll soon learn many are uneducated, have no clue about international relations and believe their guy is a very intelligent businessman which automatically translates into being a good president.
18
Probably the only good things coming out of this are:
1- Trump has truly exposed the shortcomings of our system. We are learning everyday that many of the "checks and balances" were mostly common practices by the previous presidents. It is super stupid that we have presidential candidates/nominees who don't qualify even for a basic security clearance. To get a simple loan, one must provide tax returns, stellar credit score, etc. But apparently none is required for presidential candidates and those who run for senate/congress. No wonder we see a surge in the number of corrupt candidates across the country.
2- as a country we failed in foiling the acts of Russian intelligence proactively. Regardless of Trump, we can't deny that Russians outmaneuvered, outsmarted us. Probably after the end of the cold war, America let its guards down and invited Russian influence. Unlike the cold war era, the Russians haven't even cared much about covering up their acts.
10
"He's got his view"? Give me a break. What we heard from Putin wasn't "his view". It was purely and simply a bald-faced lie. While I appreciate Wray's willingness to directly contradict Putin, he needn't wrap it in diplomatic niceties. In referring to a ruthless, unprincipled, murderous strongman who lies as he breathes, "He's lying" would have been accurate and to the point.
6
Whether or not the consequences of this President's actions are intended or unintended don't really matter, do they? Trump is a carny barker who has spent a lifetime perfecting the manipulation of the hopeless and the intimidation of those who are charged with reining in men like him. He's never proven himself adept at actually running a business, he just runs them into the ground, over and over again. He is operating with an eye on the good will of only two parties: the resentful voters who will follow him no matter what he does and his Russian creditors/handlers. He couldn't care less about the opinion of anyone else in this grand, steaming cauldron of democracy. Every citizen who watched this happen has to look themselves in the mirror and ask "What's the matter with you?". Then go out and register everyone you know to vote, so we can start the long slog of taking back this country.
6
Said it before and I will say it again. The trump presidency reminds me of the Hunger Games. Except it is real, not fiction.
4
Sycophants and cowards are apt descriptions but what bothers me the very most is the fact they are putting their careers over country.
They have effectively sold out to Trump who has sold out his country. He is not shy about stating his hatred for our democracy, our institutions, our Constitution, our American Justice system and our intelligence community. He looks upon our military as toy soldiers to be paraded in front of him in November to the cost of a minimum of 12 million dollars.
Speaking of Trump abuse of taxpayer money, 160M additional security costs have been paid from the Treasury so that Trump can take a swing or two, and lie about his golf scores as he lies about everything else under the sun, while at his private resort. He has been there 160 days out of the 18 months of horror so far we have suffered under this Trump 'presidency'.
Our Secret Service agents are also charged for the carts they have to ride in as they cover the rump of Trump.
"What's the matter with you?" should be asked of all those who have thrown patriotism into the wastebasket for the sake of career that will be engulfed in Trump scandal and short term at best.
20
People of common sense have decided that Donald Trump, a flawed human being just like the rest of us, actually is outraged by factory owners giving their people two weeks notice that their jobs are moving to Mexico, supermarket managers telling customers that their produce will come from anywhere on the planet where it's cheapest, foreign policy that seems based on a fuzzy vision of international oneness, not the benefit of American prosperity or even survival. (what's the difference?, said Hillary Clinton, on the topic of four American officials dead in Libya). Nikki Haley recently said at the UN that the United States, which has given one quarter of a billion dollars every year since 1993 to the Palestinians, while Iran gave nothing, Saudi Arabia gave 12 million dollars, was not stupid, and had had enough. The Paris Climate Agreement would have had us giving billions of American tax money to poor little China and India to combat climate change. Iran was shipped pallets of Western cash on an unannounced American military flight by Barack Obama with some justification that it was necessary for legal reasons; they didn't have money for the Palestinians, but they sure had it for missiles. That's what it comes down to: most voters are not stupid, and have had enough, and trust Pres. Trump to not be in on the effort to destroy middle class America for the benefit of all mankind.
4
Lots of assertions in this editorial, but precious little fact. What's worse, Mr. Freidman's fantasy about the President being somehow beholden to Putin is non-falsifiable in his mind. Trump admin official makes noises which go along with the Russia "narrative", its unvarnished truth. Trump admin official correctly states that there is no evidence of Russia favoring one side or the other, well, that just doesn't fit the narrative and can't be true.
In order to buy the nonsensical premise of the entire article, you literally have to ignore the sum total of the President's policy towards Russia to date which includes:
-Sanctions
-Cruise missile strikes against Putin's client state Syria.
-The ordered slaughter of over 200 Russian mercenaries in Syria by US gunships.
-The establishment of cyber task force to protect against the hacking (unlike Obama who looked the other way)
-Increased domestic energy production which hits Putin in the pocket book hard.
-Getting NATO to increase military spending
-Sending Patriot missiles to the Baltic states
-Unprecedented military realignment and deployments to Baltic states to deter Russian aggression
-Sale of anti-tank weapons to the Ukraine
But I guess since the President didn't stupidly call out Putin minutes after the summit on live TV at the behest of an AP reporter, none of that matters Stupid.
5
There is one critical defense line left — that formed by F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Mr. Wray, Mr. Coats & Mr. Rosenstein are trying to protect us, the United States of America. No wonder Trump wants to get rid of all of them.
I do not know how loyal Ms. Nielsen is to anyone other than Donald Trump. Given the dubious competence & integrity of Trump's other obedient loyalists, I can be forgiven for distrusting Ms. Nielsen too. It terrifies me to admit this. I mean, in the event of a true national or international crisis, who exactly in the Trump administration, or in Congress, do YOU trust for good leadership?
4
We Americans have walked with accomplished and talented men who served as our presidents. They put America first by respecting the Constitution, respecting the rule of law, living up to our obligations with our allies and respecting others. These former presidents had respect for themselves as well. They were able to attract the best and the brightest to serve with them, to keep America first and to be held in high esteem in the world. Duty, honor, country, patriotism was never questioned.
My Trump is no accomplished and talented man, nor are the people who surround him and advise him. They are destroying America and its values and we do question their patriotism.
7
As much as POTUS Trump's naivete on foreign affairs has been there for all of us to see, Russia is the weaker of our two (2) primary competitors. While Mr. Putin tries "to punch above his weight", he is A FAR WEAKER ADVERSARY than his counterpart in Beijing.
We need to recognize that Mr. Putin is a provocateur, but the Chinese can be actual difference makers. Stated in other words, the Chinese power is based on the sheer size of its economy, whereas several US States (e.g., California, NYS, and Texas) have economies larger than Russia's.
Getting along with Russia is important and mitigating what Mr. Putin is apparently authorizing will strengthen the USA. In a decade, when Mr. Putin is (possibly) no longer on the scene, it is the magnitude of China's influence that will occupy much of a future POTUS' time.
3
@dmanuta
China is not only Russia's greatest nemesis, it is also it's greatest fear, threatening a demographic catastrophe in it's Far East. We rarely hear about their 'illegal immigration' problem because they work hard to keep it quiet. Russia's thinly-settled Far East butts up against a Chinese border holding 20% of Russia's ENTIRE population within just a few hundred miles of that border. The Russian military knows that if China ever 'opened the gates' for civilian border crossing, there's very little they could do without mobilizing their entire force structure and sending it East. Forget about threatening Eastern Europe. Forget about the Middle East. With a population of 250 million, and a declining birth rate, with a kleptocracy for government, Russia just doesn't have the manpower to do much of anything against Chinese migration into its Far East. It's already happening, and it's a huge problem for Russia. We just don't hear about it in the West.
2
What's the matter with our country? For starters, we've put material possessions and five minutes of fame above matters of substance. People would rather be entertained on a screen than pick up a book or challenge their viewpoints. We LOVE reality tv, and only have to look at the success of people like the Kardashians to see our downfall as a society.
Politicians went from civil servants to lifetime careers. Americans are disillusioned by both parties. They know neither party really cares about them. Most politicians only care about getting re-elected.
Republicans didn't want Trump, he didn't represent their interests. Same as democrats not wanting Sanders. Trump won because he didn't represent the establishment. Clinton, popular vote winning aside, was never going to win as she represented the establishment, everything Americans have come to hate about politics. Republicans know and understand this, which is why they're perfectly fine to be complicit.
Trump's approval ratings among his base continues to be high because he continues to go against the norm, which is what his supporters see. They don't see the massive deficit and the devastating, unintended consequences likely to come. As Friedman points out, it will likely be many years until we see the damage and by then it will be too late. Life in the US is comfortable enough for most, until the majority of us are struggling and in pain, we'll continue to watch the show as a real revolution would take too much work.
10
It's obvious that Trump is in hock to Russian interests and that those interests are close to Putin himself.
Otherwise, there's absolutely no explanation for Trump's behavior.
He's always been guided by his personal fortunes. We know the guy.
9
The people enabling Trump, including almost every Republican elected official, have obviously concluded that their reputations only matter to the people inclined to vote for them. As for their integrity, they never had any to begin with.
13
Another great article! Mr. Friedman can you please discuss how other countries, with so much less potential and resources, are doing so much more for their middle class. Do you see any solutions, e.g. getting money out of politics with public financing of elections and matching funds?
If we don't get a huge blue wave in Nov. will the middle class recover? Will the US become more irrelevant on the world stage? Are you optimistic?
5
And Pence, what about Pence? Where is Pence? No condemnation, nothing. He's hiding. Inaction = omission and omission = complicity.
13
Come on. Mr. Friedman, did you never before see a president who didn't believe his secret services. What about Bush Jr. who invested so much efforts in forcing his secret services to produce the "right" information that supported his Iraq war? The secret services were never cleansed of the sellouts who produced such information to further their carreer.
2
Tom Friedman, while trotting out the usual criticisms of Trump and his enablers, also inadvertently shows the obtuseness that has allowed Trump to get to where he has.
First, he suggests that careerism under Trump is something new to Washington. Does he think this new batch of Trump supplicants comprise the first group of "men so hungry for their jobs they were ready to step over the bodies of their predecessors? This is a time honored tradition, not only in Washington but in the corporate world, Hollywood; in fact any place where money and power is at stake.
Second, he seems to think that the one critical " line of defense" left is another batch of Trump appointees. It would be easy to say he is naive. But worse, he is blind to the real line of defense: The Congress. Effective political opposition always requires an institutional basis. That means the Legislature or the Courts. And in the short term the only prospect of effective opposition lies in Democratic Control of one or both Houses of Congress. I think Tom Friedman may have been spending too much of his time talking to what the British call "The Good and the Great" and not enough time dealing with folks who vote.
5
There is hope that Michael Cohen might become part of that defensive line: "Why is Giuliani out falsely disparaging Michael Cohen – because they fear him ... They fear that he has the truth about Donald Trump ... " Or as Edgar Allen Poe might have put it: " ... the pendulum is constructed like a scythe and is making a razor-sharp crescent in its descent toward him ... "
4
“Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest? It is inexplicable to me.”
They too have gotten paid Mr. Friedman. Just as you point out has Ms. Daniels. They got the benefit of a huge tax cut for the rich and their corporations; they got countless life-time federal judgeships in which they placed retrograde candidates who repudiate voting rights, civil rights and privacy rights, and they will get to stack the Supreme Court with judges who are primarily Republican political hacks enable capital and authoritarianism to supercede labor and liberty. They got a Congress that believes in “my party right or wrong above my country” and a president that believes in his brand above god, party and country. They got paid alright Mr. Friedman!
9
the unintended consequences are mislabeled. putin has a lot of consequences that trump will do because he works for putin first. either direct pay or blackmail, either way trump and his team are traitors
5
Trump First, Russia Next, Us Last...
9
Tom, what a question to ask? We have U. S. of T, now!
------------------------------------------------------------------
We are the United States of Trump and we are heading to Planet Trump. now. There is no America First, anymore. It is gone!
If we want to get back to U.S. of A. we are going to have to get a Democratic House, to start with. That will take a huge effort.
Are people willing to make the effort to turn the tide in the House?
Do the Democrats have better campaign ideas and the will to win?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4
Tom, you wrote the book on it.
2
"Who knows? Maybe there will be some good consequences — maybe China and Iran will cave to Trump’s demands; maybe the economy and stock market will continue to surge; maybe the early promising signs from Trump’s impulsive outreach to North Korea will bear fruit."
Maybe he will leave a trail of fairy dust and turn pumpkins into carriages.
Fairy tales are not true.
10
Mr. Friedman: thank you for a thought provoking article. I hope that there will come a day when Democrats and Republicans can band together to stop the slide of the US but to stem the tribalism that afflicts the country will be no small thing, and one wonders what it will take for Trump supporters to be outraged.
5
I agree 100% with Mr. Friedman. However, the only thing he left out was the kidnapping of over 2000 children; many of whom may never see their parents again.
I thought kidnapping was a federal crime. Why is nobody being punished and what's to become of these innocent children?
9
Someone did some low-level hacking of some private emails. They were genuine emails, but the contents were supposed to be private and their leaking caused some embarrassment. Whether they affected the 2016 election is impossible to say.
Vladimir Putin has consistently denied that the Russian state was behind the meddling. We think he is lying. But does it really matter?
I've been a business attorney, a negotiator, for 30 years now. Every time you go into a negotiation you have to think very carefully what you want out of the negotiation. It's very easy to get caught up bickering over little things and ignore big things that really matter.
Donald Trump is an experienced negotiator. He's better than I am. He knows what he wants, and he plays the long game to get it. He doesn't let important things get lost in the unimportant, and he doesn't give up.
We face difficult problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Crimea and Afghanistan. With all of those countries our interests may align with Russia's interests. At least there are things to discuss and perhaps agree on.
But the 2016 election meddling is a waste of time to discuss. We are never going to get anywhere arguing over what happened in the past.
We should worry about future meddling, of course. And Donald Trump did discuss that. Russia is on notice. Someone asked him if there is going to be Russian meddling in the future. "Better not be," he growled. "Better not be."
2
@John Smithson I disagree that trump is a great negotiator. He is a great crook. He doesn't negotiate, he just takes or withholds. He has been aided and abetted by people he has fooled into thinking they can work with him or trust him. His stint in our White House will end up like his stints as a casino owner, head of a bogus university, beauty contest sponsor (abusing women), and who knows what else.
How such a despicable man could end up representing the republicans can only be seen as pay back for the way they treated President Obama. However, along with destroying the repubs--who remain immobile--their party leader is also destroying the USA standing as leader of the free world.
4
The "inexplicable" is perfectly explicable. And most of the respondents to this op-ed, in these comments, have as well.
In fact, the "what's the matter?" question's become only rhetorical. An entire party, along with many of their (largely white male, some sad white female) backers, and lots of very wealthy donors, have become sell-outs.
In a senescing society, the haves are accepting a level of corruption that simply wasn't around during the "original" Saturday Night Massacre of the 1970s. They've cut the Faustian bargain and reaped the wind.
We all know what happens when you do that.
It could've been--and maybe still could be--otherwise. There's still time for renewal.
5
If the Democrats were looking for a slogan to use in this election I think "what's the matter with you/us?" might just be the one to shock folks into thinking seriously about this country and what is facing us right now.
It has to be a question we all ask ourselves..........that, and then "what are we going to do about it"?
It's decision time for all Americans. The larger question we all need to contemplate whether or not we truly want to live in a democratic, open, and free society, or do we want a Russian style autocratic country? THAT is the real decision we face, but it's frightening to know that things have so disintegrated in this country that we've come to that.
Please God let us find our soul and get this election right! I do believe with all my heart that it's now or never.
5
Will Trump's minions ever realize the damage they have -- and are doing to the USA bc they support Trump? I am so angry towards them, I want them to suffer. In some ways, I'm glad farmers and other blue collar workers in industry are suffering from the tariffs bc most of them are the ones who voted for Trump in the first place. But I know if we are going to heal as a nation, we (I) need to calm my anger and work towards compromise and healing after Trump is gong.
5
@dolly patterson
Honey....you don't get to question the morality or even the motives of your fellow countrymen because they have a different political viewpoint, then walk it back "when Trump is gone" so we can come together. You don't get to turn on the hate spigot against people who simply have an honest difference of opinion, openly wishing them harm, and then sing kumbaya in 2020 or 2024 like they are going to forgive you. When you accuse other Americans of treason, or wanting to harm their own country, that's a line that simply can't be uncrossed.
2
Mr. Friedman: I'm a faithful follower of your column, and I'm a bit surprised by your naive vision of the Trump Administration. At the end the consolidation of autocratic, fascistic regimes is not the doing of one single person. The so called leader is just a very lucky event that agitates the dark sediments of waters that are getting fouled with time.
The crucial component to succeed is the ability to surround yourself with competent sycophants devoid of any principle. As it happens in any society, these characters are abundant and their presence in government allow a sharp acceleration toward a point of no return to Democracy and its values. As you know quite well, in Europe we've had catastrophic examples that resulted in complete calamity. I fear the U.S.A. and others are approaching catastrophe.
I'm not surprised that those that shouted most loudly saying "A" now say "B" when near the "Leader" , because now they are where they wanted to be, and ready to implement whatever agenda fits their continuation in power.
There's nothing new in all this. The U.S.A is like any other place in this world of ours.
7
"Which brings me back to Schwarzenegger’s question — “What’s the matter with you?” It applies not just to the president but also all the people enabling him."
I don't understand it either, unless the reason is that members of Congress fear not standing with Trump will end their careers in Washington. In that is the case, then it proves to my satisfaction that needing to get re-elected is more powerful than crack cocaine.
It is with regret that come the general election, I only get to vote one of them out of office. Congressman Roger Williams, this means you.
6
When will it end? And could it end with the destruction of our country as we know it? Please let him be impeached soon!
2
Until the Republican party puts the best interest of ALL Americans first and foremost, we will continue the slow downward spiral into a country that had the chance to be one of the greatest societies ever but blew it because of unchecked greed and selfishness. We are seeing this crash and burn right in front of us because of the cowardice of the GOP and the fact that the minions they have been throwing red meat to for decades are now out of control and they don't know what to do to reign them in.
What happens in the mid-terms, and next presidential election will tell us a lot about this countries direction. The other half of what will happen lays at the feet of Bob Mueller, the people working with him, and his investigation.
4
"What's The Matter With You?"
That should be on every protest sign and bumper sticker. Supporting someone so grotesque - morally, intellectually, and spiritually - that it is hard to tell the sitting president from a caricature of the sitting president speaks to a profound moral failing - not just with those around him, but I'm afraid with our electorate at large.
"What's The Matter With You?"
7
So what do we do about those among us who have been hypnotized (or who love their million-dollar tax breaks) and are just fine with Trump running things like this?
There's only one obvious solution: get out and vote, as Tom Friedman has urged, for anybody but a Republican--not just in 2020, but in the upcoming 2018 midterms first. If your state has early voting, what in the world are you waiting for? If you can spare the time, volunteer for the campaign of a Democrat, or for getting people who can't travel easily to their polling place so they can vote. Harangue your Republican "representatives" in the House and Senate on a regular basis for their regular support of Trump, his policies, lies and treachery. Follow Bernie Sanders' lead, and stop taking it anymore.
I'm into my 8th decade, and have never seen a poisoning of our hearts and minds to rival that wrought by Fox News, wingnut talk radio, the alt-right Internet and their backing oligarchy. Think about it: if Joe McCarthy had had the likes of Fox, Limbaugh, Drudge, and Breitbart on his side, he'd have had a much longer--and more damaging--run.
GET OUT and VOTE Republicans OUT.
7
"Nielsen proved to be a shameful coward."
She's had lots of practice. Who can forget her spirited defense of the policy that was not a policy of separating families at the border, which was not intended as the deterrent it was intended as, based on a law that doesn't exist created by Democrats who were the minority party when they didn't create it?
This performance, of course, followed her public shaming as DJT blistered her in a Cabinet meeting for not doing enough to secure the borders.
KN got right on it. Her job is safe.
6
"What's the matter
with you?" also applies
to the majority number
of Republicans who still
support Trump.
Good article.
11
Americans unfamiliar with foreign lands cannot begin to seize the disdain with which Europeans hold the American PEOPLE today. To wit -- the United States was a de facto representative democracy when the last presidential elections were held. Trump and his cohorts were freely elected, they did not arrive in tanks and jets as the result of a foreign invasion or military coup.
The Trump Doctrine will keep on giving and giving, nothing in favour of the ordinary American, I'm afraid.
9
"Unhinged, Unbound, and Cornered" is another way to view the next phase.
3
"America First or Trump First?"
This is a rhetorical question right?
3
Right on, Tom. The problem is: there is no changing the minds of those who voted for Trump and continue to support him. Just a few minutes ago, one of my Republican friends said he didn't believe what was happening on the Mexico-United States border, i.e. he didn't believe that children had been separated from their parents by officials on this side of the border. He insisted that CNN had made it up. So, I see no reason to believe that anything will change until we get Trump out of office and someone with a brain in. And I'm not talking about Pence and Mother. God forbid that.
4
Stage three of the Trump Presidency: "unhinged, unbound, and unintended". What if the chaos is intended? In the 1930's it took a certain newly appointed Chancellor six months to create a one-party totalitarian state. Germany was easy pickings because it had become a basket case: hyperinflation, crippling reparations payments to the victorious allies, the great depression, and a weak and ineffectual government. This kind of social and moral vulnerability takes time to happen. That's what's missing from contemporary America: the economy is strong, the political institutions are still working. Nothing that an international trade war or an actual war with Iran couldn't correct. First soften them up, then go for the kill. It takes time to kill a democracy.
3
What began as a farcical pursuit by a skin color privileged narcissist with 'shrinkange' issues over the reality of an only half black president has morphed dangerously into a history changing spectacle of plutocratic plundering of public coffers coupled with incitement of divisive hate-mongering that threatens the nation's core. MAGA. Yeah right! The correct acronym would be derived from "make me and all of my already wealthy supporters very wealthy always." Bless the serfs.
2
I agree 100% that John Kelly is Neutered. He is nobody now. Jim Mattis has become useless. Trump does not listen to him. Pompeo is a Trump Puppet. John Bolton wants to save his dream job and his spine has become very soft. After Helsinki it is clear that Trump is not for America. He is for Putin and Russia. Finally Trump is only for Trump himself. Putin has something on him. That is his headache. Forget about GOP. The GOP leaders are bunch of crooks, fraud , phony and greedy. Our democracy is in death bed.
4
It is not hard to comprehend really, the choice is between an imperfect person who cares more for the American citizen than the opponents do, who care more for foreign nationals than they do about American citizens.
The opponents favor open borders and the elimination of ICE, a globalist agenda. Trump represents an American agenda and controlled borders.
There are still Trump supporters because Trump still represents their interests far better than the alternative party does.
1
Everything is wrong with him. No question. The people of our nation are resilient, but are we resilient enough?
5
"What's the matter with him?" is a question that people in the mental health professions have been asking from the time of Trump's appearance as a candidate. Arnold S. and others are catching on. What is becoming more and more obvious? Something is "the matter."
4
Never in the field of (American) politics was so much owed by so many to so few.
The Three Avengers -- Coats, Wray, and Rosenstein -- have stepped into the vacuum created by the Republican Party's failure to exercise Congress's role as a check and balance on Executive power. The state of our union is dire when the survival of the thing largely hinges on three individuals.
And imagine where we would be without the Mueller investigation and prosecution. So much of what we know and will know about the criminality of Donald Trump and his circle is largely dependent on the efforts of one man and his small team.
As essentially an island nation, the United States has never been more endangered since the Civil War.
2
The GOP understands that the DEM's 'leadership' is essentially 'brain dead' and, as such, has forced ranked tax cuts, judiciary stacking, environmental regulation roll-backs & immigration (sic border security) as their most important legislative priorities. President TRUMP has helped them effectively realize same in rather short order so they are willing to put up with the antics of, what the Brits so cleverly described as, the 'apricot toddler'...
At present, other traditional conservative GOP priorities like a coherent foreign policy, free trade, entitlements and the national debt aren't as important & will simply have to wait until after the mid-terms....
Here is another unintended, negative consequence of Trump's tirade toward allies in Europe and Canada: All of those countries are ramping up their plans to replace their aging fighter jets. Overseas sales of America's finest jet fighters have been a staple of defense industry profits for decades.
However, even before Trump tromped on the necks of our friends and allies, their aerospace industries have been developing their own combat aircraft. Along with the British, French, and Swedes, Japan has been developing their own versions of what we sold to them years ago. Australia had, at one time, placed an order for
F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. But delays and cost overruns have put that order in jeopardy. Now the Aussies are thinking that Boeing's F-18 Advanced Super Hornet may be a great substitute for the pricy and delayed F-35.
So with our allies developing their own fighter jets of equal performance and reliability at a significant price reduction, companies like NorthrupGrumman and LockheedMartin may suffer significant losses in sales and revenue.
With Trump at the helm of his own Titanic, his lawyers and sycophantic staff and advisors are stuck with the task of arranging the deck chairs.
The fact that the Republican Party is in league with this anti-intellectual bully, sexual predator, compusive liar and fraud, tells us the Party of Lincoln became a den of thieves. As traitors, they are taking the country into the New Dark Ages of Trumpism and its sorry namesake.
4
Welcome to the nascent Totalitarian States of America. Brought to you by the Republican Party and Movement Conservatism and voters who cast a deplorable vote. And since by a supine GOP Congress, who see DJT as the ticket to finally realizing their agenda dating back to the New Deal.
Donald Trump con-descending an escalator and his announcement of his candidacy in the gaudy setting of his Tower said all you needed to know about what kind of person he is and what kind of president he would be. And if that wasn’t enough, how about his behavior at the debates?
And thank you, Morning Joe, for all that free time you gave him, such as the 45 minutes, uninterrupted in the winter or spring of 2916, in which you indulged him - OVER THE PHONE! Not even deigning to appear in person - with your producer no doubt egging you on, “Keep it going! This is great television!”
Hillary and Obama, before her were THAT BAD?!
Nice work!
3
It is, indeed, inexplicable. Either the man is just too dense to see that he is acting as a blatant traitor or he is, indeed, in collusion with Putin. Virtually everything he is doing is playing into his hands.
What an Amercian tragedy this is turning out to be. Rome is ablaze before their eyes and the Congress and his toadies are doing nothing but shield their vision from the blinding light.
As for his followers, the only explanation I can think of is that they simply delude themselves with blind trust in someone who promised them the moon. In fact, Moonies might be an appropriate term. Let's hope he doesn't serve them Koolaid laced with cyanide for surely, they will drink it.
1
"America First or Trump First"?
The way you pose that question is way too generous. In Trump's view there is no such thing as "Trump First." There is just Trump, the whole Trump and nothing but the Trump.
5
Can there be any doubt that Trump puts Russia and Putin before American and American citizens? Before Helsinki his talks with our NATO Allies set the stage. Trump is a Russian puppet. Does this not make Trump guilty of treason?
1
Trump considers America to be his own personal playroom. The people, the resources, the institutions, foreign relations, the water we drink and the air we breath are all his personal playthings. If he breaks any of these toys, it doesn't really matter to him. He thinks he can just buy another one or say it was a stupid toy that should have been thrown away.
He runs through his toys like tissue paper. If he doesn't like a toy he'll dump it and find another toy to take its place. The President will continue to sculpt his toy garden into his image. This imaginary world gives him comfort and adulation. If something goes wrong he'll scream, yell, fail he arms around and blame somebody else. It's called a tantrum and he is going to keep doing it for the rest of his life.
I'll bet The Donald will be a real pleasure to be around in the old folks home. RAW
4
When you suffer from a massive narcissism personality disorder as Donald Trump does, then "America First" is "Trump First." Enemies have to be ruthlessly attacked to build up your fragile ego or sense of sense, loyalty and praise are demanded, and recognition of "genius" must be acknowledged. Al this with the total absence of any sense of empathy as revealed in attacks on Gold Star families and the inhumane "zero tolerance" policy separating innocent children from their immigrant parents seeking refuge here. Everything that Donald Trumps says or does can be explained the serious personality disorder he, and now we, suffers from.
1
The swamp that Trump promised to eradicate has always had three heads (I will skip Wall St on this)
Big Energy, AIPAC and the NRA
Now all three are in the White House.
America First indeed.
2
Good god, man, you’re a slowtop. Trump has been putting Russia first since he couldn’t continue getting loans from NY banks. Putin’s got the long con going.
4
It's not Trump that's the problem. Anyone who paid attention during the campaign understood he was an ignorant con-man whose only talent was self-promotion.
The real problem is the apparent electoral majority of American voters who were so credulous, so mean-spirited and so stupid that they would even consider putting that man into the White House.
That they did is a national disgrace with ramifications that far exceed the damage he has already done to our country.
3
It’s been said of Germans that they wanted Hitler, they got Hitler and they liked Hitler.
Trump calls the media the fake news. Hitler called it the lying press.
Trump heaps scorn on immigrants.
Hitler? Well we know who he heaped abuse on.
The crowds that turn out for Trump. How different are they from the ones that turned out for Hitler?
This country is currently in very big trouble.
17
An odd correction listed for the mistake on Cohn's name. The editor fixed it only at its first mention. The second mention in the column remains 'Cohen.' Need to correct the correction!
1
Having a President* who does not need a notecard that says "I hear you" when talking to kids traumatized by a mass shooting at their school, might be a good start to remedy our many issues.
"At least Stormy Daniels got paid......." after getting screwed!
1
We are approaching the end game for this President. His supporters will stick by him until the end, but even Nixon did not stand entirely alone in 1974. When we see President Putin trying out the chair behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, what's going on will be perfectly clear to everyone.
Anyone who has lived in a highly polarised country knows that 'My country first' becomes 'My tribe first' because tribe IS country and the rest are enemies. For Trump followers Trump IS America. Traditional political divisions in democracies are not social chasms, until Trump it was possible to be Rep or Dem, but seeing the other side as fellow nationals. I'm not sure that is the case any more, but I hope to be wrong.
it is clear that trump had a conflict of interest in helsinki. should he try to cover himself by denying all the evidence of russian interference in US politics, since he is guilty of collusion with putin, or, should he defend america from outside political interference ? Further, russia's interference favored him and the GOP, and hurt the democrats and hillary.
He chose to put himself, and the GOP chose to put themselves, above protecting America's sovereignty and security, and that of it's allies. Trump and the GOP are unfit to govern, and a threat to America. But the GOP is playing off their supporters against the rest of the country. Their supporters are unconcerned since their party was benefitted by putin's interference. self and party have been placed above country by trump and republicans. what will the rest of the country do ? it remains to be seen
1
Mr. Friedman, the key to trumps' behavior is to ask, "what would a saboteur do?"
1
But of course, Trump is America.
2
Lots of good stuff in this column, but a special thanks for calling out Pompeo, Bolton and Nielsen for the craven cowards and hypocrites they all are.
If President Obama did a fraction of the stuff Trump is doing with Putin, or North Korea, these three would have been among the loudest critics screaming treason and calling for his impeachment.
1
The only real question I have is, did Trump pay Putin with cash, or a check?
2
You have is backwards....did Putin pay Trump with cash or check....
Have you ever seen "Super Troopers" where one office dares the other to say "meow" when giving a speeding ticket? I wonder if Putin and Trump laughed about fitting in "strong and powerful" into his answers to the press? Or if Putin demanded Trump call him strong and powerful in public.
2
Monday 16 July 2018--A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY!!
7
True. Perhaps Mr. Putin will take up golf and work on Mr. Trump's New Jersey golf course. Perhaps Kim Jung UN will convert to Mormonism. And there is the outside chance that the Turkish dictator will withdraw from Cyprus, and take up ballroom dancing.
Still, there is the possibility that an individual with a troubling past history with the Truth, will harm the United States of America and our allies.
2
Using five (5) deferments and a bone spur to stay out of the military, and then putting down John McCain for getting himself captured told us all we needed to know about Donald Trump's love for country. He says "America First," but it has always been "Trump First." His speeches about making America great again are only to appeal to his base; he has not interest in America's greatness. He appeals to the worst in all of us, and we deserve what we have gotten - not individually, because many see him for what he is - but collectively we deserve him. SAD!
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
6
When can we expect the White House to restore the transcript and video tape of the press event with Vladimir Putin - the one in which Putin said, without hesitation, he was rooting for Trump? This self-serving deletion of an official record is at least inappropriate - I wonder if it is a crime?
1
Who wouldn't agree that the current occupant of the "People's House" has mightily and emphatically put flesh and sinew on beloved POTUS XL's prophetic lament about those "...nine most terrifying words in the English language?"
1
Yes, something is definitely the matter with our country. It's not really a coherent country any longer. Read Kevin Baker's 'modest proposal' in New Republic (March 2017) to systematically disengage from the Federal government. There appears to be no remaining common ground. We who would like to continue reasoning about reality in the old-fashioned way, with facts, with experiments, with logic and compassion, also have a right to our way of life - free from the raging idiocy of Trumpunism and the soul-crushing darkness of ignorant bigotry. We who would like to live in a world which is diverse and inclusive, who recognize that, yes, we are a global species that inhabit this planet together - face a paradox: how do we include people who are so deeply committed to an exclusionary world view? I mean, how on earth does one begin to accommodate Trump supporters? They seem completely crazy. I am beginning to worry that we may be in an anomalous situation where because of this asymmetry, stupidity wins.
5
Answer to Arnold's Question: Putin has the goods on Trump.
6
Trumpism First, as the Republicans including the so so quiet VP Pence have bought it hook line and sinker as the Republicans just do not care about our Country USA, they may chant USA USA but they really do not mean it. Their actions speaks volumes and that is the sole reason they support this President who actually appears to be more ignorant of history than we thought he was.
God help these United States, we need it more than ever God!
6
It's a conservative mantra that the government is useless; all they do is take your money. That makes it a lot easier for these people to do what they're doing and not feel any shame.
2
Trump complains about higher interest rates, but it is Trump's own policy of super charging the economy with tax cuts for the rich that feeds higher interest rates. Add to this the effect of tariffs feeding inflation and you inevitably see the Fed led by Mr. Powell a Trump appointee raising rates even higher.
This may seem a small point in the blizzard of Trump stupidity, but it is one more example of Trump's cluelessness and blaming others for the effects of his own actions. The fact that we rely on a few sane people to stand up to this person is horrifying, but in that sane group of three there are no economists in site. So Trump is free to rage on and upset our economy at will.
2
Trump's Holy Trinity:
"Me, Myself and I (and maybe Ivanka)."
My Trump Holy Trinity is a bit different:
"Subpoena, Impeach, Imprison."
I look forward to the day when he dons a suit that matches the color of his spray-on tan.
3
Secretary Clinton made reference to Trump's potential (at the time) election as the advent of the apocalypse. I am sure she was misunderstood by many as to the definition and meaning of apocalypse in this context. Your unhinged, unbound and unintended characterization of this so-called president is, I believe, exactly what she meant.
5
"Which brings me back to Schwarzenegger’s question — “What’s the matter with you?” It applies not just to the president but also all the people enabling him. Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest? It is inexplicable to me.
At least Stormy Daniels got paid."
Stormy Daniels didn't support Trump.
3
We presume Republican leadership in Congress is only enabling Donald Trump. What if they are conspiring with him?
Surely Devin Nunes is suspect. He shut down his committee's investigation without questioning star witnesses. He didn't want to answer damaging questions.
Speaker Ryan has acquiesced to House reactionaries who pursue Justice and FBI staffers with ridiculous conspiracy theories and unprecedented subpoenas.
Mitch McConnell stopped Obama's people from bringing the subject of Russian interference to Congress before the election. He obstructed Justice.
Republicans have done very little to intercept Russian interference and meddling. What makes us think they are not complicit?
5
A key word in Mr. Friedman's column is "restraint". Between the lines of so many fine thoughts and opinions here is the reality of helplessness to contrainTrump; as if there is no embargo or ban to use against him, against America moving from helpless to hapless. Ah, but there is: Phase One, Vote THEM Out! Phase Two, Vote HIM out!
1
The only thing in question is whether or not Trump knows that he is an agent of Putin. While there are valid arguments on both sides, the result is the same. If Trump is a conscious agent he should be impeached and convicted for treason, and if he is an unconscious agent the 25th amendment should be invoked to remove him on the basis of his insanity. Will the members of Congress ever realize that they should be Americans first and not party members?
2
We are responsible for DT. Many observers ask: do we care if democracy dies? And the answer is that too many of us no longer care. Less than a third of Americans under age 30 believe that democracy is of prime importance (that percentage sharply increases for older voters). With a dysfunctional system (government by lobbyist; gerrymandering; voter suppression; dark money), we have discredited democracy, so of course an autocratic system looks better and better to many Americans.
What is our purpose for Russia and Putin? At one time Putin was helping us. The warned that the would-be Boston bombers were dangerous, tine two. It was ignored. Three killed and 264 injured. In 2012-2013, Putin offered a plan to bring both sides together in Syria and pus out Assad. About 10,000 had died at that point. Obama turned his back on the offer. Since then, 300,000-500,000 have been killed and the worst refugee crisis since WW II. Russia has six thousand nuke tipped missiles with our address on them and we have an equal number with theirs and maybe a few for Iran. Before Trump, Russian ministers and the military mentioned their nuclear option, Russian Bombers nuclear capable, flew within the California cost. What did the sanctions for Crimea accomplish? The purpose. according to Obama, was to put economic pressure on the Russian people so they would vote against Putin in the next election. That didn't work. Putin is still there. In 2014 the Crimean’s voted to be part of the Russian Federation. Since Trump, there has been no mention of the "nuclear option". Putin is saying a nuclear war would be the end of civilization. Recently he said he would offer a way to solve the Ukrainian Conflict when he met with Trump later this year. No more Russian bombers have headed for California and though he is supporting Assad, the ISIS Islamic state is gone and no Russian or American has been killed by either of us. We need to reduce tensions not stoke the fire.
1
I believe you have to use some discretion when you use the phrase "unintended consequences of a U.S. president." The operative word is "unintended." I dispute it. As time will tell, there is little that has been done during this brief interval of the Trump Presidency that is unintended. Trump saw an opportunity to enrich himself and his family. He took it. He also -- I suspect -- owes Putin and the Oligarchs something. Unintended is code in my book for obligatory...or else.
3
My immediate takeaway after the Helsinki press conference: Putin most assuredly has something on Trump and/or Trump was there to discuss Trump business vs. the business of the United States. In casual conversations with friends of all political persuasions — including those who back the president — each and every one concluded the same. If that weren’t bad enough, the White House and Russia have now edited the tape. This despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people watched the widely-available original. And then the Administration refuses to tell us what was discussed? The Administration wants us to believe. But how can we with actions like this?
3
Arnold was born Austrian. Somewhat like a post WW2 Germany, Austria was divided up and occupied by the allies for nearly ten years, including the Soviet Union's zone. That Austria did not share the fate of the other countries occupied by the USSR is not lost upon Austrians.
1
The answer to the question what's the matter with you has been staring every pundit in the face ever since Trump has been in the public eye: it's all about Trump. It's not about America first. It's Trump, first, always and forever. We have a permanent 18 month old in the White House. The enablers are the members of the GOP. And these enablers are so in love with being in power that they see no reason to rein in the toddler. Pay attention to what the GOP is doing and a bit less to Trump. The GOP is using the Trump-et as cover for their agenda.
5
The question is not "what's the matter with Trump?" but "what's the matter with the people who elected this man to office and continue to support him?"
13
Trump enablers include the star struck crowds at his ongoing political rallies, the right wing yack-pack, and, sorry to say it, everyone continuing to support him. All of them are allowing their personal gain, agenda, or confirmation bias to override their support for the country and supplant it with Trumpism. They're all sold out.
7
We need honesty, courage, intelligence, ethics, all the obvious virtues to meet the common needs of our citizens. Face it - we don’t have what it takes. Human nature spans the spectrum and we are currently failing badly. The Self-serving will always be with us, and at this juncture government work provides both shelter and money. Only voters can control the ultimate outcome. We desperately need politicians who create profiles in courage and citizens who look out for the common good. Currently the scales are tilted in the wrong direction and it will take a massive profile of courage by the electorate to set make America great again!
History shows that Trump ruins everything he touches, soon including the government. Regarding Coats, Wray, etc., they can maybe protect their organizations but they don't provide a check and balance. The true accomplices are McConnell, and the currently checked-out Paul Ryan. They are turning a blind eye to allow their backers to loot as much wealth from the treasury, natural resources, and middle class as possible. When they are finally forced to act due to elections or national disaster, it may be too late.
13
great last line. Pompeio is used to getting paid by the Kochs. why wouldn't he take money from the Donald ?
6
You "sure hope we don't have a Homeland Security crisis" on Kirstjen Nielsen's watch? Hard to tell if you're kidding or not.
I think Russia's ongoing assault on our politics counts as a Homeland Security crisis.
11
Tom, your headline 'America First or Trump First?' with a question mark. A question mark? We all know the answer, it is 'Trump First'. Was this a trick question?
7
`The sad situation is that there is no strong opposing voice to the clear continuous lying of Trump and his band of immoral supporters. The public comments of the Democratic legislators sound like a law school seminar and do not connect to the vernacular of the mindless Trump voters!
1
@Wilson Woods
Can you imagine any message getting through to them? They've been trained to categorize information contrary to Trump's God-like image as fake news. How do you ever get past that?
1
Again and again. It is treason, plain and simple. With a super-sized enlardment of conspiracy on the part of his enablers. Interesting melange of incompetence, grotesque stupidity and criminality. Perhaps America (if it hasn't been renamed Trumpistan by then) can get a great quantity deal on orange jumpsuits. In the meantime, resist every insult to what for over 200 years has been the world's hope. We can still claw it back and fix what's broke, which should have been fixed years ago. It'll take time, but it starts this fall. Check your voter registration now. REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!
9
They say we're not supposed to use the word "treason" to describe the president. Based on the immense damage he is doing, what better word describes his behavior?
13
In 104 day we vote. Please vote.
11
@Steve Beck
Please vote correctly this time. That last one didn't work out so well.
2
This is what happens when you have a spoiled 3 year old for President.
7
Mr. Friedman, what can be explained is that Trump in anti-and un-American. He is the worst kind of traitor to a democratic country. What keeps him in office is beyond understanding and there is no doubt,worse to come. He is a fount of unpredictable grief.
4
All these syncopates know that down the line there are book deals , large speaking fees , consultant positions to be had and many other , almost innumerable , ways to enlarge their bank accounts .
5
Phase 1: Disbelief
Phase 2: Disgust
Phase 3: Revolution
11
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said, "I haven’t seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favor a particular political party."
This declaration directly contradicts what Vladimir Putin said outright at his Helsinki news conference with President Trump. Conveniently, Putin's bald declaration was totally airbrushed out of the Kremlin version of the conference transcript.
The White House version cut the reporter's question about favoring Trump in 2016 that prompted Putin to blurt out "Yes I did. Yes I did," leaving the listener in the dark about what Putin was responding "Yes I did" to.
Secretary Nielsen is a cowed, beaten cipher so dedicated to her job security and beholden to the bullying pressure of her boss that she has forfeited any semblance of her own independent intellectual agency.
As for Coats, Wray and Rosenstein, patriotic American leaders had better continue covering their backs because the treacherous pretenders would sell them down the river in a heartbeat if they could.
8
I really wish my name and city were not noted here..I am not crazy or radical, but I want to know if others have this crazy, terrifying thought:
We don't know what Trump and Putin discussed during that 2 hours in Helsinki, correct?
I'm afraid to ask this, but could it be that they are plotting a stronger, dire, more sinister alliance that could, in effect, be a take-over of America? Maybe not imminently, but inevitably.
I am serious as a heart attack - I really want to know what others think, your assurances that this isn't possible, and why.
When I was a child in the early 50's, during the Cold War, I knew that our country was afraid of Russian then, they feared this possibility then, for, why else would we have been herded into the school hallway to cover our heads and put it between our knees? What's a child to think?
I never thought we'd have men like Trump as our president (lowercase p), as our congress, as our people.
Thank you, seriously.
6
@Bobbi Staples
The very fact that you can entertain the question as a real possibility is sufficient ground to oust Trump. He has proven himself to have no principles beyond himself. He has terrible judgement, is chronically misinformed, and lives in an alternative reality in which America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump Enterprises. He does not have the long term health of the Republic at the core of his thinking. Enough said.
2
Are the Trump supporters still backing him feeling they were abducted into a Cult and need to justify their decision by continuing to sing his praises?
The demographic still backing Trump and that are now fawning over Putin in lockstep with Trump is the same demographic that prepared for a Soviet invasion years ago.
Have those folks changed their minds or are they just being led a different direction by a different set of manipulators?
2
By now we all know what Trump is, there just happens to be a lot of people out there who are very much the same person as Trump and they like the way he behaves. When we figure out what is wrong with them, why are they so societally and self destructive? Maybe we can make America, America again and Trumpistan will be a lost weekend in American history. If America is lost, who will be the last American to stand up for America.
1
Excuse me, but he has been in phase 3 long before he went down the escalator, and so has this country. There has been a slow but steady unraveling of the democratic fabric for a very long, long time. And, now that the level of education and critical thinking in this country is so low, it is no surprise that he is president.
The bar is so low that there are hardly any people who can show the unthinking mob an alternative. So, nothing new here, keep repeating what you've written.
I am glad to see that more Republican office holders are speaking out against our leader's terrible policies, but there are still too many of them who are afraid they will lose their jobs if they criticize him. I believe he is becoming unhinged and the longer he stays in an office that is so demanding of someone with intelligence and foresight the harder it will be for our country to recover. I am almost 80 years old and I have never seen a president who is so intent on destroying our freedoms as this man appears to be anxious to do. I am not scared so much for myself as for my children and grandchildren who will inherit the mess this man is making of our country.
2
I sure hope you’re correct in referring the near future as Phase 3!
I have a pretty good idea of what happened at the Helsinki summit. This is what I think:
Trump: Vladi, I’m a little worried about the mid-term elections. If the Democrats win one or both houses of congress it will be the end of our agenda.
Putin: I think I can help.
Trump: How so?
Putin: Why don’t you invite me to Washington right before the elections and I will make a significant concession to you. Maybe pulling out of Ukraine, or Syria or something else that will make you look strong.
Trump: I like that idea. I might even line you up with a good-looking showgirl.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Putin, being a long term thinker, can afford to make what seems to be a major concession, but instead will advance his long term goals by keeping Trump in control, and the Republican party enabling him.
4
Listing stage 3 of the Trump presidency as "unhinged and unbound and unintended" is certainly one possibility. Another is, "unhinged and unbound and doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin, who has Trump on his payroll." This is certainly what Trump is acting like, and, until we see the tax returns and dig into his finances, we can never be sure that he's not simply Russia's tool.
3
The simplest translation of "Trump First" is "America Last." Or, as Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska put it, in reference to farmers in particular, it's making America "1929 again."
4
Russian interference must go far beyond the 2016 election. The power of the NRA and Evangelical Russian sympathizers, the miscreants in the Republican Party now in Congress was gradual and destructive to this democracy.
It was evident in his international cowering to Putin, emerging from his meeting like he had a private slapping around, his pro Russian, anti American stance cemented his personal Russian influence.
Had a ring been offered he would have kissed it.
Divide and conquer by race, religion, political affiliation has culminated with Trump's inconceivable rise to Commander in Chief, the unfit and damaging idealogues he surrounds himself with and appoints in his administration. All of his discourse is suspect and disruptive to peace between people in this country.
The connection between the rise of white nationalism in America, the EU and the Brexit vote, the division it has caused has been blamed on immigration and globalization. Two polarizing issues that easily manipulate people.
Sounds like another wacky conspiracy theory but the unsiduous actions during our elections was a win for Russia. The same discord is throughout the West and Russia might be poised for more election victories.
Those who collaborate by silence or unequivocal support for Trump, nationalist or populist will someday be in the position to feel as helpless as the rest of us by not recognizing Russia is using them at the expense of our country.
3
Even understanding that there's a genuine question about whether it's better to hang in there and try to mitigate the damage, or loudly and publicly quit and say why, I also am quite disappointed in some of the folks around Trump--not Sessions or Miller or the shiny new Media Director, of course, but Coats and Pompeo et al. The grownups with whom I merely disagree.
But I am fairly sure that leftish venting, or pointing fingers at Trump's screamingly-obvious craziness and thefts, or coming up with alibis for having voted Jill Stein (it's that dratted Hillary! She cheated St Bernie! And...and Nancy Pelosi...let me recite the same complaints as Trumpists!) or self-congratulation, isn't going to help much.
Nor is sneering at working folks, however deranged some of their claims and arguments.
Please vote this November. And get the millenials off their duff, because early polling of their participation rates is...not encouraging.
3
The last line of defense against Trump is not his staff but the American people armed w a strong second amendment. But before we lock and load we should vote to remove the Orange stain and his supporters from elected office.
@Tom Kanyok
Please don't say stuff like that. The tough guy lock and load lingo is not how it's done. Go talk to 10 fence sitters who don't want to get involved in politics and convince them to get rid of the Orange Stain.
1
Someone said that everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten or something to that effect. Trump’s sycophants learned to kowtow to bullies and that’s exactly what they are doing.
1
Trump needs to be publicly confronted by foreign leaders just as he has publicly confronted just about everyone other than Putin. Diplomatic niceties should be discarded in his case. He is a bully and should be treated as such: we have already seen that he can back down very quickly.
Trump cannot handle groups (he knows that he is outclassed), which is why he is so divisive. European leaders should use Trump as an opportunity to become what has until now escaped them, namely a united formation with inspiring pan-European projects and a single beating heart. Europe has no other choice.
2
@Jeremy
European leaders are political animals too. They can't look like wimps to their electorate. They are already backing away from America and developing other relationships. I don't think they will get into a fist fight with him though. They know all he does is escalate. Trump's damage will take a long time to reverse.
Tom Friedman, while trotting out the usual criticisms of Trump and his enablers, also inadvertently shows the obtuseness that has allowed Trump to get top where he has.
First, he suggests that careerism under Trump is something new to Washington. Does he think this new batch of Trump supplicants comprise the first group of "men so hungry for their jobs they were ready to step over the bodies of their predecessors? This is a time honored tradition, not only in Washington but in the corporate world, Hollywood; in fact any place where money and power is at stake.
Second, he seems to think that the one critical " of defense" left is another batch of Trump appointees. It would be easy to say he is naive. But worse, he is blind to the real line of defense: The Congress. Effective political opposition always requires an institutional basis. That means the Legislature or the Courts. And in the short term the only prospect of effective opposition lies in Democratic Control of one or both Houses of Congress. I think Tom Friedman may have been spending too much of his time talking to what the British call "The Good and the Great" and not enough time dealing with folks who vote.
Mr. Friedman is completely correct. Our last line of defense is our intelligence agencies. The F.B.I., the Justice Department and the Ministry for State Security need to be given more power to combat un-American activities. As citizens, we need to work with these agencies and inform them of those who oppose us. When there is the slightest bit of evidence against the opposition, the intelligence agencies need to engage in surveillance and disruption. The F.B.I. can be trusted to wiretap and intimidate only those who pose a credible threat to democracy. Anyone who ever wrote a column that included the words “keep rootin' for Putin” should be investigated first. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/opinion/russia-s-last-line.html
1
"Why do they (Trump's enablers) so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest? "
One answer: They are not worth their salt.
Another answer: Birds of a feather flock together.
3
One day, this farce will be over and Republicans will have to explain to their grandchildren why they were willing to be slaves to Trump.
3
In other words, Trump's enablers (most GOP in Congress) are prostitutes.
3
You don't "know the definitive answer" Thomas? I do. Its all about a sex tape that Putin has as kompramat in which Trump is beyond terrified to be viewed on the world wide web with people belittling and laughing at him. Humiliation is Trumps biggest fear. Its that simple folks.
2
We have the most corrupted administration in the world. The chief is a KGB asset and he is sharing our national security with Vlad, the worst thug in the world. Where are the Republican patriots? How long you will keep your eyes closed? Our great nation is at an extreme danger- please wake up if you love our country and care for the future.
3
@Rm:2 things seem to be inevitably linked: unsubstantiated allegations and a "peur bleue"by the accuser of giving his full name. Problem is that most folks rely on their SMARTPHONES as their main source of news,or on a cable t.v. channel. Not much depth there!!If you asked them what they thought of Max Lerner or James WESCHLER, late great journos of the NEW YORK POST when Schiff was the publisher, and before Murdoch took it over and turned it into a tabloid, they would , I am sure, regard you quizzically.
Kirstjen Nielsen: “I haven’t seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favor a particular political party." And from this nonsensical statement you conclude what exactly? That Putin misspoke at the joint press conference? That your intelligence colleagues were drunk when they issued their statement suggesting exactly the opposite? What a weasel move!
4
MRGA!!! Make Russia Great Again!,,
MRGA while “MAGR” (Make America Go Russian)
well written
What about Mike Pence? His obsequiousness to Trump is repulsive and jarring. They have no shame!
7
Well, everything we need to know about Donald Trump ... his shallow sleazy cowardly macho ignorant fake performances, which define the man ... can be found in this WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkghtyxZ6rc
This guy gets excited around cameras. He can’t distinguish between NATO and Hulk Hogan.
Then, of course, it’s worth a few minutes to review the Trump campaign’s crude, vicious, and shocking doctored video of Portly Donald hitting a golf ball, striking Hillary in the spine, and knocking her down so she falls to her knees. It teaches us about The Donald’s methods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyF8vQBdlWo
Any American citizen who voted for and still supports this empty thug is a dupe.
Sorry. Know that’s judgmental. Liberals are supposed to be more nice.
Enough niceness already.
6
Would have liked to read an informative analysis of TRUMP'S policy initiatives, for and against, but with Mr. Friedman, believe that is the equivalent of asking for midday when it's 2 P,M.in the afternoon, old French aphorism. Can't think of anyone who fawned over Putin more than Obama when he took the hand of Russian v.p to confide, to tell Putin he would have more flexibility after the election of 2012. Can't get more unctuous than that, can 1 Mr. Friedman?Hunch that 0bama reneged on red line ultimatum to bomb Syrian air force, which would have saved lives, to placate Putin who was seeking a warm water port in Syria! All the "petites histoires" about friction within the inner circle at the WH r nothing but that:gossip!So, what is your response to making America great:opposition to open borders,increase in employment for all Americans, including African Americans and Hispanic Americans, support for Kate's Law, and crackdown on MS 13 gang members accused of 27 killings in Long Island alone?Sounds like a record of achievement to me. Trump is saying what Americans want to hear, and fulfilling his campaign promises,including with regard to NATO which is asked to pay its arrears.How do you stand on these issues?Cannot see how such a tendentious article would change hearts and minds, Mr. Friedman, which after all is the purpose of an op ed column!
1
Lies, lies, sullen the skies over America
When we have a clearly diagnosable Sociopathic Personality Disorder
residing in the Oval Office, bordered on the North/East/South/West...
by Himself, what is it that we should expect. We, the People, are Sick...
and "President" Trump is in dire Need of Treatment.
1
Phase 1 saw Trump unhinged but bound — bound by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Economic Adviser Gary Cohn. In Phase 1 Trump said and did plenty of crazy stuff, but these key aides limited the damage.
Phase 2 has seen Trump unhinged and unbound. Trump has neutered Kelly, distanced himself from Mattis and sacked Tillerson, McMaster and Cohen."
Not for nothing Mr. Friedman, none of those guys not one of them, ran and won the Presidency of the United States, Donald trump did that, which gives him the right to listen to his own advice first and foremost, it was his instinct that put him where he is today.
Trump is a tireless worker and he has much to do, he is not going to bog himself down with people that are going to get in his way. The people, the millions of Americans who like Trump, like him because he gets things done, he doesn't let obstructionalists get in his way. There is an old saying: "Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way." that is how things get done. And the democrats should take a lesson.
2
Trump would throw his own mother under the bus for a buck.
2
There is no plausible answer for Trump's enslavement to the Russians other than that they have some sort of hold on him, perhaps several.
It might be kompromat (Russian for things like the rumored pee tapes), or it may be money ... or both.
2
But they are getting paid Tom. The tax cuts. Deregulation. Stock prices. Trump has made it OK to be rich AND greedy and not be ashamed of looking out for number one at all times. He sold the conservative agenda like nobody else. He's on track to roll back decades of progressive legislation and turn the country over to the wealthy elite.
Trump has succeeded in life by not being impeded by any moral considerations or constraints. So why on earth wouldn't he admire others who do likewise - get away with whatever you can?
Republicans have been trafficking in mendacity for a long time - questioning global warming, lying about healthcare reform, questioning the integrity and life stories of various Democratic candidates - whatever it took to win.
Too bad Schwarzenegger and other reasonable Republicans weren't asking "what is wrong with you" when they passed their tax cuts for the wealthy, smeared science and actively worked to undermine healthcare reform. Too bad they didn't follow the lead of people like Mike Bloomberg and identify as Independents.
1
Maybe it is time to stop expecting normal behavior and Presidential bearing from Donald Trump. Trump cheated on his wives with mistresses, and on his with mistresses with other mistresses. He has cheated on Americans with Orban, Putin, Duterte, and Erdogan. With the Joe Arpaios and Roy Moores. He relishes carnage, death and destruction. He likes to be mean. Really mean. Snarling, even. Pow! Kill off endangered species! Bam! The poor and disadvantaged are stoopid. Let them suffer! Hah! You people don't need health care, food stamps or a Social Security check - what'samatter with you? Stand on yer own two feet, like I did! And Americans are luvin' it! What a character! He's so strong! He'll show'em! CNN? Kick in the screen! It better be FOX News all the time on every television, or else!
Erm, perhaps the stay-at-home voters don't really mind this current version of America. The USA had it's 150ish years in the sun, but, y'know, Democracy is hard -- all that thinking for crying out loud! Let's let Trump rule the world and we can all go back to our screens, because, y'know, the next episode is going to be really exciting! Stay tuned!
2
Hitler, in his early years of rise to power very likely is similar to Trump's behavior. The similar characteristics of both cases should be noted by Americans. False promises, lies upon lies, rallying intense nationalism, twisting reality in the minds of the public, demagoguery of unimaginable proportions.
It happens slowly, innocuously, playing upon fear and insecurity. The grabbing of more and more power, erasing all rules intended to contain dictatorship.
But, do not expect that America will duplicate the pattern of pre-Nazi Germany. Of course, it would be different. In America, Jews will not be scapegoated as was by Hitler. Here the scapegoating enemy might be political opposition, and a free media. America needs to be highly vigilant and very wary. We are headed to a constitutional crisis when the Mueller team releases indictable charges against Trump and Trump refuses to accept them.
That crossroads will be the crisis point. Trump will either assert total dictatorship powers using police and military force, or step aside. It is unpredictable what will happen. But America needs to be vigilant and prepared for that eventuality. These are historical times that bear too much resemblance to Hitler's pre-Nazi Germany.
6
@Hank
You make intelligent and excellent points. However, I'm not as certain Jews won't be used as scapegoats along with others? Note: Charlottsville & DT's remark. We are in the most dangerous times in Am. History to me. The Tech Age is helping Trump with his extremeist (R) wing propaganda. Furthermore, I don't think that people under 45 and maybe older understand what leads to a dictator?
1
"Only I can fix this!" -- Michael Cohen.
Hey, what did you expect from a guy who boasted about being a Russian asset back in January 2017?
Talk about the Purloined Letter!
1
What's the matter? A con man clown, insecure and ignorant, never ready or truly wanting the Presidency, is now and has been a treasonous pawn for Russia. Great job, Deplorables.
10
Trump has certainly loaded up his swamp...the stinkiest, filthiest one ever. Yuck!
5
“At least Stormy Daniels got paid.”
Writer!
4
Trump tests his ability to create and impose "truth" upon his enablers and US citizens daily. He has more validation for ruling as an authoritarian each passing day from the GOP. Once Trump has weakened US democracy sufficiently, Phase 4 is likely to be Trump's armed brownshirts in the streets of America.
3
"It is inexplicable to me." Really? It's quite clear to me. The Republican Party sticks with Trump because he has POWER. He has 60+ million very angry, very white voters who would gladly follow him into hell, as long as they can torture liberals along the way. Republicans know that if they criticize Trump in any way, his voters will remove them from office. And November is not that far away.
To the GOP, it doesn't matter what Trump says or does. No price is too high to pay, no debasement too low to go, as long as they remain close to the source of political power. Law, ethics, morality, even common sense do not matter. As long as the GOP remain in office, they can GET STUFF DONE for their mega-donors like the Koch Brothers. If they are removed from office, naturally, none of their agenda becomes law. Their power vanishes, and that terrifies them.
Trump suffers under the delusion that he is a king, whose lightest word is LAW. The GOP suffers from a similar delusion--that they can "control" Trump and moderate his chaotic impulses, even as he rages and thrashes and tweets with impunity. To the GOP, the embarrassment of Helsinki was just "the price of doing business." May God help us all.
8
We are stuck with 2+ more years of pathology in the White House surrounded by opportunists de jour, rearranging the furniture, just because he sees the world as a p!ss!ing contest, and he can.
As one rabbi has said, "you put a penny in a tin pail and shake it; it makes a lot of noise." There is no signal, just noise.
3
While he may not be able to articulate it, Trump is definitely a disciple of Bannonism
Read Bannon and you realize where all this is coming from. It's the vision of a moral universe divided between the good and virtuous Judeo-Christian Caucasian people of the upper reaches of the Northern Hemisphere and the degenerate brown, black, Muslim and Asian people everywhere else. This is why Trump cozies up to Putin, and Duarte, and other dictatorial strong people--he, like Bannon, sees them as the only ones who can hold the line against the onslaught of the hordes who might want to deny the rightful hegemony of white Christians. And even within white Christian countries, those who might disagree with that hegemony--LGBTQ people, feminists, internationalists, immigrant sympathizers, "libruls"--must be smacked down.
This is where these actions come from, this ethos, this view that the world is zero sum, it needs to be protected from those clamoring for some piece of the pie me and mine now have. The world is already a series of gated enclaves of relative affluence and order besieged by agents of chaos, so you might as well admit it and join the fight.
And, Trump has a lot of supporters who, again, might not be able to articulate this, but on a gut level believe it and act on it. Even if they are not that affluent themselves, they are afraid of losing what white privilege they have, and they damn well are going to fight for that, with literal guns blazing if need be.
4
It's such an easy question if you look the right way.
The right way is to play devil's advocate.
We have to ask to unaskable questions and I think we all know the answers but are afraid to ask them because of what the answers will mean.
I personally feel that Trump is in the pockets of Putin.
I personally feel that Putin has something huge on Trump and it's so huge that it would destroy Trump if it came out.
Right now Trump is in survival mode and the country be damned.
As for Trump having integrity, please, we knew what kind of person was from his dealings with other people in the past.
He doesn't pay his bills and has filed bankruptcy times before.
Only this time is it perhaps, he got money from the wrong people and the only way to pay it back is to destroy/undermine his own country.
Only time will indeed tell.
And if my suspicions are correct, when we find out, what are we as a nation gonna do about it?
5
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin firat.
Donald John Trump, Sr. second.
Benjamin Netanyahu third.
Muhamnad Bin Salman fourth.
Xi Jinping fifth.
Uncle Sam last.
6
Trump is using tactics learned in NYC real estate. If you have a leg up use it, pressure the other guy, the vendors, the unions the city with every leverage that you have. He went on to international deals and used the same power pressure and to a degree won until he lost. It now seems that he had screwed so many people, he needed Russia to bail him out financially and like Faust made a deal with the devil, now calling in the chips. Old Story, but well known. He thought that being president would make it all work. But he is still Faust. He still made a deal with the devil. He never had a strategic view and everything is tactical. He has been lucky so far, nothing has broken yet. And I would say that it will break in the future. Bush was lucky that 9/11 gave him another term and a win in Iraq looked easy. In the long run it became a disaster. Same with Trump, Russia has nothing we need, it is a failing nation dependent on gas, wasting its talent, and a foe of China which will succeed in the end. He loses his allies, will cost us treasure in the long run, and is wasting our time if not our talent, and is ruining our brand name and reputation for short term gains. Even if we only suffer 4 years, he will have cost us so much that as another article in NYT suggests we will have to re-do the international order, only this time we will not get to define it. The rise and fall of the American experiment. Come on: Make Republicans American Patriots Again. RAPA
6
Trump has been a lying, cheating, proudly ignorant narcissistic sociopath for decades----that has not changed at all, and will not change. The truly dangerous change for our nation is the fact that we have an entire party and Congressional leaders who refuse to honor their pledge to uphold the rule of law and the Constitution. These people will be described by historians as the men and women who destroyed the goodwill and honor of our nation.
3
Slow coup, slow coup, slow coup.
Ooops, sorry, it's accelerating.
2
Is such a question really necessary? He is 'first in everything' don't ya know.
Speaking as a woman I detest Donald Trump and everything he represents and stands for. Speaking as a woman I am angry and ashamed that our Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen has sold her soul to Trump merely to save her job.
8
Trump and his followers appear to be suicidal, craving power but drowning in their fear of anyone not like them, grabbing by the throat anyone they resent so that all go under together.
2
No matter how diligently you search for the key to Donald Trump’s sellout of the United States and its allies to the leader of the Russian Federation, there are only two possible answers. Either President Trump is deranged or he feels forced to do the bidding of Vladimir Putin.
Or both.
Serious mental impairment would explain Donald Trump’s impulsive stupidity in creating unnecessary crises, such as starting a trade war with nearly every country whose leader has made him look amateurish and unprepared.
The compromised position of Mr. Trump regarding the Russians reflects that our president still has sufficient awareness to distinguish right from wrong. President Trump knows that by using Russian money to survive his chronically inept business decisions, he has broken the law and will be unmasked if he stops giving Putin what Putin wants.
More unexplainable than the conduct of Donald Trump is the cowardice, and perhaps venality, of so many people in his cabinet and among Republican leaders in Congress. If this is careerism on their part, it is careerism on steroids.
4
No one who continues to "serve" this lunatic passes with flying colors. The only course for Coats et. al. is to resign.
1
What's the matter with you? Why do you continue to watch Fox "News" and believe their pro-Trump nonsense?? Fair and balanced? Rubbish!
Change the channel and watch CBS, NBC, ABC, or PBS for a change.
3
@Nancy Religious cults do their best to prevent their members from interacting with the outside world, lest they get re-connected with reality. The Fox News--Right Wing radio bubble functions similarly. Don't look at mainstream media -- the tool of the devil! You can only trust our group. It's mind control and brainwashing on a massive scale. We've seen this movie before and it never ends well.
To all those voters in '16 who said "how bad could he be"?.........Too late now!
2
To the 86 percent of Republicans in Florida who approve of Trump - What's The Matter With You?
Amen! The GOP has abandoned traditional values for Make Trump Dictator for Life. He (Trump) dances to Putin's tune and the GOP dances to his tune. Most disgusting that Americans have to be drug down to Trump's level - a completely amoral person.
3
Nielsen is a disgrace, first on the treatment of separated migrant children, and now for these absurd comments at variance with the entire intelligence community. If this is the kind of person John Kelly thought should head up DHS, what does that say about one of the touted "adults" in the room? He, too, has been a disgrace since telling his lies, still unrecanted, about Congresswoman Wilson.
Oh, and lets not forget that Nielsen told Congress she didn't know, or perhaps wasn't sure, that Norway was mostly white. How can such a person defend the country when she apparently would fail a fifth-grade geography test?
10
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity ...?" Natural selection. A spine makes one ill-endowed for re-election. Those who do not race to the bottom lose (GOP) primaries, as Dick Lugar, Robert Pittenger and Mark Sandford can attest, or drop out (see Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Paul Ryan). I fear that this will continue until a critical mass of American voters won't be fooled again, grow their own backbones, and make some tough choices.
1
Is there not a parallel between give-or-take 40% of Americans who when polled support Trump regardless of his unhinged and unbound behavior and ordinary German citizens who supported Hitler and the Nazis?
As long as German identity and economy had been believed to be strengthened, the Nazis delivered what non-Jewish Germans wanted—jobs, national pride, a convincing story about the "anti-German Others" being responsible for German WW1 defeat and post-war suffering, the Nazis could do what they wanted, including fighting a two-front world war. Only when the illusion of German superiority and invincibility was shattered were ordinary Germans compelled to admit their grievous allegiance to the heinous phony gods of Hitler and the Nazis.
Will it take personal suffering and the loss of the belief in American exceptionalism and immunity to national disgrace, despair, and economic collapse for the 40% of Americans to be shell-shocked out of their devotion and delusions about Trump? Would Trump figuratively or literally shooting someone on 5th Avenue be enough to shock devout and hardcore Trumpistas into recognizing the travesty and tragedy to which they swore allegiance?
3
“What’s the matter with you?”
Selfish cowardices....that's all I can tell. The GOP are afraid of Trump's base; the others want to keep their high-profile jobs.
The Trump base are a clueless...
2
I have great faith in the United States, not because of its people's belief in democracy, or freedom as defined in the Constitution, but because of the dedicated people within the government and without (like Friedman et al), who won't allow this disgraced charlatan to buy his way or use white supremacy as a mantra to damage us.
Trump may or may not end up in prison. He is already so disgraced, and so compromised, that history will alone analyze the effects of Russian intervention and its understanding of our electoral college to have caused his election.
Did they tilt the election? How stupid are you?
3
"There is one critical defense line left — that formed by F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.'
princ
Trump will replace these people, just as he has maligned and denigrated and quickly fired any one who questions or disagrees with him. Furthermore, that critical defense line is of little consequence when compared with the cultural toxicity he generates each day. He is quickly eroding the fundamental core leadership principles of civility and decency that we expect from an American president. Our young children, who thrive on affirmation and empathy ,are learning many toxic lessons from this powerful bully and liar in chief.
3
Doublespeak and disinformation "1984" in 2018!
2
Things have gotten to a bad state when I am upset that John Bolton was not in the room.
6
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is only aiding and abetting.
4
Friedman is a warrior coming out of the wilderness who seeks truth and is unafraid to share his findings. I can only begin to imagine how much Trump must hate him and this newspaper. No surprise whatever that Secretary Nielsen is no more than a lapdog for this madman.
America is under attack from Russia. It's not a war with bombs but just as dangerous. By now, all responsible observers have concluded that Trump is under Putin's thumb and the reasons likely are in the Steele dossier.
4
Sensible informed Americans have always known Trump "was" and "continues to be" --- a "con-man."
Nothing more needs to be said.
5
As policy, Trump's actions may be inexplicable but totally understandable if we understand that our president is mentally ill.
2
Tom, Trump will be re-elected in 2020. I’m giving you this info because I know predictions are not your forte. Psst. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.
"At least Stormy Daniels got paid." Maybe Trump's minion's prostitution paid off, too.
If one revisits the era of Neville Chamberlain and the movement within Great Britain to appease Hitler rather than stand up to his evident malignant narcissism, it is hard to avoid the parallels to the present moment. When Putin trotted out his "Munich Treaty" analog to give away portions of Ukraine and influence in the Middle East, the parallel became exact - and make no mistake, Trump is entertaining those ideas - still.
Even later, after detente with Stalin, and Nazi armies invaded Poland and then Westward, and even with the British Army facing extinction at Dunkirk, Chamberlain and fellow Conservatives believed that "negotiation" was the answer. Thank God for Churchill!
Far more than any other explanation, it is Trump's underlying cowardly need for "security at any cost" (in this case of the financial sort) that led him to become a "made man" of the Russian Mafia. This occurred well in advance of his "decision" to run for President.
Now he is in a position to commit treason in plain sight; and much like with Chamberlain, greedy Conservatives are willing to settle, close-lipped, for economic payoffs (tax cuts) while the world is divided into obsolete spheres of influence by a third rate nation with a big army and a long, secret list of debt notes.
7
None of these quislings should expect to eat in a DC restaurant without being criticized by other patrons or staff.
They should all eat, all the time, at the trump hotel.. where the owner won’t kick them out.
Now we hear that his DC liquor license might be pulled... due to “lack of character “
6
I think this question extends to the Trump tribe of voters that continue to endorse him as a person and as a president. I sincerely ask this question every time I see the new poll numbers showing enthusiastic support for him amongst voters identifying as Republican. It's inexplicable to me too Mr Friedman.
2
Trump probably put us in more danger as he apparently fears Putin or what Putin knows about him. How else can you explain his secret meeting with no other staff present except an interpreter.
We now know Putin claims he agreed to help Russian Troops in Syria. What else will surprise us ?
Let's not forget what he has done to the innocents seeking asylum. Separating children from their parents is a sin against humanity. God forgive our Nation for this sin.
3
There is no longer a question about this president's mind. It is unbalanced. He puts Russia ahead of the US. He then puts himself ahead of all major decisions. When is this Congress going to wake up and apply the Constitution, the document they swore allegiance to? I'm scared about these next three months and the damage Trump can do before the November election.
7
Mainstream media keeps reporting Trump's Republican base is firm. But how many Americans admit they're Republicans when pollsters ask them now? I suspect we continue to have a growing contingent of voters not aligned to a particular party.
What the traditional powers that be need to do, and need to do fast, is apply themselves to finding solutions to the massive structural problems our society faces - crushing student debt, stagnant wages, health care that is still too expensive and inadequate, the opiod crisis...
On worker pay, Warren Buffet is against raising the minimum wage but acknowledged the wealth gap is a problem for America. He said he's thinking about solutions - but we haven't heard from him. I guess as long as the big companies make money, everything is okay.
3
What is the distinction between "Russian interference" in our elections and the historical interference by the U.S. in other country elections/governance that has included assassination of officials? Are we not receiving some of the same action that we have performed? Or is there a distinction between our actions and Russian actions?
Should not the conversation be how to get an international agreement that defines and limits unacceptable?interference?
1
Major difference. Our president has aided and abetted our enemy. Treason?
1
Well, for starters there's the minor technical detail that President Obama and Hillary Clinton aren't murderous KGB colonels who've stolen billions from their country and stashed it in banks with Trump's campaign manager sitting on the governing boards.
Now if you want to argue about when it all shakes out, we're likely to find out that the Trump family's stolen billions, while the patriarch launches assorted attacks on people...
And just why is Trump trying to destroy NATO and our EU allies and side with Putin's Russia? Because the intelligence agencies of the EU nations and Great Britain are working with the USA agencies to expose the Trump campaigns collusion and criminal conspiracy with Russian operatives.
3
Whenever one of their children would do something either stupid and/or wrong, my parents would say, "What's the matter with you?" and, "You should be ashamed."
Obviously trump, most of his administration, and most congressional republicans never heard those statements from their parents or chose to ignored them.
We should all be very afraid that these people are leading OUR country. Vote in November as if your life depended on it, because it does.
2
Thomas is spot on with this assessment. But isn't it getting old?...The daily rancorous banter between a self-destructive narcissist and an assiduous press trying to salvage truth and our cherished values. In order to maintain sanity I need to hear more of how to rid us from this bloviating blot on the highest office.
Oh they are getting in what makes Stormy Daniels payment look like chicken feed.
Greed and Power are out of control.
I hope what comes of this Trump fiasco is that we realize just because a person has money doesn't mean they are worth much.
I think the answer to the question to Trump- what's the matter with you is quite simple: Trump hates America.
I don't know why he hates America but I do know he has severe mental disorders.
He hates democracy and would rather have a dictatorship.
He is doing his best to dismantle our economy starting destructive trade wars which is costing jobs.
He is dismantling trade with leaving the TPP. Other countries are moving forward with TPP and now Japan and EU have just signed a huge trade deal- all without the USA. This is weakening our economy and relevance in the world.
Trump hates our environment- the very air we breathe, the very water we drink. He is dismantling all environmental protections. In doing so, he is risking our health- so he hates Americans.
Trump hates science and is encouraging behavior that will exacerbate climate change which will affect everything.
Trump hates the truth above all else. The only way I know the truth is to hear whatever Trump or Huckabee says- and know the exact opposite is true.
Trump is dismantling this country and is quite happily doing this with the full complicity of the GOP.
They are all traitors.
VOTE IN NOVEMBER!
5
Two hundred years ago Thomas Chandler Haliburton was the best selling author on the planet. Haliburton was a Nova Scotia statesman as well as a humourist and his best known character was Sam Slick a Yankee watchmaker , teller of great stories and commenter on the human condition. "A stitch in time" and "The early early bird"are two of Slick's best know observations.
Today a lesser known quote comes to mind and it is not "I t6old you so" which is not one of Slick's wise saws. Slick told us "When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry."
America was at its greatest in 1964 even as the Civil Rights Act roiled the South and a war in Southeast Asia was beginning. A country that was evolving for almost two hundred years has the largest, wealthiest and most empowered middle class the world had ever seen. It was at the GOP convention that the right wing of the Republican party decided American political and social evolution had to stop. Men like Rockefeller, George Romney, and Scranton were purged and the party belonged to Buckley, Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan.
Today America is completely broken and for many of us Trump is not a surprise. We know why America is broken despite its dynamic and robust economy. America was a liberal country and adapted to and excelled at change.
This time however you decided to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs and have the right people in charge. It is not the economy it is the people and you have destroyed your citizens.
1
Schwarzenegger's question to Trump ("What's the matter with you?") has a simple answer:
There are Liars, there are Serial Liars, and there is Trump.
Get used to it or get rid of him.
1
What is the matter with you?
What is the matter with us?
We didn't elect him, but we put him in office.
Why? What is the skinny?
Are we as a people so misguided so utterly devoid of reason that one of our two major political parties nominated the wife of a disgraced President over a forthright man while the other party chose the least qualified showman of all those who disgraced their stage?
We must be either misguided or plain stupid.
The lies start soon after birth and the answers to any questions are always met with divine uncertainty. May be the best way to control, but hardly the way to run a thoughtful and productive society.
We put this guy in the most powerful political office in the world without reason, soley on the basis of soiled emotion. There should have been overwhelming support for reason to prevail but neither choice of either party had the appeal, thanks to the ingrained ignorance of reason ladled out every weekend in untaxed mental soup kitchens.
Our Congressional doormats prefer to have it this way as they have free rein to reward the profiteers who lighten up at the thought of a political candle burning at both ends.
Avoiding the separation of church and state, in plain words fiction from fact, has its' drawbacks not the least of which is ignorance of reasonable conclusion based on observable reality.
What is the matter with you?
With us?
We prefer the myth of idealized and deodorized plush toys to the reality of bent and sweaty bodies.
This is a question for every person in government leadership. Whom are you serving? America or themself?
Let's extend this to anyone in this country.
Are you more concerned with how decisions impact you or those around you?
Who comes first? Why would you expect anyone to consider you more important than they are?
This is about power and nothing else. POTUS is the most powerful person in the world. Of course it's all about POTUS! Why else would he be there? Why would he put himself through the daily indignation and criticism in the media? Do you honestly think that he did this for America first? Do you think that Clinton was in this just for the country?
Every politician in history was or is an egotist and narcissist. OK, Maybe one or two had altruistic ideas but the system quickly beat that idea out of them.
1
The so-called "hawks" Bolton and Pompeo are straight out of Shakespeare -- men who betray their country every day in order to hold their offices and imagined power over a disgusting, unhinged, sex abuser named Trump. Never again will I hear any Republican intone "patriotism" or "moral values" without wishing him or her the fate of the eternal hypocrite. That Trump continues to hold sway and approval over 90% of self described Republicans tells me all I need to know about them.
6
Hear hear!
I'm glad he had 45 embroidered on his shirt cuff so he can remember, so we can all remember the number of the president who created the destruction.
1
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest?"
This one's easy: they never had any integrity to begin with, and reputation is just what a bunch of rich people think you can do for them. Republicans are cowards.
5
The Helsinki "Sellout Summit" in which Donald Trump "unmasked" himself as a defender of Russian Federation President and dictator, Vladimir Putin, was the ultimate blow to our democracy. It's not just Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who is a sellout, but the entire Republican-controlled Congress. They have been and still are complicit in "aiding and abetting" treason and what amounts to a successful Russian-orchestrated coup d'etat revealed for all to see in Helsinki. What was said in Aspen matters little for all the words did nothing to change that they all serve Donald Trump and not America. What they should have said at the end was "I resign." Our Constitution has been battered and now seriously wounded by Donald Trump and his "willing accomplices," Whether the wound in Helsinki was mortal remains to be determined.
1
Dear friends this is a power grab pure and simple!
Groups who have felt powerless over the past 70 years all of a sudden feel like they have a voice and feel like they have won and should have their way. White people who feel that the country is changing and slipping away from their control, Conservative Christians of all denominations who want their way of life imposed, Racists, the disaffected...it is the us vs. them mentality with no real basis in fact; just emotional anger fed by the Fox, Breitbart, and other "alternative news" sources.
"At least Stormy Daniels got paid."
Now, how much were White House aides paid to edit both the transcript and the video of Putin admitting to have favored Trump in intent and in deed? Putin's answer - "Yes I did. Yes I did" - was kept on the official record while... the most important part of the question was deleted, so that Putin's admission of guilt could be officially whitewashed. This Stalin-style propaganda in the White House has not yet triggered outrage in Congress. How are we supposed to get used to this?
4
Phase 4: Discovery of evidence that the multitude consequences of the Trump tragedy -- each of which weakens America -- were intended, not unintended, by the President elected with help from Russia. In other words, that treason, by any other name, is treason.
1
Too many topics, Professor, requiring too many replies, but here goes:
"He’s looking to destroy the European Union." Thank God he's blatantly declared war on the E.U., because this is exactly what the E.U. needed to encourage its political unity. Even the U.K. wants back in but can't figure out how.
"On each key question — how much Russian agents were involved in trying to tip our elections, Putin’s ... government’s involvement in the downing of the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, ..... — Trump embraced Putin’s explanations and excuses over ..... bedrock American values."
"bedrock American values"??? Here you revert to selective criticisms of Russian actions that are no worse than what the U.S. has done since the end of WWII ... numerous Wars of Choice from Vietnam to Iraq, rampant torture and Extraordinary Rendition, deaths of 35 POWs at Guantanamo, the downing of an Iranian airliner to "send a message", interference in elections across the world, including the assassination of nationalist leaders where necessary, and so on.
By all means criticize Trump, even criticize the lack of human rights in Iran, but don't try and portray your nation as lily-white. Your NYT audience doesn't appreciate false flattery.
1
The constitution begins with ‘We the people’, not ‘I, Donald Chump’. Everything he has done is in his own self interest, the imbecile has no intelligence or knowledge of history or government. He is damaging our country and reputation globally, for what? His own incorrect perceptions and distorted reality.
1
Where've you been for the past year and a half?
1
Steve Bannon had the word for what Trump is trying to accomplish: 'deconstruction'—i.e. 'destruction' with a 'con' in its midst.
3
Jill Stein frolicked at a Russian party on Russian TV. Jill Stein siphoned enough votes to throw those few key states to Trump. Did Jill Stein get paid?
1
We are passively standing by while the republic is now run by an unbalanced individual who is using all the tactics of a dictator to take down the US.
2
Does any of all these insane, unhinged actions of our current Exec in Chief matter anymore so long as none of us are taking it to the streets? Just like the rest of his Party: they're gonna keep pushing til someone pushes back!
2
Bravo to your OP ED piece and for expressing the views of thousands of us who do put value our country as a leader. In addition, it pains us to see an egotistical, wannbe, dicator who Trump expemplifies. Wake up America!
1
What to make of Trump and his enablers? The rabid, cult-like base that offers unquestioning support?
America is undergoing a dark period in which a significant number of the electorate choose to consume alternative realities and utter garbage rather than responsibly recognize and debate observable reality. President Trump is the most obvious result of this self-induced stupidity.
Is the insanity temporary? How much irreversible damage will occur? I really have no idea. I'm out of explanations.
1
At a personal level, the Trump phenomenon has done nothing less than permanently change my view of humanity. Trump's behavior, the behavior of his sycophantic advisers, the shameless, dishonest, obscenely hypocritical behavior of Republican leaders in Congress, and most of all, the stubborn, narrow, blinkered, hateful, and willfully ignorant behavior of his base have come to make me view people in general less charitably.
I dislike people on sight if they look like Trump supporters. I get angry at pick-up trucks because I assume they are driven by angry, white men. I find myself, now, filled with loathing, almost all of the time. Multiply that times the tens of millions of others having the same experience. How does a society recover from that?
4
For Trump, it has always been Trump First. The real translation of MAGA is Make America Grovel Atmyfeet. And some 40% of our fellow citizens are only too eager to grovel. Once they realize that Trump himself is groveling at the feet of Putin, maybe they'll start learning how to to say "Yes Master" in Russian.
1
I still say Trump's end game is to fly to Russia and ask for asylum, exactly as Manafort's last President did.
That would be Vanukovych of Ukraine, who, after he looted the treasury, supported Russia over his own country, shot protestors, and helped Russia steal land, ran to Russia and lives safe from Ukrainian law, who want him for crimes of High Treason.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
1
Asylum and a building permit.
Thank you, Mr Friedman for speaking up to share what we all who - see the truth - are seeing and experiencing - it is scary everyday how so many - well educated Americans many who are Republicans are blindly following Trump and Pence --
It reminds me of a chilling video I saw inside 'The House of Terror' in Budapest - of many cheering people standing along both sides of the beautiful Andrassy Blvd waving flags - jubilantly focused on the arriving parade coming towards them - at one point the head car of the parade came into focus - the person in this car was who all these people were cheering with abandon, without question - was Hitler coming into Budapest
We all have grown up in the USA wondering - How could people be swayed to follow such a person - well - we are experiencing exactly how this happens - now - today - across the USA - with Americans who are blindingly following Trump and Pence - as the Republican Congressional leaders let go of their integrity - let go of their own conscious - let go of America to follow such a person --
Mike Pence is just as bad -- he would create and enforce a Spiritual Inquisition of his own self-righteous making.
Keep speaking out loud, Mr Friedman - we all need to hear what you are seeing - for we are seeing it as well.
U.S. intelligence chief Dan Coats apologized publicly after Aspen for his uncomfortable public reaction to news that Donald Trump was planning a second face-to-face meeting with Putin. Dan Coats blame the press for 'mischaracterizing' his response.
So much for his spine.
1
I've got to tell you, we're looking in the wrong place; it's not Trump, but Trump's base, that we need to focus upon.
They are no longer the Republican party - they are the Confederacy, reconstituted to fight the Culture War after they lost the Civil War.
All the metrics match. A search for foreign allies? Check. Racist to the nth degree? Check. Happy to separate slaves from their children and claim it's Ok because it is legal? Check.
Sarah Sanders is a a Southern Baptist, a church that was founded in 1845 to promote and defend slavery. They call it family values now, but they're just a bunch of Confederate traitors at heart, same as ever.
So please stop calling them Republicans. They are simply the Confederacy redux.
2
I adhere to the theory that Putin lent or gave a large sum of dirty money to Trump to be laundered. This explains why their meeting in Helsinki was so secretive. What can we do to put an end to this madness? Get out and vote for progressive Democrats in November.
2
If your primary sources of news are Fox, Breitbart and InfoWars, then you certainly believe that Trump can do no wrong and that there are plans to add his visage to Mt. Rushmore as soon as he alone solves all the worlds problems. Unfortunately if the current trends continue and we move to Phase 3, things will not end well and we will all pay. What is even more disconcerting is reading the reader comments on those websites. I hope they are Russian trolls, but if they aren't, it is truly frightening to see what kind of mindset some of our fellow Americans have.
"What's the matter with you?" asked Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There's no better question to launch the 25th amendment process to remove this highly unfit president from office.
1
For once, I agree with my former governor, the Kindergarten Cop.
1
We have not yet started heading into the ditch. Wait for crazy when the family indictments come down.
1
What is wrong with Trump is that he is a severely compromised poor excuse for a human being who just happened to beat the odds with the help of a foreign adversary. The narcissist in him simply can’t deal with the idea that not everyone is willing to give him alone credit for his win or to accept him as the greatest president ever. He knows absolutely nothing of the value of humility and the need to come across as humble on occasion. Simply put he is a loser on the human front.
1
It seems that Trump is the most destructive and desruptive manager ever to lead this country. Like a wrecking ball, he destroys one thing after another without any plan of how to fix and repair the chaos created by his actions. When Trump makes a decision, it only considers that first domino dropping. Look at the fiasco with separating children from parents at the border with no plan on how to reunite them. Look at the fiasco of NK with nothing done about verification. Look at the fiasco with the Putin/Trump meeting. Standing on foreign soil and putting down your own country is treasonous. Trump is a reality TV buffoon, a fool who thinks he knows everything but does not take the time to study any situation to get the facts before he acts. The trade wars never took into consideration that the crops were about to be harvested, he just took away the markets and pushed that first domino over. Now we get to pay. The Cohen tape reveals Trump's dishonesty and makes me wonder, since bogus financial accounts were used to filter Russian deposits, if there is a tape discussing that meeting at Trump Tower. While many of us are worried about our country being hit by the Trump wrecking ball, it seems like those who defend Trump are unhappy with the USA and seem to want to see it destroyed just so they can be a part of thit Trump reality TV clown show. Frightening.
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity?"
For the same reasons cult members follow their leaders into the abyss. They are under his spell, and no amount of reasoning can dissuade them.
The more pertinent question is whether the rest of us can save America--cause I really would hate to see her on her knees with Putin on top.
Kirstjen Nielsen is a prototypical Republican and Trump sycophant who like our narcissistic commander in chief values self aggrandizement above democratic and constitutional values and principles. Egoistic and unconcerned about the fate of the average American citizen, she is fixated on career advancement and securing lifelong tenure in a Koch brothers financed think tank. She is readily available for a price, her venality unencumbered by a functioning code of ethics.
“At least Stormy Daniels got paid.” Trump, Putin’s puppet, and the GOP (via NRA) HAVE BEEN PAID by Putin’s Russia oligarchs in dollars and his disinformation/hacking/election sabotage machine. Trump’s willingness to accept this help—as seen by the June 2016 Trump tower meeting—instead of turning to the FBI led eventually to active Russian help. By helping to elect Trump and a GOP Congress, Putin now has blackmail over all of them to do Putin’s bidding. They are all compromised, corrupted Manchurian Candidate Russian assets out to “Make Russia Great Again” by destroying US global leadership and its relationships with allies and hence the post-WW II world order that has both contained Russia and led to international order between nations. Mr. Friedman and fellow readers, what is so “inexplicable”?
Is it possible that our current system of government-levered (i.e. tax cuts) socialist capitalism for billionaires and millionaires and unfair laissez-faire capitalism for the 90% of us struggling ... is it possible that this system ... just ... doesn't ... work ... except for those of you lucky enough (usually through privilege and inheritance) to be super rich?
Two must reads have been published since Nov 16: Why Democracies Die and Fascism: a Warning. Both books say exactly what is wrong with Trump, but in a clear and extremely well-documented way: Dictators come into power by democratic and legal ways, then destroy the Democracy because those in power do absolutely nothing to stop him. Trump's "wrongness" is his uninhibited ambition coupled with willful blindness on those who support or work for him. WAKE UP, AMERICA!
It is amazing that all of these rich white people who are in charge hate everything that America has provided for them. They have had the best education that money can buy but they lack any character.
Its true no other administration would have these characters from the Bill Shine who enabled Roger from Fox News to destroy women's live, John Bolton who never went to war himself he five time draft dodger, the wife beater the son in law who lies so much he couldn't get a security clearance.
Trump and company first, America always last and he is under some impression that the country is not going to fight back and all that he has done will be undone once he is out of office because believe it or not Americans are very smart.
"America First or Trump First?"
The answer is obvious.
Not to put to fine a point on your opinion with which I agree, Ms. Clifford did get paid...and she was defamed.
Captain Queeg is at the helm. We are in a self-induced typhoon. The ship is foundering. Where is Lt. Steve Maryk and other like minded individuals when our country needs them?
3
President Trump has followed the time honored practice of how to deal with a crisis: create another crisis. He seemingly does this almost daily, and we get lost in the twenty different messes that he has created.
1
We also have the recent analysis of the video of the Helsinki press conference in which the Reuters guy asked Putin pointedly if he wanted Trump to win and if he helped Trump to win. Putin responded affirmatively on both points, saying that Trump would normalize relations with Russia. The official White House edit of this dialogue mangled Putin's response. The official Russian edit eliminated this Q&A entirely. In effect, we have Putin admitting in public that he put a thumb on the 2016 electoral scale in favor of Trump, followed by efforts to quash the truth. To me, this is clear-cut evidence of Russian meddling. And yet the Trump cabal is doing nothing to thwart Russian efforts in 2018 and 2020.
America First or Trump First? Nope. RUSSIA FIRST!
1
Congressional Republicans, and Trump Administration officials took an oath to serve and protect our nation. What path will these public servants choose after Helsinki, where the world watched a deferential President Trump pander to a ruthless Russian dictator? At the press conference, Vladimir Putin handed Mr. Trump a soccer ball, and incorrectly stated, “The ball is in your court.” The ball currently resides with the Republican majority in Congress, and Donald Trump’s own political appointees. They must unite and stand up to president naively hoping be a former KGB operative’s new BFF. Will President Trump unleash the wrath of his Republican base if they cross him? Probably. But Vladimir Putin’s mysterious hold over Mr. Tump will inevitably become public knowledge. How shameful if partisan politics or personal ambition bridled their vow to defend America against foreign adversaries. After a week of unconvincing walk backs, and disconcerting new statements by President Trump, it’s time for the Republican Congress, and administration officials to put what’s best for the country before what best suits Mr. Trump. The cost could be steep; a primary challenger spurred on by an angry president may defeat them. But they will sleep well at night, and be honorably held in the hearts of a grateful nation.
The " You" in "What's the matter with you?" are people who have been paid. They have jobs, health care and pensions now for life. They are looking out for #1, just like the man they serve like a king. They service Trump like Stormy did.
2
We have to get it through our heads that this president has only two goals in mind: (1) disruption; and, (2) torment the American public. No preparation or knowledge is required, so just play golf.
More important, he's not going to change...he can't.
The latest is that 88% of voting Republicans approve of him. Do the math. At best that's 88% of 26% or about 23% of the total voting public. That means that 77% can vote against him and the rest of the complicit Republicans.
The strategy is simple:
1. Work to take back as many governor seats as possible. This will combat gerrymandering.
2. Run candidates that can win red House and Senate seats. This means center left, not Progressives.
3. Get the 77% to vote, by using a great ground game and creating and constantly repeating a good message.
Otherwise, it's at least two more years and maybe six of the same--total chaos!
4
Nielsen showed her true colors when she did not protest loudly against the separation of children from their parents. Anyone of moral character would not have tolerated those horrible tactics. She stood in front of the world and supported that crime against humanity. I will always remember her press conferences.
How can you expect any honorable behavior from someone so immoral?
1
I wonder when the president's supporters will tire of this joyride of "sticking it to the "elites""?
Don't they know what a good day's work looks like?
1
Stormy D isn’t the only one getting paid for showing him some love. All these sellouts are, too - just a different set of players in the equation, with the people and reputation of the United States of America taking over one of the roles in this sordid reality tv nightmare.
1
It is incredible that the press does not call attention to the overwhelming evidence that Mr. Trump suffers from extreme NPD, Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It makes it impossible
for him to stop using his "America First" pitch for other purpose than to satisfy his uncontrollable need for self-aggrandizement and destruction of competitors or critics.
Add to that the frustration and ignorance of his political base which was identified and explained in Eric Hoffer's book "The True Believer" and we have a crisis that could well destroy our nation.
History shows that great nations decay and die,not from external invasion, but from internal decay. Have we reached that level of decay that our existence as leader of the World is
at stake?
Read up on NPD and Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer" in Wikipedia and decide for yourself.
Hanksemperfi
@Henry Whitney
see what Wikipedia has done with the female Russian spy before trusting Wikipedia on anything. Access other sources of information.
"Nielsen proved to be a shameful coward. I sure hope we do not have a homeland security crisis on her watch." Unfortunately, we are experiencing a homeland security crisis right now, on her watch. The wave might only appear as a ripple on the horizon, but if you read the buoys, you know something big is coming. Just as transpired before the attacks of 9-11 the evidence is in the open for all to see but the level of distraction is so high that the signal is lost in the noise and those who call out for others to pay attention have their voices drowned out by the ruckus. Good leadership makes decisions that prevent hard choices from becoming the only path forward. This administration makes every choice a hard choice and has nothing in place for the moment the crisis breaks upon us.
1
Good article except for the punch line: there are plenty of rewards for those that fill his cabinet and staff. Reputation and integrity are not among them, but if you did an article revealing what each does get out of their "service" you would have no difficulty in filling the space. Your passing remark on Pompeo, etc. already shows the potential.
1
That a great nation can be so abased by roughly a quarter to a third of its electorate shows several important cracks in our system that have grown into chasms in the age of Trump. First, of course, is the electoral college which recognizes the votes from rural states as having more heft than those of more populous ones. This essentially ensures that the gun lobby and evangelicals will wield an exponentially larger club in our national decision-making...hence the inability of any material progress on restricting gun proliferation, even in the face of growing numbers of school massacres. Second, we have assumed, incorrectly, that “norms” governing candidates and between various governmental institutions are sufficient to restrain or rein in tyrants. We know now they do not. Persons who have no respect for the law or for semi-legal traditions will ignore or twist them for their own nefarious purposes. Norms, such as a candidate’s need to share tax returns, must be codified. Third, after Trump there should follow a widespread domestic conversation on our national character. Currently, there are two groups in this country with seemingly diametrically opposed versions of civic values. These will continue to divide us long past Trump’s departure. After he leaves, one way or another, we must begin a dialogue on the basic tenets of what this country stands for, to repair the rendering of our social fabric resulting from the presidency of Donald Trump.
5
Perhaps recall the oldest lesson in politics: power corrupts. Even our system designed to have checks and balances has been corroded. It remains to be seen if we can save it.
4
So many of the pundits and the rest of us keep saying we have to wait to see what happens and let’s cross our fingers as far as the consequences of Trump’s actions. We don’t have to wait: they’ve all been happening. The rich already have huge windfalls from the tax bill. Millions of us have already lost health care. Tens or hundreds of thousands of us have lost their ability to vote. The air and water are already more polluted. More species are endangered. Rape victims on campuses are already more silenced. Families of people seeking asylum are already ripped apart and traumatized. Russia continues to cyberattack our democracy. The list goes on and on of damages already done. But isn’t it clear? We ain’t seen nothin’ yet...
4
"Watching longtime anti-Russia hawks — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton"
This gives them far too much credit. They are not after mere jobs for themselves. They want war with Iran. They have a war in mind, and it isn't with Russia. Priorities.
2
To paraphrase "Engine" Charlie Wilson, "what is good for Trump is good for the United States." The facade that what the POTUS does is somehow not good for the POTUS, politically or otherwise, but is done strictly for the good of the country, has been revealed as a phony distinction.
your final sentence says it all. They must all be in it for the money, which they may hope will bring them a comfortable if ignominious retirement.
2
"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."
-George Orwell
"Just remember: What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."
-Donald Trump
I am actually quite skeptical of what I read and hear in global corporate mass media. I go to primary sources as much as practical, and compare the stories and interpretations of the various outlets to see what they leave out and how they contradict themselves.
Trump is not asking for skepticism, fact-checking, or better news coverage of the important other the trivial.
Trump is telling you to believe his lies and ignore the obvious truth, the same lies that Fox has been repeating for decades.
Read the Constitution. It says that Congress should tax and regulate trade to provide for the National defense (not global offense) and promote the general welfare. It says that religion is separated from government policy. It says that the president must uphold the Constitution and faithfully execute the laws of the land.
Republicans and Trump are against all of that. They call our government the enemy. Our government is our Republic according to our Constitution. When petite say they see roots eventing, you should believe them.
5
Until such time as we interview Trump’s interpreter we know not what was said in Helsinki. Even then , she won’t be able to remember it all. That meeting should never have taken place.
Every idea on strategy that Trump has is now suspect as having come from Vladimir Putin’s lips, or worse a playbook handed to Trump.
This latest idea that Putin will now lobby for the Democrats sounds like a Vlad idea to me.
2
Under Trump we have become a rogue nation. The only "good" I can see as a result is a greater appreciation for past leaders, even some who we thought were inept.
Observing the fawning behaviors of the assistants surrounding Trump---some of which have graduated from top universities with top grades---is an important lesson in what humans are capable of given the right, or in this case, the wrong circumstances. Watching old tapes of the Nuremberg trials, you see some really intelligent and cultured individuals commit horrible crimes while claiming that they were only following the orders of a boss---who was clearly unhinged. I might be more judgmental of these people, but, in the back of my mind, I am uncertain, if placed in the same position, would I have the courage to walk away.
Jackson County Indiana, where Seymour is, went for Trump 70% compared to 30% for Clinton and others. Maybe Mr Linebarger should post this article in the local papers so Jackson's residents can see what they voted for.
2
Recently, in a stint on Steven Colbert's "Late Show," [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYCPZrOkZx0] Jon Stewart hit the nail on the head. If it were not for Trump's meanness and outright cruelty, this might be comedy--blundering ineptitude in DIY politics. It ceases to be a laughing matter when we are witness to the actual cruelty of his misguided policies.
My children were born in El Salvador. Among asylum seekers, I expect that there are more than a few Salvadoran children separated from their parents. The 2016 homicide rate per 100,000 persons in El Salvador is 82.84. Canada is 1.68; the US is 5.35. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_...]. The US supported the right wing Salvadoran regime during the civil war and lost interest once peace came. Now, the country is a war zone with criminal factions committing daily horrors, often against children.
And the US is continuing this assault on children and asylum seekers with additional cruelties in the name of Trump & his kowtowing pack of Republican sycophants. The man breaks things domestically and in our foreign relations. He is putting the "ugly" back in our national characterization as the Ugly Americans, cruel, callous and self-interested wealth mongers. These upcoming midterms must send a message that we repudiate America's neo-barbarism.
4
As a retired 73 old Vietnam era Army Veteran and someone who no longer is concerned to work for a paycheck, I occasionally torture myself with the question about "why" do Trump's supporters refuse to critically examine anything Trump says or does to our nation's laws and it's democratic values for us Americans . The only answer I can come up with was screamed by one of his fanatical True Believers at one of Trump's crazy rallies: "We don't care!"
7
The first "what's the matter with you?" should go to my beloved President Obama and to us all. When Mitch McConnell obstructed the nomination of a Supreme Court justice by the president of the US we should all have hollered, stomped feet, gone to DC with clever hats and big signs and force the Republican Congress to obey the Constitution.
But we all knew that the next president would be a Democrat, so we stayed home, shook our heads in frustration and laughed at the Republican primaries.
And who knew that the man who invented two PR guys to promote himself as celebrity would aspire to become king once electorated president? Who, indeed?
I wonder how McConnell really feels after two years of this all. I sure know how we feel.
3
Why are we not marching in the streets every day? Just when you think it can't get worse, it does. Every day!
7
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest? It is inexplicable to me.
Trump presents a unique set of problems to anybody trying to work with him or against him, but it is not surprising or puzzling at all that people continue to try.
The title of "President of the United States" is the closest thing to becoming a "Superhero" that an American man can ever attain. It is bundled with awesome actual and psychologically intimidating power and prestige.
Complicating this further is the fact that Trump brought his own mythical, albeit cartoonish aura of invincibility to the job. So now, we have a self made, invincible "super anti-hero" in the job that basically confers that "superhero" status to any civilian audacious enough to try and claim it.
He's essentially a superhero two times over, and most people are simply starstruck, intimidated and afraid to challenge him.
There are of course others who have ego's large enough to believe that they can perhaps outsmart him or rein him in to some degree, but we've all seen how well it's worked out for those poor saps.
He's an evil clown with super powers, and there is nothing that is scarier or more intimidating than that. He bends people to his will time and time again, and is never going to back down or back off.
2
The press and the media covering Trump 24/7 has put the spotlight on Trump making America first and Trump first one and the same.
2
Interesting and erudite column. However, the politically correct majority that defines America seems unwilling to publicly say this man is totally off his rocker and should be removed. Despite a gaggle of psychiatrists who itemized his imbalances, he is still in a position to threaten opponents (maybe hoping for a war in which to line his pockets with ill gotten gains), destroyed trust and unity with allies we have had for decades, opened a tariff game in which he doesn't understand the nuanced rules that make Americans the victims, praises despots who subjugate and murder their citizens, spends our tax money on his recreation while with the other hand is paying himself out of our coffers (by the way, what happened to his paychecks that he was going to refuse?), and sows hatred and divisiveness wherever he goes. YES, he is only for Trump first. He sees all of the above as power that puts him a step ahead of the social elite who never never invited him into their ranks. But in the meantime, he is killing our democracy and punishing our citizens. If WE don't use our governmental gift of the right to vote, and do so in a rational manner, we deserve to be victims of this grifter.
4
"At least Stormy Daniels got paid". And unlike Trump's sycophantic enablers she didn't sell her soul in the process either.
2
Paul Ryan should be held accountable. He should resign immediately after chuckling about his deranged comments that Trump is “trolling” people. There’s nothing funny about pondering using the removal of security clearances to punish people who question some of the President’s comments and actions.
3
What kind of compromising information must Putin have on Trump in order to make him cower and fawn like this? My guess is that his personal wealth is all tied up in Russia's Kremlin-controlled oil and natural gas industry, just like the wealth of several of the oligarchs targeted by the Mueller investigation. Either that, or he's massively in debt to Russia and can't bear to have word come out that he's a lot less rich than he claims to be. Trump's utter lack of consideration for anyone but himself should suggest to us that he's defending Russia in order to save his own behind-- and not the integrity or security of the United States. And Putin, smirking and handing him a World Cup soccer ball, is playing him like a little boy. Sad!
4
The comment about Nielson is well taken. She also demonstrated mendacity when her agency kidnapped Latino children at the Mexican border, separating them from their parents. To this point, her agency is grudgingly complying with court orders to reunify families but refusing to accept responsibility to reunify children with parents who were deported. A Pottery Barn rule applies, You Broke the Family, Now Mend It.
Don't wonder about a future crisis. Herod like polices have given us The Separation of the Innocents at the border and lack of preparation at the local and, especially, the Federal level, ruined her agency's disaster response to Puerto Rico's massive hurricane. That's two Katrina's on her watch.
4
You wouldn’t think it’s possible that the country’s standards would be lowered so far, so fast. What possesses tens of millions of Trump supporters (most of whom profess to be more religious than the rest of us) to support a President with no loyalty to others, no integrity, and evidently no patriotism?
To show how far we’ve fallen as a country, consider that with the release of first Cohen tape, the debate is whether election laws were violated with illegal payments. There is essentially no talk, zero, about the fact that Trump lied completely and often about having the affair that prompted the payment. And, lest we forget, he still denies knowing Stormy Daniels as well.
Clearly, being a compulsive liar and lying about issues that everyone knows are false is no longer even worthy of comment—either by sixty million Trump voters or by the obsequious GOP enablers in Congress who pretend to support America.
4
It's obvious what Trump should have said to Putin about election interference -- just what Obama said to Putin about it : "Knock it off!" If only we still had such a brave president, heroically shouting out a meaningless schoolyard response. That would show bad old Putin.
The suggestion that Putin helped Trump get elected devestates Trump’s ego. In his mind he is the political genius who ran a brilliant campaign and shocked the establishment with his upset victory. All of Trump’s erractic behavior flows from this myth that he clings to.The all powerful Trump won the election. Only he can save America. Trump is the new King Lear. It is reasonable to question his mental stability.
3
What is America? An inconvenience, an anchor, a bottleneck, an obstacle, a stumbling block, ... get out of my way so I can make more money and appear more powerful.
But Trump has his base now waving signs thanking Putin for throwing the election to Trump.
4
Why won't GOP members of Congress and so-called Trump loyalists (like Nielsen) stand up and put America first? Because they are afraid of being tweeted into humiliation and potentially out of office (or out of a job). And we know that there is nothing a member of congress is better at than keeping his or her job. So, it's a bit of old fashioned horse trading (I was going to say gentlemen's agreement but there are few true gentlemen in the greater DC area these days): I'll look the other way or only criticize up to a point, and you keep your Twitter fingers away from me. Simple. And ultimately and utterly pathetic.
3
Even when I disagreed with Republican policies, I didn’t question the proponent’s patriotism. Until now. I fault them more than 45. They must be voted out of office in November.
2
America First is a query Trump supporters will have to respond to somehow, to come to terms with...
Farmers are getting paid or...aren't?!
Power and proximity to power are the crack cocaine of politics. The people who are sticking with the administration to the detriment of country are enjoying the percs, i.e. the rush. A November intervention is in order.
2
Trump is undoing everything that went into building the Presidency since Washington. Like it or not one willful and thoughtless person has changed the office from President of a popular liberal democracy who follows laws and precedents of conduct to keep it from becoming a four year monarchy into one. With the Congress willing to allow Trump to govern as he wishes and allowing him to fill up the federal judiciary with right wingers who cannot grasp the symbiotic relationship between liberty and democracy, our republic faces a future of strife that may end in dictatorship. His supporters, all sixty million have come to the conclusion that their interests are better served by a strong charismatic dictator than to trust in the good faith of the rest of the people in this country. If there cannot be a restoring of mutual trust, our republic will not survive.
1
Phase 2 Trump unhinged and unbound is demonstrated with excellent reporting by your colleague Sylvie Kauffman based in France and contributing to the Times’ opinion page. It is well worth reading for an inside view of Trump’s unhinged rant in Brussels during the NATO meeting. It also shows how unbound he is by “adults in the room” as Kauffman’s diplomatic sources who were in attendance saw American advisers, “ looking down at their shoes. “
2
What is so interesting during this devastating time is that men like Pompeo and Coats were, at best, mediocre public servants typical of the "tea party" era. They are proving themselves however to have a modicum of integrity in a sea of Republican corruption and treason. I detested these men when they did nothing but harass and block President Obama, now they are the hope of our country.
Thank you, Mr. Friedman.
All of us in this NYT Comments section feel afraid, angry and powerless. But we're just an echo chamber in here, and it's not enough any longer to wait until Nov. 6th to make our voices heard.
I am waiting for the NYT to write a piece on how, when and where we can safely organize and demonstrate against Trump and this administration in our cities across the nation. NYT/Friedman, please use your vast resources and help us organize as a nation!
I live in a red state, and am frankly scared for my safety to even have an anti-Trump bumper sticker on my vehicle.
But I do believe that now is the time to demonstrate, and would happily participate every weekend (or more) if I knew there would be police presence, and that we were organized and united in the largest demonstrations against Trump thus far.
The world and future generations need us now more than ever!
6
There’s one explanation that explains all the idiocy of The Trump presidency: Putin has something on Trump. And that “something” is that Trump is a launderer of oligarch money. To my mind, it’s only explanation that ties together all of Trump’s malevolent behaviors. And it’s also a pattern of behavior that fits precisely with how the Russians would control an asset.
Of course there’s no proof, yet, but perhaps, when all the New York banks shut their windows to Donald, the Russians stepped in and graciously extended him loans. Putin could then say “Donald, it would be a pity if we had to call in all those loans. It might even bankrupt you.” And that would be an unimaginable outcome in Donald’s eyes.
3
wow ... Thomas needs to find something better to write about. His pieces are getting old. People don't care about the Russians. While what he says is true - who cares ? Stock market up, unemployment down, tariffs actually working. David Brooks initiative on local community based projects is excellent and David Leonhardt pieces on Education reform also excellent.
Pretty broad generalization don't ya think? Plenty of people care about Russia's interference. It's still ongoing my friend, only to get worse as the elections approach.
@Peter W Hartranft so corruption and an attack on the American electoral system is fine so long as unemployment is down?
Are you okay?
Tariffs are working? What evidence is there for that? GM and Cummins and Harley Davidson don’t believe they are working.
Trump lives in a hall of mirrors. There is no room for anybody else.
5
Surely it is clear that to understand the answer to your questions, all you need to do is look into the history of how dictatorships start. There are always people willing to trade their integrity to get a job, get influence, or because they are sure that it cannot get much worse. They count on others stopping the tyrant-to-be, or they trust in institutions and norms that the tyrant has already shown he (normally "he") utterly disrespects. Let's be clear: the tribal loyalty of Trump's base shows that he can get away with anything with them. He is absolutely blatantly lying to them, telling them to believe only him and his lies, and he knows that they will. Trump's base is a tribalistic cult; his enablers in his administration are people without shame. Maybe in a few cases, they are people who are holding onto their jobs out of a hope that they can mitigate the damage and stop the worst of it from happening. But that is unlikely. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if Trump were an avowed neo-Nazi, he would have a huge part of the country as his willing followers. As it is, he is not far off of this and his support among his base is only growing. Again, learn about how dictatorship starts; you are seeing it play out in the US.
2
Formerly Republicans used to identify their ideology and values with the color red. But now it seems they have turned an appropriate shade of Trumpian orange. That is, red plus a strong streak of yellow.
4
When man like Thomas Friedman writes likes this, it is time to acknowledge that we are deep in the throes of a national emergency. This most judicious, balanced, middle-of-the road commentator, the reliably centrist Tom Friedman is calling out the president of the United States as a traitor and those who enable him as prostitutes. And he's right. If Trump is not a Russian agent, he might as well be. He carries Putin's water everywhere: destroy the EU, destroy NATO, support every anti-democratic political tendency everywhere (including Poland and Hungary), divide the West, support Russian revanchism and aggression. The list goes on. It is sickening and frightening. This president will not protect the American people or their constitution against a foreign enemy. He is a traitor.
5
What kind of compromising information must Putin have on Trump in order to make him cower and fawn like this? His personal wealth is all tied up in Russia's Kremlin-controlled oil and natural gas industry, just like the wealth of several of the oligarchs targeted by the Mueller investigation. He is massively in debt to Russia and can't bear to have word come out that he's a lot less rich than he claims to be.
Trump's utter lack of consideration for anyone but himself should suggest to us that he's defending Russia in order to save his own behind-- and not the integrity or security of the United States. And Putin, smirking and handing him a World Cup soccer ball, is playing him like a little boy. Sad!
@arztin What Putin has on Trump is evidence of his money laundering for Russian oligarchs and gangsters. Since the mid-1990s when his serial bankruptcies froze him out of conventional bank and pension fund financing, Trump's main business has been using his properties as pass-throughs to hide the origin of ill-gotten gains for Russians. This is why he hired Cohen as his bag man around this time: Cohen was already laundering money for Russian gangsters through his taxi business, so he know how to do it. You can't be rich in Russia and not be beholden to Putin. This is why Putin knows where all the money-laundering bodies are buried, and this is his leverage over Trump.
Stormy Daniels was not paid.
The air must be thin at the top of the Space Needle and you forgot about the $130,000.
2
Good. Take names.
I was nodding in agreement throughout your entire article until I got to the last line in which you drew a comparison between Kirstjen Neilson and Stormy Daniels. I found this very sexist, perhaps unconsciously or unintentionally so, but still very sexist.
What’s the matter with Donald Trump?
Donald Trump is a narcissist, with its attendant paranoia. That is the generally accepted view among both laypeople and clinicians. His self-focus, braggadocio, need for adulation and conspiracy theories all point in that direction.
But there's another concept that may shed some light on his "madness." That concept is "puer aeternus," or "eternal boy." Wikipedia offers this definition from Jung:
"'Puer aeternus,' Latin for 'eternal boy,' in mythology is a child-god who is forever young. In psychology it is an older person whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level. The 'puer' typically leads a provisional life due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. He covets independence and freedom, opposes boundaries and limits, and tends to find any restriction intolerable." http://tinyurl.com/y7y9gn8v
The limits and restrictions of the liberal mind, and the liberal world order, Trump finds intolerable. So, he takes every opportunity to attack, disrupt and dismember everything liberals hold dear.
"Puer aeternus" is not mutually exclusive with narcissism. Personality disorders can blend, as any clinician will tell you. Nor is it necessarily a clinical tool, but rather serves a pedagogic function: to help us understand the mind of Trump.
Before the whole world, Trump gave Putin the green light to hack our elections, again, in November. What’s to be done? That’s the next question.
2
The only open question is: Do the American people want a dictatorship?
What's the matter with 45? I think we all know the short answer to that -- he is in the pocket of the Russians because of money laundering and other criminal acts. Easy, peasy. And the GOP is complicit because of their taking of laundered money from the NRA and god knows who else. So yes, with 45 it's him first, Russia second, and country way down at the bottom of the list. And yet his mindless cult supporters continue down their path to destruction trusting in their supreme leader.
4
The GOP is flush with money and power. So who cares what they do? Pompey and Bolton are in the big house now, also flush with power and potential money for themselves when the gig is up.
They do not care. Thank you Melania.
Integrity left the building January 2017 when Trump entered and it's not coming back any time soon. The GOP and Trump have united in a win or lose contest. Get what you can, grab it! while the going is good. It's a mutual grab fest from the Koch Brothers all the way through the 1% wall street fleet.
From deregulation to taking away health care and everything in between (the vote), the GOP and Trump are taking the financial and real resources of America for themselves. WE never deserved it in the first place, the masses who exist to feed the corporate beasts and Evangelical leaders of 'their' country.
If the Russians want to help in the pilfering - great! Putin knows a thing or two about getting all he can for himself. Did he share his know-how with Trump?
Trump’s worldview seems to be formed from half baked, half remembered drivel he picked in the NY Post 30 or 40 years ago. So that he can fulfill campaign promises based on these ignorant fantasies we now have to see them enacted into policy. As Friedman has noted before, the Republicans who ought to act as a stabilizing check on him are quite content to sell out the nation for $179k and a reserved parking place at Reagan.
2
Isn't it always about the money? The Koch Bros, et al. are pouring millions of dollars into campaign coffers daily.
Until there are some restrictions on campaign spending, this type of behaviour will continue.
2
Those following Trump blindly also adhere to HIS first priority: self interest. In Nielsen's case, as most like her, it is about keeping her job. The other end of the spectrum is looking out for country. So far, the only ones to call Trump out have either left their posts, or are about to, or are not seeking re-election. I think Neilsen would be out quickly if she acknowledged Trumps shenanigans.
4
It seems as if the Republicans, quiet as mice, are simply trying to hold on until all vestiges of a decent America have been eliminated. The reports on the next round of tax cuts under consideration in the House are sure to put even more pressure on the Federal deficit. And the effort to roll back all regulation continues apace. Once the financial services industry, fossil fuel producers, insurance and chemical polluters manage to get the bit in their teeth ordinary Americans will be in the nickel seats.
And of course the ever larger deficits will provide the momentum to finally finish Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Imagine the position those who depend on Social Security for the bulk of their income. The poverty we see today will increase exponentially. And with Oligarchs in charge there will be no relief.
4
Each phase gets worse. Info wars on the truth, however, will not prevail. Phase 4 will be all about ousting those who are perpetuating economic, political and social injustice toward the poor.
This is an excellent editorial that likely won’t be read by my Republican Senator Rob Portman. The most outrageous and frightening aspect of the Trump era is that people like Portman who know better and who actually have the power to band together to contain Trump, the biggest national security threat we face, won’t lift a finger. Portman issues nice sounding statements, but does absolutely nothing. Being a mere constituent without millions to throw at him through a PAC, I will never get an answer to what I want to ask him: as a man who has attained high stature, has children with their futures at stake, and who doesn’t need the money given his considerable wealth, why does he not want to go down in history as a patriotic American who stood up to Trump, rather than to be remembered as a spineless enabler of a mentally infirm traitor to our democratic republic and the Constitution? I simply do not understand.
18
His retaining power, perceived prestige and probably greed answers your question.
Agree with you. But keep phoning his office with your comments about positions you want him to take!
1
@Jim
Replied to his stance re: his failure to comment on Kavanaugh, of course got no reply or acknowledgement. He is the only (R) for whom I voted, and I am heartily sorry I did.
From now on, solidly (D).
Human nature Tom, human nature.
Think of all the corporate scandals over the years. Why did people go along? Think about Abu Graib and the torture scandal. Think about the "Good Germans", 60 years ago.
Our moral horror continues to build as we watch all this, but the big question is: by the time the axe falls, will the damage have been irreversible?
7
Despite considerable efforts, I do not understand how anyone can rationally support Trump in light of all that he has done to undermine our country. Perhaps the NYT can interview some Trump supporters to identify and explain the bases of giving credence to a man who has proven what so many strongly suspected at the time of his election: Trump is unfit to lead and should be removed from office.
Because Trumps intuitions for doing harm and creating havoc are unerring, he will eventually be impeached. Congress can save us from Constitutional crises by initiating proceedings now and not wait for the next bomb to be dropped.
7
All of these despicables will be able to monetize their shabby dealing when they leave office (without losing their security clearances). They will be hired by conservative "think tanks"--think about what "think" means in that context!--and activist groups like ALEC and NRA, sign book deals, and join news networks.
At the same time, when the "unintended consequences" occur, they will have no excuse for having distorted or denied the truth or rejecting expert advice. They will not be able to claim that they did their best because people cannot do their best in these ways. No apology, however abject, after the fact, about what they should have said or should have done can serve to exonerate them of betraying their sworn duty, of deserting their post, of undermining their country.
8
In response to "Disillusioned",the electorate today is somehow not interested in the world outside. They're interested in getting to work early,making money , watching sports and gambling for entertainment. If only they were to read more and think. They have no time or interest for that! This bodes poorly for the future of democracy and intelligent leadership.
8
I am sure many in Trump's administration have integrity. I don't like the politics of AG Jeff Sessions, for example, but I believe he has much more integrity and honor than Trump does, a million fold. On the other hand, Trump has recruited and/or attracted some officials (in key positions) who have neither spine nor scruples. No need to list them here.....
3
@Alfred Yul Sessions has no integrity but will do some things that he should out of self-preservation. At a rally he just held, he laughed and chanted, "Lock her up," along with the high school students in attendance. Remember he is the Attorney General of the United States.
6
Sorry. I think Sessions has proven a serious lack of integrity in front of high school students!!
He should have been an example but he was an enabler.
https://youtu.be/h7M2WY3HoVU
4
you have been kidding about Sessions!
1
"What's the matter with you" is also "What's the matter with Trump's base?" Why the blind support when it is so obvious they are supporting the damage being done to their own country and even their personal interests. And we also need to ask ourselves, "why cannot we, the clear majority, cut this base down to size?" We should stop wringing our hands and start swinging them. Democrats - woman and man up!!
21
We need to stop complaining and start doing something about it. Join any of the organizations that are focusing on registering potential voters. To stop this insanity we just have to get everybody we know to the voting booth. Our un-American president is the number one enemy of our United States. The un-American congress is the number one enemy of the United States. The un-American Trump base is the number one enemy of the United States. This is a cold war we win with the strongest weapon known to humankind, and that is the power of the vote. Stop typing and reading and lamenting and start working. Go, go, go... DO IT NOW!
1
@JKing, Trump's base is like half the country. We are clearly a schizophrenic nation, along with borderline personality disorder.
1
The enablers are also the people who voted for him, watch Fox News, and have no knowledge of history or our democracy. In other words, our own citizens. They are his biggest enablers.
29
Mr. Trump's enablers are not simply loyal to his eccentricities of personality and policies. They are longstanding zealots in the crusade to foist the conservative agenda on American society. The enablers in this administration, in congress and in the Republican Party view Trump as a useful bulldozer to clear away the menace of liberal and secular excesses. Trump and his enablers are no worse than the conservative agenda that produced them.
18
Scary thoughts! But, a good assessment of the US today.
Added to the criminal cabal of Trump supporters (60 million but dropping?) should be Murdoch and his buddies at Sinclair who are trying to turn American life into a cheap tabloid like existence. Truth and facts are out the window in favor of the prurient bottom feeder who, for example, believe anything Trump says, even if that changes in 5 minutes.
Trump has his own oligarchs, the Mercers, Koch Bros, Adelson, etc. They will eventually emerge as our 'owners' as Trump and the GOP are simply 'sloppin' the hogs today.
17
In the ceaseless barrage of absurdity this administration provides, the fact that 88% of Republicans (a number nearly without equal in history) approve of the president is shocking and frightening. What does it say about people who believe in this guy?
https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2018/07/poll-president-trumps-appr...
18
America is but a tool for Trump to abuse and toss aside. The problem being, the senseless tools who continue to support him while he destroys everything cannot even fathom he's using them, too.
Twelve billion dollars to bail out farmers for Trump's choice to instigate tariffs. If the small famers who voted for Trump think they will ever see any of that money, there's some wonderful swampland in Trump country for them. Because that's all they'll have after the corporate farms take over their land. And they'll buy up the land for cents on the dollar using the taxpayer-funded subsidies Trump just handed them - his newest buddies.
16
If indeed, as it appears, Trump was elected with the help of Russia, the obvious quid pro quo was for relations to improve and for sanctions to be dropped. Not only has that not happened, but in fact sanctions against Russia have been tightened, Russians expelled, indicted, Russian properties and assets seized, anti-tank and weaponary shipped to The Ukraine (so the Ukranians of course stopped cooperating with Mueller on the Manafort case). Iran weakened by US sanctions, Israel and Saudia Arabia strengthened with state of the art, big US Arms deals. Relations between Russia and the US have rarely been worse.
So one can imagine that after Helsinki, Putin likely walk away with the certainty that Trump is a dangerous, unpredictable, weak and mentally challenged person. Putin realizes, instead of improving US/Russia relations in return for election hacking support, instead things have gotten much worse for Russia. Instead of being and "asset", Trump has become an enormous liability.
Based on Trump's increasingly erratic behavior, and his tweet today that Russia will be throwing their social media and hacking support behind Democrats in November; perhaps there's more than a grain of truth in his tweet!!!
After all, Russian and American intellgence services do talk to each other. Perhaps a deal has been struck for Russia to help the American CI community and Dems and Russia get out of the Trump mess and in return over a period of time sanctions disappear. Problem solved!
2
@Arne Bey
This analysis is off. Putin knows Trump. Putin is getting from Trump exactly what he wanted. A weak American President that is damaging all the relationships and organizations that keep the world safe...safe from Russia.
Sure, Putin hoped to have sanctions removed by now but he's smart enough to know that it wasn't going to happen because Trump is incompetent. Putin knows he overplayed his hand and the backlash from the American part of the Trump administration and Congress is basically strong.
Trump is Putin's dream come true. Putin's overarching goal is a damaged United States. He installed the right man for the job!
@Arne Bey
You have apparently swallowed the pivot!!! Putin/Trump want you to think the Dems are the problem.......and are seeding the electorate with this deflection so as to corrupt the turnout for the coming elections.
For goodness sake, do some critical thinking!! Your comment reflects either a troll, or inability to see your hand in front of your face!
1
Tom, please give us some answers. Trump's behavior is not "inexplicable." He is an egotistic, less than intelligent man placed in a situation that he cannot handle. Like many insecure individuals he uses bluster, insults and aggressive behavior to conceal his incompetence and insecurity. The behavior of Congressional Republicans is also not surprising. Re-election is their only purpose in life.
But what about the nearly half of American voters? Why do they blindly follow a President who has committed all of the offenses outlined in your editorial and many others? Why have they abandoned a decades long animosity toward our cold war enemy? Why do they accept the abandonment of our European allies? Why do they not reject a President who engages in conduct many have called treasonous? What is the answer? What has happened to America? Are that many citizens unable to accept the fact that we elected a black President?
18
@Disillusioned
"But what about the nearly half of American voters? Why do they blindly follow a President who has committed all of the offenses outlined in your editorial and many others? "
They have been pre-programmed for 30 years by Fox News to distrust the major media outlets. They have been pre-programmed for two years to distrust anyone but Trump.
Deadly serious...they are in a cult
1
We need to ask ourselves what motivates Trump, his sycophants and the GOP leadership to not act in their country’s best interests, and to passively or actively advance the interests of one of our enemies. Either blackmail or bribery come to mind. And who is a better purveyor of both than Vladimir Putin?
6
It's fine irony that, in Phase 1, one of the major Trump restrainers listed by Friedman was reportedly hand-picked by Putin. Trump had never met Rex Tillerson until he became Secy of State after Putin rejected Mitt Romney, an old school GOP "Russia is our biggest geopolitical enemy" believer. Trump - Worse for American than Putin.
4
We are on a sinking ship and there is only one lifeboat and it is only big enough for one extra hefty person who is constantly screaming "Mine".
5
What a neat piece? Why do tax payers like me have to support farmers who help elect Trump who has pocketed money from his businesses and travels promoting his businesses using my hard earned money? What is the matter? He has no honesty or shame. We have to blame the enablers and the voters who elected him. What is matter with them? Ignorance and self preservation. National service is not a job and losing an election should not lead to Republican cowardice. One can always clean toilets if one should lose an election.
6
“What’s the matter with you?”
The matter is that we have a "leader" whose strengths include ignorance, fear, narcissism, immaturity, vengefulness, and arrogance.
Add to those the weaknesses of uncontrollable lust for power, reverence for those who kill to control, total and complete disregard for the concerns of others, deep resentment for those with real and demonstrable expertise, and unbounded dishonesty.
Trump is the black hole from which America will probably never recover...every civilization ends...what's happening is alarming, only because none of us ever imagined that we would be witness to such an end...but apparently we are.
15
Dear Mr. Friedman,
To answer your quote "Which brings me back to Schwarzenegger’s question — “What’s the matter with you?” It applies not just to the president but also all the people enabling him. Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity".
To understand the support for President Trump, all you have to do is travel 20 years into the past and remember the solid Democratic support for former President Bill Clinton by House and Senate Democrats and the so-called 'Clintonista's' during his Impeachment! Even the so-called Women's Rights Groups protected him. The Democrats sold their souls to protect the Clinton's, so why weren't you asking the same question then?
The Republicans, and I might add even the Evangelical Christians saw and remember how that worked in President Clinton's favor. Now it's so-called 'Payback' time.
It wasn't until HRC lost the election in 2016, and how she reacted to the loss that any Democrat dared criticize either Clinton. The 'Fear Factor' so long associated with crossing the Clintons was damaged.
Note: I'm a registered Democrat who voted Third Party, so I don't have an ax to grind in favor of President Trump.
Dennis
1
Sir: I have read a number of your books and appreciated numbers of your opinion pieces. But do you really believe that whatever I’ll befalls our nation and our people as a result of trump’s choices will be UNintentional? Me thinks you’re being too kind.
Let's give credit where credit is due. A good portion of the 60 million Americans who put Russia First got "their fake news" from the pundits at FOX. Without Rupert Murdoch and his minions there would be no Trump. Whether or not you believe the Russians favored Trump, it is very clear that the lies that spewed and continue to pour from Rupert and Friends are the real danger. There are fine journalists at Fox, but if they want to keep their reputations, I would suggest they walk out the door and show some guts. Trumps will not be in power forever, save yourselves while you can.
13
"It is inexplicable to me."
It is inexplicable if you assume #45 believes 'America First." It is inexplicable if you assume #45's supporters have the intellectual veracity to seek truth over their inane emotional comfort or support of their demagogue.
3
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest?" Because, in fact, they are being paid. If the NRA has laundered millions from Russian oligarchs to support Trump, McConnell, et. al., then you can bet Trump's other spineless enablers are cashing in too.
3
It is so difficult to believe how Trump, with all the lying and exaggeration he employs when getting out his message, continues to maintain his base's support. Maybe if they took the time to read a New York Times Book Review of Benjamin Carter Hett's 'The Death of Democracy' they'd think about their blind acceptance of Trump.
The on-line address:
www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/books/review/benjamin-carter-hett-death-of-de...
Here the reader can see how similar Trump's actions are to a flawed leader and his followers from six decades earlier. I'm not asking to read the revealing book, the book review alone lays out enough to get the gist to what I'm saying.
3
There is no question Trump is exclusively for anything that benefits Trump. Thanks to his graft and corruption, this failed business man is finally becoming the wealthy man he always wanted to be.
6
Dear Thomas, the answer to your question is more than easy. Trump first, of course! There is no doubt.
5
hate, Mr. Friedman, distorts your reasoning. All President Trump is trying to do is on one side to restore the USA to the global position it had during the 20th century and on the other side to improve the US economy. In spite of what you and your friends in the media believe the facts show that the President, until now, does very well. Yes, to some he seems and sound rude, rough and vicious but that is exactly the kind of president America needs to correct all the wrongs done by his predecessors since President Reagan, he delivers!! How dare Mr. Mousavizadeh say that “What America’s allies in Europe learned from Trump’s recent visit is that the United States, at his direction, is acting more like predator than partner". these allies should look at the record and facts. What Trump is demanding from Europe was due years ago, certainly in the case of China. As to Russia and Putin we will have to wait and see. As to Stormy Daniels don't you think she deserve to be paid?
1
@Shlomo Greenberg
What America does not need is a rude, rough, vicious president. The last 2 + years have been a test for many more than "some" of our countrymen, unless one likes being bullied, lied to on a thrice daily basis, and having to explain to our children and grandchildren that his moral turpitude is not the Be Best of this country. P.S. Stormy Daniels most certainly deserves to be paid.
Good for Arnold Schwarzenegger for speaking out! I hope he will keep publicly criticizing the cockamamie behaviors of Trump.
2
People deserve the government they choose. Don't say that the majority did not choose Trump ---> any electoral system that abets minority rule is a rotten system to begin with. We've had 200 years to change it and have done nothing.
11
It’s great that people like Coats and Rosenstein state reality/the truth when they speak. But with Trump it’s not enough. Trump knows if he repeats a lie 100 Times, even Coats and Rosenstein will start softening their perspective. This whole country has basically been manipulated. Trump isn’t even hiding his allegiance to Russia, his racism, his desire to be a dictator of America. But the weight of his repeated lies has hindered just about every entities ability to react. At this point he’s just toying with us. If you give him a platform he will exploit people. The truth and reality are buried and trying to dig out but it could be too late.
4
@BC
Dear BC
"Trump knows if he repeats a lie 100 Times, even Coats and Rosenstein will start softening their perspective. This whole country has basically been manipulated". Does this statement remind you of anyone, say a former president, named Bill Clinton! See my post directly above.
Dennis
1
Psychiatrists are overbooked with patients who are trying to understand the reasons how his base enables the president. My advice is not to bother, it’s a waste of time. Hilliary was right because it’s ignorance and yes it’s deplorable, and more importantly it’s not curable.
3
I belive a rereading of Faust would answer your questions as to the motivations of Bolton, Pompeo and Nielsen.
All like Faust made a pact with the Devil in the vain hope of future gain.
5
America First? or Trump First? That's an easy answer. And one that Americans should know all too well by now, because it has always been Trump First and, and you didn't have to watch his meetings with Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un to know it.
1
Why are they sacrificing their reputation? Because they don't intend to lose. They are doing all they can to change this country into a one party system with the republicans in charge of all branches of government for the foreseeable future. They don't care if Russia helps them do it or not. They'll sleep with the devil if they need to. In order for their to be repercussions for their actions, you need to assume that we're going to go back to normal after this is done. Are we? I'm not sure if we're ever going to be the same again. Therefore, they can continue to act the way they do and get away with it. And we can scream, protest, call them spineless tools, they're not going to hear us because we're e living in our own echo- chamber. Welcome to the new normal. How low can this country go?
3
I think that people are getting to President Donald Trump to get to the American people. It's like he's a little boy who don't make a lot of friends in school but he can get the school's bullies to do his fighting for him.
1
"What's the matter with you?" is an excellent and fair question. It is the question that one might ask a misbehaving child or someone not behaving in accordance with expected norms.
In some ways this is, with respect to Trump, a rhetorical question.
There is no appropriate response. How could there be? It implies Trump is a normal person. He isn't. He is a narcissist without a super ego. He doesn't take advice and ignores experts. He surrounds himself with sycophants. He attracts people who want to ride his coat tails to share in his power.
Where will we find a way to stop this bad behavior? The simple answer, vote the Trump minions out of office!
3
Very close to the truth, but not quite there. "What is the matter with" him is the right question, but journalists' simply pointing to his false statements, inconsistencies, abnormalities, contradictions, rudenesses, errors, and self-absorptions only skates on the surfaces of the problem. Speculating about what he might be meaning, or about the Constitutional ramifications of his actions, is also beside the point. The truth, I believe, is psychopathological—that what we are watching is a delirious lunatic living out his fantasy, which is that he actually rules the world. He says at any given moment what he believes is true, what he imagines is true. He dictates to European leaders and intervenes in their politics because he believes that he and he alone is in charge of the affairs of the world. His rule has superseded NATO and all our other alliances so carefully constructed over the decades, because he sees any obligation, responsibility or accountability of our country as compromising his personal rule. He issues edicts or holds conversations with heads of state without preparation or staff support because he literally thinks his word is law for everyone else, and he doesn't want them to be recorded because only his memory of them is what counts. Republicans tolerate all this because he is advancing their interests with his base, which has become their base too. The man is insane—that is the problem.
15
Trump's sycophants and enablers hold jobs they would never be considered for under a normal President. Most qualified people don't want to sully their reputation by association with a doomed Presidency, so people like Bolton, who had retired into a comfortable retirement as a moustache joke, and Avanka the Feckless, who could not handle the rigors of actual employment for a single shift, get their day in the sun. The sooner they are driven back under their rocks, the better.
3
Trump is about making money and being president is no different. He is securing his oligarch status and the people around him are too scared to stand up to him.
4
We could talk about Trump endlessly but there isn’t any his weakness that anybody else among us is immune to it.
We all believe to be the best, superior, amazing and unique.
Why are we criticizing Trump for making the identical mistakes?
There is no other tool in a box that helps us control our own hubris, egoism and conceit but the faith. No amount of science and education can achieve this objective.
I have learned this in extremely painful way, after the civil war in my old country. It took a couple of decades for the truth to settle in.
The country polarized and divided first. Why? Because we believed to be more just, honest and fair than the others while all of us behaved identically.
At that moment it takes just several fools in a position of power to push you in the bloodsheds. They always promise you very quick and decisive victory that is allegedly going to make us safer, wealthier and better protected.
A quarter of century later a very sad feeling settled in that all of us acted equally foolish - voted for the corrupt and hateful politicians. Afterwards all of us are far worse than before.
You don’t have to trust me at this moment. You can stay on the current course and few decades later you are going to know perfectly well whether I was telling you the truth or not…
Trump has a strategy: Intimidation. Its pretty simple really: "I'm going to mess you up, keep messing you up until you show loyalty to me and pay me." Trump intimidates people and countries. Trump uses standard dictator techniques of intimidation. No need to invoke psychology, value systems, or mysterious conspiracy theories. Intimidation aiming for dictatorship, that's it. If you see a Trump enabler it just means Trump has something on them.
1
Bravo, Tom!
What's the matter with Trump? Oh my; where to begin? The short answer is, "A lot." But, the real concern is that Trump's toxic basket of personality disorders is unfixable. He can't be fixed. He must be removed.
16
Thomas, you continue to show that you are the smartest man in the room, any room! You nailed every point about this man beautifully. I do hope you are wrong about our country be changed forever. I would like to think that the majority will not let that happen.
3
We may be witnessing a unique experiment here. That the relevancy of the office of president has been almost completely diminished by this horrendous mess. How long would it take for a serious administration to repair the damage so far? Could they ever?
Once Trump begins to go against the interests of the corporate plutocracy he will be removed. He and his foul herd can insult and damage 'the people' all he wants, but once wealth is affected he is history.
2
Where to begin?
1. The people who elected Trump rejected the political Establishment that caused their wages and living standards to fall over the past 38 years. The rejection was bipartisan and complete: political, economic, cultural and social. Everyone knew Trump is a scoundrel; nobody, except for his children, really likes him. The thing that got him elected in spite of this is that he is obviously and clearly not a tool of the Establishment. His voters elected him to trash the Establishment which he is doing. If Trump goes, they'll elect somebody else to do it.
2. Trump stumbled, but there was no catastrophe at Helsinki. The ensuing uproar disabused Putin of any notion that he would get away with rolling Trump. This is not the first time a foreign leader bested an American president: Khrushchev came to believe that JFK was a dunce at Vienna in 1961. That is why he tried to put nukes pointed at the US in Cuba and tried to lay seige to Berlin and wall it off. Stalin rolled a dying FDR into giving up Eastern Europe at Yalta in 1945. Those were major blunders with consequences.
3. Putin is paying America back for humiliating Russia when it was weak in the early 1990s. Clinton expanded NATO into Russia's sphere of influence effectively taking its territory. Obama tried to take Ukraine. Putin took Crimea instead. The Russian people enjoy seeing Putin poking America in the eye. The current hyper-hysteria over cyber warfare makes America look impotent and Russia look strong.
2
Tom - None of this is difficult to understand. After 30 years of being mixed up with Russia and taking Russian money, Trump is beholden to Putin. Trump is the perfect target for Putin. He is being a traitor to his own country because Putin has him exactly where he wants him. The only answer is the midterm elections. Voters will have the opportunity to speak their minds. If Democrats recapture the House (and perhaps even the Senate), then it will only be a matter of time before Trump is shown the door.
1
I agree!
The farmers can't farm because too many tariffs in the tariff war makes their market go away. The $12B won't go far. Are we all going to starve like some of the South Americans?
"What's the matter with you?"
1
The Republican party have been good at masters of spinning public perception. For example during the backlash against the ACA. This misrepresentation caused many people to misunderstand what the ACA did for them and only understood its importance when the GOP tried to destroy it. Trump epitomizes this "spinning" of the narrative and he takes it to such an extreme he is incapable of simply being factual and honest because being honest with others starts with being honest with ones self.
3
Yes, but with Stormy it was supposed to have been consensual.
3
What is left to us as democracy falls away as it has been doing -- shockingly -- under president Trump? Only two hopes and prayers: that monstrous change will come at the ballot box. Or as it did in the Balkans in the run-up to World War I and in America after Pearl Harbor. Be of good cheer, this too shall pass as everything does on Earth.
2
Sadly, it has always been about Trump first.
1
"At least Stormy Daniels got paid."
Why can't so many American see that Trump is doing to them what he did to Stormy Daniels?
4
I am afraid for the future of this country. I do not understand how so many people can be so blinded by the tyranny of this administration and where it might lead, both abroad and within our country. So many with the knowledge of just how damaging Trump's course of action have abandoned their duty to defend our rights that I must ask the obvious: What is the matter with them all? Of all who have failed us, the silence of our five living Presidents is the most egregious and offensive. They know better than any the damage being done yet they stay silent. Your country needs you more than ever President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton, President Carter and President Bush. Find your voices before it is too late.
3
I've been voting since 1952. During that time, I've seen many dishonest, corrupt politicians come and go, but nothing like the Trump phenomenon has occurred in our politics before. I don't understand him or his supporters who remain faithful regardless of what he does. Honesty and integrity are important to me, and I wouldn't support a man like Donald Trump even if he agreed with all of my positions on important issues. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the strong support which comes from so many who identify themselves as Christians. Some of their leaders have gone so far as to proclaim Trump as "sent from God." Shouldn't there be moral outrage over a leader who is a pathological liar, an authoritarian, a man who trashes those who oppose him and who is totally lacking in moral character? It is indeed a sad day for our country.
1
Take note of Trump's latest crazy charge that the Russians are meddling in our elections to help DEMOCRATS. He's setting the stage for an armed insurrection. Listen for him to complain that the only way a "blue wave" could wash over Congress this November is if the Russians get involved to tip our elections toward Democrats. Trump will then explain that he has no choice but to invalidate the results. If this doesn't work--and let's be honest, who's going to stop him?--he'll call for a million man march on Washington to oppose the the "deep state's" theft of the election. And when a million men armed with A
R-15's descend on our nation's capital, who's going to stop THEM?
And get ready for a government shutdown at the end of September when Trump doesn't get funding for his border wall. This will create nation wide chaos a mere 5 weeks before the November elections. And what's the point of inviting Putin to visit Washington on the eve of the elections? If the polls show a blue tsunami is about to engulf him, will Trump ask Putin to order his hackers to disable our national power grid?
Let's start saying it out loud every day: we have a traitor in the oval office. But for Benedict Donald, this fight really isn't political. It's existential. He knows what he's guilty of, so he knows he's going to jail for the rest of his life if justice is allowed to prevail. Get ready for a fight "the likes of which no one throughout history has ever seen."
5
@WDG
Unfortunately for all of us w/sense, you are correct.
Americans may not have agreed with all of President Obama's strategies or approached to some of the major challenges this nation faced but the majority of our nation's citizens believed and trusted in his deep and unwavering commitment to lead and manage a government that invested in the merged positive vision of a democracy that promoted individual freedom and a government for the people and by the people. Trump has no interest in this vision. Trump's interest and focus centers on Trump. His power, his greed, his ego, his need for absolute control. I do not understand his fascination and glorification of Vladimir Putin. Perhaps it is Mr. Putin's voluminous wealth. Many experts assert that Putin's vast wealth makes Elon Musk's cash stash seem like a pittance. Perhaps Mr. Trump has borrowed enormous amounts of Putin's laundered money and is up to his eyeballs in debt. Perhaps GREED is the most powerful cancer of all and humanity is in Stage IV and Trump is just a symptom. Trump's actions are dangerous and irrational. But what is even more untenable is the maleficent apathy of the American People, our Senators and Congressional Representatives. Have we all been brainwashed? Is it just that in the age of Twitter, our intellectual capacity has been severely impaired and we can only deal with retorts that our 120 characters? Is Human Empathy and the motivation to create a better world for coming generations on the path to extinction? Our loss of vision is tragic.
5
Brilliant as always and spot on except the stock market is not surging. It appeared to at the onset of his presidency, but is well below what it was 1 year ago. and the so-called improvement in the economy is mostly fluff jobs and lower wages. The economy did fine under Obama but nary a republican remembers or would admit it anyway.
8
The only possible good consequence from a Trumping of our government is the realization that we’re in desperate need of some serious rebooting of democracy to reinvigorate and regain our democratic balance.
2
"At least Stormy Daniels got paid." They're all getting paid, one way or another. That's why.
4
Accomplished Journalist like Tom Friedman, need write more about how did the so called left, sit by and let this tragedy, we are reminded of 24/7, come about. Maybe Hillary's definition of deplorable's was right. What also seems apparent is, Trumps base that elected him, is sticking with him. If the electoral system remains in tact, and the Intelligence community and the Democrats can't get Trump impeached for treason, he may serve a second term., With that circumstance, we may not confront Russia with troops on the ground in eastern Europe.
If you believe, as I do, that the logical conclusion of conservative principles is "All for me and none for thee," then what we are witnessing is the logical conclusion (and end, I hope) of trad Am cons. The GOP's greedhead worldview has never been so nakedly on display; previously there was always at least an attempt made to keep the ugly parts hidden, or plausibly deniable. But DJT has all the guile of a toddler; you're never in doubt what he's thinking (his crafty self-assessment notwithstanding). Ryan, McConnell; soulless monsters, the first unaware that he is, the second perfectly aware. Let them have one last awesome play date, then let's see what wind November blows in. Something bracing and cleansing, I hope.
4
"What's the matter with you?" should be the question we're asking all Trump supporters, not just his cabinet members.
7
“Every society has the government that they deserve.” If I’m not mistaken, it’s a quote by Winston Churchill. In any case, kudos to whoever said it, as it remains so true!
1
Trump's base may be getting smaller, but he will always have a core group of constituents around him to validate whatever dangerously destructive and foolhardy idea he puts forth. My peace of mind, and those of my family and friends, are unable to continue waking up to his latest Tweets, to his angry rants towards media and Democrats and immigrants as well as his behavior towards our European allies. We have lost more than 18 months while living with this president, because his campaign was as hideous as the rest of it, full of race baiting, lies and divisive behavior, filling his cabinet with people who are equally destructive. And he continues in campaign mode, his rages growing stronger as he feels more and more enabled to show utter contempt for things we hold dear in this country. Aside from the mid-terms which are fast upon us, what on earth will it take to remove this man from office and to give our country a proper cleansing and healing from this administration?
4
No one can be sure about unintended consequences, but the intended ones are clear as day. Trump creates chaos. Chaos engenders shifts in existing power structures. Power shifts always open new pathways to exploitation. Trump, as president, is gatekeeper to those pathways. Anyone who benefits directly from these new access points to power has to share it with Trump.
For Trump and his accomplices, chaos = power.
4
Arnold must be thanked for reviving that old chestnut “What’s the matter with you?”, but to be "fair and balanced" that question could be fairly posed to each of us, every day.
Trump has indeed lit a lot of long fuses and not exactly coin- toss statistically, some may turn out right for all the wrong reasons.
And it is at the far end of these fuses, we will witness Phase Whatever: T uncaged and truly unbelievable.
3
Will no one defend Trump in this paper?
I can’t defend his erratic and obnoxious behavior (and it’s why I didn’t vote for him) but let me take a shot at defending his policies.
Results matter. The only true and objective arbiter of his economic policies is the economic data. And they look pretty solid. Consumer spending, GDP growth, low unemployment and the markets are all indicating and forecasting a strong economy.
You argue that none of that was Trump’s doing. But, really, who are we to trust: the data or possibly biased “expert” opinion and prognostication?
Assessing foreign policy based on results is difficult to do in the short term. Reagan and Bush I were right on the Soviet Union, Bush II was wrong on Iraq, and Obama was wrong on Syria and the “Arab Spring.” Its way too early to evaluate the results of Trump’s foreign policies.
And as far as Russia collusion is concerned, I think I’ll wait to read Mueller’s report.
2
@Steven Roth -- any fool can pump up the economy with enormous deficit spending.
What's utterly pathetic and hypocritical is that Republicans are the deficit-spending champs, and you don't even acknowledge what Ryan and Trump have done ... or what the consequences will be.
@Steven Roth You seriously believe a con man, self serving, amoral liar is worthy of defense from anyone who cares about the country.
Unless voters come to the polls in November to elect members of Congress to place some limits on this guy, we will reach phase four; unhinged, unbound, unintended and unimaginable.
No one is ready for that.
6
It has been understood that the Koch brothers have been behind the Tea Party movement and its disruptive actions during the Obama era. The Tea Party movement enabled Trumpism. However, a disconnect occurs when one realizes that the Koch brothers are libertarians who favor minimal government rather than strong government and to be consistent would appear to oppose the authoritarianism of Putin. They did not support Trump during the 2016 election because he wasn't enough of a Libertarian for their taste. So why haven't the Libertarian Koch brothers sent their Republican lackeys in Congress to attack Trump for his fawning over Putin ? Why haven't the Republicans been in favor of impeaching Trump ? Why is Trump still in office when Mike Pence is a much stronger Koch sycophant ?
3
As far as the political system, America faces a Catch-22 situation.
The socially compact of the past is gone. America is now divided into two uncompromising camps.
Republicans give unwavering support to Trump while Democrats believe he is destroying democracy, American global power and embarrassing the country overseas.
Republicans see Trump as America First and Democrats see him as Trump First. The 2020 presidential election will decide which group prevails.
5
'“What’s the matter with you?” It applies not just to the president but also all the people enabling him. Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest? It is inexplicable to me.'
Here's a possible explanation for those "enabling him". They are all "careerists". But the careers they foresee are not in government service. Like so many in the recent past, they see government service as a stepping stone to careers in lobbying, the right-wing lecture circuit, no-show "professorships", ghost-written memoirs, TV and radio talks shows, and the big bucks that come with all of the above. Jeff Flake they are not.
4
Mr. Friedman is only shocked by Trump's behavior because his vision of America and the "flat" world, could best be related to "visions of sugar plums dancing in his head". Millions of Americans had their American dreams crushed by the collapse of the American industrial economy, and there was no bail out like the 19 billion being given to farmers. Go look at the Rust Belt and you know where Trump's power comes from. It comes from millions of displaced workers who have tragically gone white nationalist due to the economic thrashing they took in the last four decades. Trump didn't invent the scapegoats the dispossessed found to explain their plight, but he exploited them to the max. Trump's behavior is exactly what these people want. He is a megaphone for their anger. Republicans who stood up to this anger in any way were beaten in primaries.
Eventually, Trump's base will become even more disillusioned than they are now. Who knows what will happen then.
2
We already know the answer: Trump First, always. I'm waiting for Republicans to recognize the critical threat Trump poses to security. While it's understandable that so many of them would rather keep their heads down so as not to get battered, they are walking away from their larger obligations. This won't end well, and, unlike the tax "reform" bill, there's no way to just make Democrats pay.
5
“What are the unintended consequences of a U.S. president simultaneously starting ...." In other words, what is the consequence of electing Trump? For one, we now favor the interests of Israel over those of Iran. We have sought to defeat ISIS and not merely accommodate it. We have engaged North Korea instead of ignoring it. Trump has inspired the EU to respond to the immigration crisis instead of celebrating it. New leadership has emerged in Austria and Italy to deal with the disaster and not merely record it. It was Obama/Clinton who wiped away the EU’s gate keeper on mass migration from Africa, that is, Kaddafi. Who has ever called them traitors? The War Party under the leadership of McCain and the neo-cons is now in retreat. We finally have some hope of avoiding war with Russia after the insane policies of Bush and Obama to threaten Russia under the guise of expanding NATO. The economy by every measure is improving. The tight labor market is setting historically low unemployment and increased wages. You want Obama back, I understand, but I prefer hope and change, thank you very much.
The cold war ended a quarter of a century ago with the collapse of the Soviet Union, followed by the rise of the EU and the expansion of NATO, the rise of China, wars in the mid-east, the tech revolution and most recently the US shift to energy independence. Despite the world dramatically turning over, the US has mindlessly pursued an outdated foreign policy, a fact recognized by Obama, who began a reset, a lengthy process requiring patience, a virtue which Trump lacks. Trump's foreign policy seems largely to consist of throwing bombs in all directions leaving chaos in his wake.
4
Reading your column following that of Frank Bruni's the questions is less, "What's the matter with you?" but more "What's the matter with us?". Donald Trump reflects tragically the reality of our fractured national identity, the triumph of tribal fault lines, and a myopic view of reality. The Republican party and its donor class have steadily sought to create and exploit this fact in their blind pursuit of power, wealth and their own self interest.
4
Homeland Security Director Nielsen's collaboratrice's performance at Aspen reflects what "Homeland Security" always was: our version of the Ministry of Fear and Intimidation (with a tip of the hat to Graham Greene).
There has long been an authoritarian streak in the GOP that has affected its thinking. It provided the hubris that made the Project for the New American Century "think tank" (subsidized by taxpayers as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt) think of a Pearl Harbor-like event as a rationale to attack Iraq to annex its oil, inadvertently generating Al Quaeda and ISIS. It provided the hubris to deface our language in Orwellian ways by such oxymoronic terms as "religious liberty" for freedom to institutionalize hate and racism. It provided the hubris that was caught on video of Mitt Romney working a 2012 fund-raising crowd that 47% of all Americans--some 150 million of us--were somehow life unworthy of life and to vanish at little or no cost to the "worthy" ones.
This bunch brought Trump to the presidency, blithely ignoring his murderous and incestuous public utterances and terrible track record as a "businessman." Evidence of treason was always there since 2013, and the GOP and its hangers-on like the NRA now wants to feed at the same Putin & Co. trough that made Trump look "very, very rich," while in effect hiring him to create chaos out of the post-World War II order, both here and overseas.
It's not "America First." It's not even simply Trump Crime Family first. It's the GOP.
2
What is wrong? Systematic Treason.
We have going on today something the founding fathers never contemplated. Systematic Treason.
Systematic Treason is when no one person is guilty of committing treason, but a treason that is perpetrated by the collective action or inaction of a larger group of people in power.
Trump with many people around him in their collective actions coupled with the inaction of Congress to stop him, are perpetrating Treason against the Constitution of the United States and its people.
The Founders are shaking their heads in disbelief. But unless the American's of today, they would have stopped shaking their heads by now and acted and I doubt that it would have been action via a ballot box.
2
The question you asked - "what is the matter with you" equally applies to all the players in your list of unhinged topics, Russia is only one of them. The trade war with China, EU, Canada, war with Iran, breaking NATO, budget deficits, hot labour market, climate of fear for immigrant community - each one of the is a colossal challenge for a Presidency. Here we are seeing a TV reality show of these problems without any game plan or end objective - viewer ratings will decide the script of next episode. We could not imagine how such a large and complex economic, political and social system will respond to this triggers. We are sitting on the tip of a volcano - 40% of closed minded Americans are deciding our fate. Never in history of democracy, majority was taken hostage by minority in such a scale. The Institutions like Congress and Supreme Court are gradually getting compromised - this the second Act of Post-modern liberal democracy.
3
It is literally as if the prisoners have taken over the prison, which begs the question, how are matters like that handled to restore law and order? No one sits down and takes a vote to see if the prisoners should be left in charge of the prison, especially when they gained that control through nefarious means.
Seriously, the things that have become normalized in the last couple of years under Trump are stunning. And it is even straight shooting journalists who now just accept the insanity that is the daily course of events in this country.
Our country was viciously and aggressively attacked by Russia in the last election and Putin continues to do so, the purpose of which was to install Donald Trump as President of the United States and incite unrest in our country. Last week Trump stood on a stage with Putin and endorsed everything this man represents and agreed with him that he did not attack the United States. Trump even seriously considered sending an American diplomat to Moscow to be interrogated. He has declared Canada, Mexico and the EU national security threats and foes of the United States. Plain and simple, we have a treasonous President. And all of these journalists suggesting this word is too strong are on another planet. It is not strong enough.
Trump should be impeached, tried for aiding and abetting the enemy and, when with certainty he is found guilty, he should be put to death. Anything less would be wholly insufficient.
2
And we thought "it couldn't happen here". Checks and balances are all but gone. We have an investigative branch which holds out the last hope of removing this horrendous character from office, but it remains up to the political class to move on their conclusions, which it clearly won't.
But what does it matter? Even if we get the moral satisfaction of seeing the swine thrown out of office (highly unlikely), we will inherit his VP, who is fully in line with the vast majority of his anything-goes policies, not to mention extremist elements of the Christian right who are every bit as much infavor of Putin's Russia and the "need for strongmen" as Trump is.
The list of ills afflicting our democracy is long and frightening, and the GOP is posterchild for how far off the chart we have gone, but the current divide, or dual-reality schism is fostered and exacerbated by a media environment which was ushered in by Bill Clinton when he deregulated the media and giving us Fox news and Sinclair.
So thanks a lot, Dems. You stole the Republican pro-business center and sent the GOP to the far right.
2
Any chance that the Steele dossier was also part of Russia's efforts to interfere in the election?
2
And now Trump has altered the transcript of the news conference with Putin in Helsinki by eliminating Putin saying "yes" he favored Trump. When the truth is that blatantly stolen from the public record; when what we witnessed with our own eyes is denied; it's time to stop flinching when people make comparisons to the disinformation of the 1930s.
2
The hold that Putin has on Trump is Putin's silence. Putin tried to sabotage the 2016 election. He may have succeeded or he may have failed. If we had all the facts, we would know whether Putin succeeded or failed. Our intelligence agencies have more facts than we do. They probably don't know all the facts either.
Trump knows that Putin is capable of telling a story that could undermine Trump's popularity with the voters. Trump knows that Putin is likely to spin a story of treason that artfully combines truth with lies. That story would result in Trump's impeachment before the lies could be uncovered. McConnell, Ryan and other key Republicans share Trump's worry.
Trump precipitated this crisis in 2016 when he publicly called for Republican support in hacking the email servers of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. As long as Putin maintains his silence he controls Trump and the Republican Party. Putin clearly understands that silence is his strength. That, in itself, is sufficient. However, there is a second dimension.
Why should we believe Putin's hacking be confined to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party? The smart action would be to hack both sides. Then Putin could orchestrate his the release of information (lies and facts) to create conflict that would destabilize our democracy.
3
The short sightedness of this Administration is mind boggling. Billions for bail out now? Tax cuts, along with added spending for the military. If it was so easy to keep the rank and file voters so happy cutting taxes why didn't past Presidents and administrations just lower taxes every four years and bail out struggling business sectors when their hand went up?
Where does this money come from. Its not coming from the extra $37.41 cents in many Trump supporters pay checks. How long will those crumbs suffice? When will heads in sand Trumpsters if ever that the $37.41 they are receiving short term only extends and fills Trump pockets while in office and when he's long time, but where.
4
You make one mistake which is to say it will 'take time to play out'. Things don't really happen this way, you should know.
They happen like a bubble, they burst when something happens that causes a quick cascade and then it's too late, then you have to sweep up like we did in 2008, except now it'll be much much harder. Much more global across many sectors. What plays out are the recovery efforts.
"There is one critical defense line left"
Vote!
BTW, beware Trump's latest rant about the Russians helping Democrats in 2018. He is setting up an argument to declare 2018 elections invalid if the Dems win one or both houses in Congress.
Vote!
12
What is our purpose for Russia and Putin? At one time Putin was helping us. The warned that the would-be Boston bombers were dangerous, tine two. It was ignored. Three killed and 264 injured. In 2012-2013, Putin offered a plan to bring both sides together in Syria and pus out Assad. About 10,000 had died at that point. Obama turned his back on the offer. Since then, 300,000-500,000 have been killed and the worst refugee crisis since WW II. Russia has six thousand nuke tipped missiles with our address on them and we have an equal number with theirs and maybe a few for Iran. Before Trump, Russian ministers and the military mentioned their nuclear option, Russian Bombers nuclear capable, flew within the California cost. What did the sanctions for Crimea accomplish? The purpose. according to Obama, was to put economic pressure on the Russian people so they would vote against Putin in the next election. That didn't work. Putin is still there. In 2014 the Crimean’s voted to be part of the Russian Federation. Since Trump, there has been no mention of the "nuclear option". Putin is saying a nuclear war would be the end of civilization. Recently he said he would offer a way to solve the Ukrainian Conflict when he met with Trump later this year. No more Russian bombers have headed for California and though he is supporting Assad, the ISIS Islamic state is gone and no Russian or American has been killed by either of us. We need to reduce tensions not stoke the fire.
1
I am not sure where you get your information but sounds very much like Fake News to me.
Russia annexed another country's territory, bombed a civilian plane, destroyed Syria to save a brutal dictator, used nerve gas against a dissident. Not to mention the syphoning of Russian wealth into the pockets of Putin and his cronies. And the final straw is meddling into our own election in favor of their own pawn. You don't reduce tension with a bully, you confront him and prevent him from causing further harm to your country, unless of course you are compromised like the current occupant of the white house.
1
Sixty-two million people voted for him, many of whom are still cheering him on. Your parlor game of diagnosis misses the real issue, and you take the easy way out. Anyone can see that Trump has problems.
Challenge yourself. Try explaining the 62 million. Try explaining what Democrats need to do to win back one of the three major seats of power.
9
@Dan Ari Your question has been answered repeatedly. Challenge yourself and read more and from different sources.
To answer your question its called Democracy. They need the votes Trump commands. It's as simple as that. We elect a government. That government is exactly what the people of this country deserve.
1
@CBH The following quote says it all:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
― H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe B.1880-D: 1956
Mencken must have been a seer.
There is nothing we can do to expose Trump to his base. It is time for the Democrats to concentrate on economic issues as well as social issues. I believe that ignoring these economic issues was the main problem in the beginning. Start building the platform one plank at a time before it is too late. Ignore the nit wit his gaffs are obvious anyway and people are tired of hearing about them.
10
I think your conclusion "At least Stormy Daniels got paid" explains it all. Trump has been paid as his sons have publicly said, by Russia (who needs banks?). And our GOP representatives have also told us, "I'm voting for this bill because my donors won't take my future calls otherwise." It's not a coincidence that our Congress, in fact our entire government, is a rich man's endeavor. If not rich in the beginning, Congressmen certainly end up that way.....and voted for a tax bill that is personally enriching. Notice how in reporting any campaign the statement of money available comes before any policy differences between the candidates? Why ignore what Trump's two sons have already told us (and they are working in the Trump business). Trump Org. money comes from Russia. Trump's performance in Helsinki was that of an actor playing the role he was hired for.
29
At this stage of things, it's almost pointless to speculate about what drives Trump. Whether or not he's in the pocket of Russia (my bet is that he is), it's clear that he's incapable of acting in America's interest, and is openly hostile to liberal, democratic values. The more important question is when all of this is plain to see, why does he still command the undying support of rank and file Republicans? The answer is that the GOP has become a cult built around his personality. The lower he goes, the higher his popularity with his base seems to rise. They are just as informed about his dealings with Putin and Russia as the rest of us are. But here's the difference: they don't care. Nor will they care if the elections in November are tampered with, either. Trump is already laying the groundwork for their denial--"Russia is for the Democrats!" The actual truth is that Republicans are against democracy.
18
What is the matter with our voting system when someone wins the popular vote but loses the election? Is that democracy? I don't think so. HOW LONG until the president resigns or is impeached? What is the matter with Congress frozen in its track? What is the matter with us?
23
Ironically, the electoral college system was created to PREVENT a Trump-like character from becoming president. History has played a nasty trick on us.
While we are concerned about tariffs in existing trade agreements, we should be mindful that a round of carbon tariffs is on the horizon. Countries which are party to the Paris climate agreement and are adhering to their commitments may establish tariffs against countries who aren't.
12
Mr. Friedman,
Trump appears to be suffering. He has a family to protect, and it sounds as if he made a dangerous deal with Russia, dragging our nation down in the process.
You should see the long drawn faces in the rural region, and our community is trying to do its best to keep local matters contained in the midst of an ongoing recession, where tempers flare. The future looks bleak in the times we are living, and mistrust of government and big business is growing.
We are Republicans first, in this neck-of-the-woods, Americans next, and remain pride and defiant. A tacit and united alliance may be taking place between our allies and foes; an understanding that Trump is not quite right in the head, while he remains in charge of domestic matters, and receives counseling from Russia on foreign affairs.
While Trump appears intent on being his own worse enemy, regardless of politics, regardless of what he does to cause a further divide and ire between Americans, we are keeping our children closer to our side in these troubled times.
It was a relief earlier to see some Americans of all color, all cultures and credos, walking about under the sun and tempting to give them a wink. Irish weather, as I address you and your colleagues with appreciation for taking it in turns, it is those who have been labeled as white supremacists who appear to be stressed and unsettled.
Whether sense will prevail over sensibility this coming November, is a matter for another ongoing day.
4
As a person whose education was in Science I always tried to convince people by showing evidence, climate change for example. But I was often told "logic won't convince them, facts won't convince them."
Seeing the senators and congressmen and women buy into Trump's statements on science, economics and diplomacy I now believe facts are no longer important in any dialogue with Republicans and the Trump supporters.
29
Of the many atrocious things this administration has done, we must focus on this - after Helsinki, Putin knows full well that the US is now completely hamstrung, and will do nothing to prevent further meddling in our political process. It's open season on the US. Heading into the midterm election that should scare the crap out of anyone who loves this country.
36
@Michael
But not the Republicans, whom now have the best trolls on their side. Tax cuts, environment degradation, religious buffoonery, and conservative judicial rule. They will take that over country any day. One day historians will wonder: "What were they thinking?". History will not be kind.
What is the matter with Trump? It is very obvious: he believes (correctly or incorrectly) that Putin has damaging information on him. Whatever it is, it has him very scared - enough so that he is risking the stability of the free world to keep it confidential. The real question is “what is the matter with those in his administration who continue to back him up?” I can’t find a satisfactory answer to that one.
36
@WDP
It has been reported (NYTimes, Washington Post) that the complicit Repubican'ts in Congress are so cowed by Fox "News" and the far-right media that they will not speak up nor take any action to hold tRump accountable for fear of losing the base. They express dismay with (some of) tRump's policy decisions only in private, since an attack by Fox "News" could result in their being ousted by the pitchfork-wielding red-state mob. Thus are
Fox so-called "News" and the far-right media destroying democracy.
1
@WDP I can find an answer to that one: they're amoral equivalents.
Stormy Daniels got paid. I've not seen anything that would persuade me Trump has not been paid as well. What was Trump's response to Schwarzenegger? How about a resignation?
14
The secretary of homeland security had been berated and humiliated by Trump at a Cabinet meeting. She should probably have taken the cue and walked out of the room then and there. She elected to remain in the job and become a Trump super-apologist.
49
The same affect is seen with Rand Paul, who was humiliated by Trump at one of the primary debates: “Why are you here?”
Now Rand’s a bootlicking weasel for the bully, so that’s his new found “raison d'être.”
America First or Trump First. Its like asking, Bialy or Bagel, which will be first.
5
Imagine Moments,
Why can't you get over the fact that Hillary Clinton was a very flawed candidate and the people did not want her as our president. President Trump was elected by the electoral college voting system which has been the deciding favor for elections for many many years.
It is difficult for liberals and progressives to comprehend that there are Americans who liked and voted for Mr. Trump. We not only live in mid and rural parts of the country but even less conservative areas. We are still happy with the way he has been governing our country and would reelect him again if given the opportunity. By the way, we are educated and can make up our own minds.
He has been doing the things he promised during his campaign and we are excited with the outcome. Jobs are once again plentiful and the economy is booming. He has cut taxes so our take home pay is larger which allows us to spend money and put it back into the economy. We could not be more pleased. If our good fortune continues, he is sure to be reelected in 2020. We hope he continues to make America great again.
7
@WPLMMT Why can't you understand that this is not about Hillary? It's about the integrity of our elections from this time on.
66
@WPLMMT
Stop claiming that "people did not want" Hillary to be President. Millions more, wisely, chose Hillary over Trump.
Party over country Republicans on the Electoral College imposed Trump over the clearly expressed will of the majority of voters.
But none of that has to do with the fact that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, containing patriotic Republicans, unanimously concluded that the Russians poured money and lies and manipulation into our election, and are still engaged in cyberwarfare, including risks to our electricity grid. Anyone who doesn't pay attention to these concerns this after all the evidence to date, is either a paid Republican partisan operative, or under the influence of the Russian psyops operation.
23
The growth in your take home pay and in the economy has come at the expense of larger deficits. The deficit is growing faster than the economy. Now 6months after the wonderful tax cuts, we see all we have done is taken from our children and grandchildren to fund your tax cut. Be sure to thank your kids.
11
One could argue that Trump intended these unintended consequences. Everything we knew of his personality prior to election points to much of what has happened.
As for putting himself first, that has always been the case--why would anyone think he'd be any different in the White House? It is astonishing (maybe not) that so many congressional representatives and executive appointees made the mistake of thinking they could control his love of personal control and adulation, calculating that the chaos and muck would be worth it for the tax cuts and judicial appointees.
As for Kirstjen Nielsen, she has been a profound disappointment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirstjen_Nielsen . Another case where the resume outshines the person. It is hard to believe that she did not know what she was getting into.
40
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, as Majority Leaders, received the same 2016 briefings on Russian hacking and election interference that Trump did, yet they did nothing.
The Constitution allows for Congress to act when the president is unfit/incapable/unstable, yet McConnell and Ryan shutdown any and all attempts to do so.
The GOP has been bought with NRA/Russian money. Republicans in Congress have broken their Oath of Office and are complicit, co-conspirators with Trump and Russia.
Vote Democratic on November 6th.
Every seat, every office.
Changing Congress is our best hope.
Turnout must be high to overcome gerrymandering.
Vote,
683
@D. DeMarco
And for each comment we contribute here, make at least one phone call or knock on a door on behalf of a candidate.
@D. DeMarco, very wise writing. thank you.
@D. DeMarco Don't forget Citizens United. They will make the United Corporations of America if they are not stopped.
Yes vote GOP out!
Trump first means "money for me" first. The problem is that "money first" is also the quiet mantra of too many ultra wealthy supposedly Democratically leaning gazillionaires. One can easily imagine a right wing billionaire scooping up the Daily News with joy, a new mega phone for the masses in the mid west. Where are the "liberal" leaning international business leaders are now? A perfect opportunity presents itself for the guarantee of democratic freedom, but wealthy Dems may also think money first, people second. Someone needs to step up to the plate using "koch" and "fox" techniques. The little folks in Trump land are oblivious to this administrations infatuation with all things Russian because they only hear pro-Trump propaganda. Cold reality may eventually wreck their quiet lives, but it will be more like the shock of a traffic accident rather than a moment of truth.
24
"So, with the G.O.P. having completely folded and with the few Trump advisers with spine neutered or fired, is there any restraint left around him?"
My first instinct is to wonder what the Founders would do if they were here. I think they would be considering a new framework for the Constitution. But then I consider that if we want to continue with our democratic experiment, and American voters cannot be trusted to think and behave rationally, then what does it matter?
Eventually the pendulum will swing back to Democratic control when things really start to fall apart, since Democrats will actually do something to keep us from completely going under (i.e., they will buttress civil rights, corral the deficit, work for a sane minimum wage and for workers' rights, support needed infrastructure projects including a green-energy grid, fight for universal health care, and improve relations with our international partners). These things can happen as long as the pendulum swings back before it is too late.
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity ..."
As you say, Trump's enablers crave money and power and apparently don't think there will be long-term consequences for the country after they've made for the exits. Should we trust them, that is to say, do they seem like trustworthy people to you? If not, we have about three months to do the right thing, since we've already tried pretty much everything else.
71
Trump wants to test the absolute limit, that's what's the matter. He can't help himself. Time to focus on his enablers, whether in office or his base, or, more correctly, his base base, in office or not.
26
Summing up what you wrote, it sure looks like Trump is trying to inflict maximum damage to the USA. I'm not sure what he owes Putin, but he sure appears weak and feeble in front of the Russians, and willing to do whatever is in Russian interest.
93
It's a big "if" to suggest that Trump's legion of devoted followers amounts to a third of the electorate, but whatever their number they are certainly Trump-firsters. More likely their numbers fall into the 20 to 25% range, but they are loud enough and intransigent enough to make it seem like they are closer to half of the country. But what this means is that 75-80% of the voters are not devoted to the President and who knows how many of that remainder are appalled by his bizarre words and deeds, likely most I would think because Trump doesn't attract much in the way of maybes, you're either solidly for him or against him- at least to the point he would not be your first choice. When I think of these numbers it reminds me of a line from a source I can't recall- either "The Hustler" or "The Cincinnati Kid"- "the mark of a loser is that he doesn't know when he's winning." I contend that we are winning this battle for the belief in America first and all we need to do is convince the 75-80% to show up at the polls, beginning with the mid-terms, and prove it.
25
"What America’s allies in Europe learned from Trump’s recent visit is that the United States, at his direction, is acting more like predator than partner."
Excellent column!
I'm just as baffled as Trump administration officials, who can't see how his irrational behavior, defense of Russia, and weirdly sycophantic body language around Putin fits into any grand scheme we can't quite define.
How can a bully who loves to tweet attack at all hours of the day become such a meek, simpering around Putin?
It's simply incomprehensible unless you draw the logical conclusion Putin has something on the president.
Where does this all end? I only know that just as a toddler keeeps testing the boundaries of parental restraint, so does Trump test the boundaries of civilized behavior.
He rarely--if ever--accepts what others are protesting. He rarely, if ever, shows fear for his political standing.
And because he remains unchecked, he has unlimited potential to cause irrevocable damage to every American principle, value, and alliance we have.
Trump excels at tearing down and terrible at building support for his political moves. He also operates with a diffidence and casual cruelty that's astounding to behold in a US official, let alone a president.
Anyone who doubts that need look no further than the immigration mess he created and refuses to correct: the large-scale kidnapping of kids to show what he's capable of.
God help us.
104
@ChristineMcM They may have something on him, but would he really care? Look at how he goes from tough to suck-up all the time; lock 'em up, to "we all want families to be together" when there was any push-back. Fire and fury to "Kim is a good guy". It happens with all bullies; stand up to them, slap them around, and they suck up. It's about power, and he knows ultimately Putin does not fear him one iota, so playing tough won't work.
Could we have just a moment of reality or call it a moment to reflect on history? It gas been 86 years since FDR replaced Herbert Hoover as President. In all that time not one of the presidents ever denigrated the U.S. Not one and not for a moment! Even Richard Nixon so believed in his country that he resigned rather than drag the country down any further.
Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan would be howling from their graves at this president. No president in those 86 years ever thought he was president only of the base who elected him but was president of all Americans. Reagan won by such a landslide but never acted like America was made up only of the people who voted for him.
Not one of those presidents ever put their country second. Eisenhower warned us about the military/industrial complex but should have added in the warning his own Republican party.
Those in their party who are "all in" for the president are showing the world that the country comes in second to the president and party. When the dust settles decades from now, it is only then will we understand how destructive this period really was to any future for this country and the freedoms the world cherishes.
82
When Republicans demand voter restrictions, they say its due to voter fraud. Objective people say there's almost no fraud, but that's not the point. Republicans want to suppress minority and poor voters, but they can't get away with saying that (but on occasion). The party's done a fine job of policing themselves, maintaining the lie.
It's the same thing with Russian interference. Republicans say it's fake news. Objective people point to solid evidence, but it doesn't matter. Republicans have been told, like the rest of us, that they can't win national elections, and it's going to get harder. If Russia can help out, great. Maybe Russia's necessary. The party policies itself, so we don't hear this. But it's like voter suppression: everyone knows the truth.
Republicans have learned to speak carefully about certain things. They've upended polls, by denying their real purpose to pollsters. They can pass all kinds of legislation, by insisting it's the opposite thing. If you put their response to the Russia investigation in that category, it makes sense.
29
Trump at heart is an isolationist. He is challenging the mindset of a foreign policy elite's like Friedman whose thinking is frozen in a world that disappeared in 1991. He's suggesting a new foreign policy where the United States is committed to war only when are attacked or U.S. vital interests are imperiled. And when we agree to defend other nations, they will bear a full share of the cost of their own defense. Why should America fight Russia over who rules in the Baltic States or Romania & Bulgaria? When did the sovereignty of these nations become interests so vital we would risk a military clash with Moscow that could escalate into nuclear war? Why are we still committed to fight for scores of nations on five continents? The conservative coalition that had united in the Cold War fractured when the Soviet Union came apart in the early 90's. Some have argued that when the Russian troops went home from Europe, the American troops should come home from Europe. Instead, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush began handing out NATO memberships, i.e., war guarantees, to all ex-Warsaw Pact nations and even Baltic republics that had been part of the Soviet Union. No Cold War president ever considered issuing a war guarantee to defend Latvia!
These are some of the questions his administration is posing. It's shocking. I don't necessarily agree with it. But there are many who do. We have spent trillions intervening in the affairs of other countries with absolutely nothing to show for it.
7
@Bill Brown I don’t disagree with the “what” of your post, but the “how.” I agree much of what you say is worth serious consideration and discussion. I’ve often wondered why we keep so many troops in Europe and around the world and why, after so many years, we bear the cost of world defense while our infrastructure and people have needs that go unmet. But I do think the “how” of having these conversations with our friends and allies is important too. No one that I know likes a bully, yet we now appear to be an international bully...except when it comes to Russia. Threatening people generally doesn’t get one very far. Rather, let’s use reason and facts as you have done to tell our allies that change needs to occur.
If they were asking these questions that would be worlds better than what they are doing which is throwing out the baby with the bath water. You make him sound sane and thoughtful for which there is little evidence. We would never fight for Latvia because it didn’t exist under the Soviet Union as a separate country.
@Bill Brown, I beg to disagree. Trump is increasing American military involvement all over the world. From Niger to Norway, he has sent troops to more countries than any president since WWII. Many of these countries are places Americans can't even find on the map. The military budget is expanding in pace with the deficit. He even wants to go interstellar with his Space Force. Obama refused to be bullied into sending troops into the Syrian conflict - Trump has stationed them there, and has fired off a billion dollars worth of Raytheon cruise missiles. The U.S. footprint is getting bigger across the globe. The generals are getting a blank check. It is a mystery to me why Republicans think he is an isolationist.
As a Republican I would like to point out that Donald Trump has accomplished a truly remarkable feat. In the last 18 months by virtue of the Electoral College he gained the office of President of the United States. Whether he did it via a compelling vision of what the United States could be or whether he won via Russian intervention or Democratic ineptitude he won the election and with it the formal office. What he did not do, and it now appears he is incapable of doing, is assume the Presidency. If we see the Presidency as a fusion of formal roles and accumulated traditions, responsibilities assumed or inherited, of burdens and expectations deposited in a single office across two hundred thirty years then in his first 18 months as president Donald Trump has failed miserably. Optimists might attribute his failure to narcissism and ignorance. Pessimists are more likely to see it not as collusion with Russia but as submission to it. Part of Trump's behavior reflects his awareness that he is incapable of growing to fill the Presidency. It has to be incredibly destructive to realize he can never be the man his predecessor was. Instead he seeks to shrink the world to something he can manage through bullying, fawning, and bluster. Trump does not grow to the Presidency, he reduces the world to Trump. The Republican Party today consists of opportunists aspiring to profit from the failure of a man who sits in the Oval Office but will never be President of the United States.
248
@usa999 Well put. But the trouble with that idealizing definition of The President of the United States is that there have been other presidents who came short of living up to it. (Well, maybe not quite as short as the current occupant of that office.)
6
@usa999
" The Republican Party today consists of opportunists aspiring to profit from the failure of a man who sits in the Oval Office but will never be President of the United States."
Exactly. A lot of people say the Republican Party is "spineless" or "cowardly" or "afraid to stand up to Trump."
In fact, Trump is doing exactly what they want him to: wreak havoc while they rake in the profits.
Why, then, are you still a Republican??? If enough of you left the party and withdrew your tacit support for the current Republican leaders and representatives, and overwhelmingly vote for Democrats beginning this November, we could begin to right this awful and dangerous wrong that has infested the nation. It is becoming increasingly apparent that is our only hope. You and your Republican friends and colleagues can put yourselves on the right side of history and tell your children and grandchildren you were the ones with spines who finally did the right thing.
With regard to those enabling Trump, maybe it is simply the matter of stating publicly that you were wrong. When you are in so deep, the only way to get out is to acknowledge that you made a huge mistake and must get out of it, or simply leave. Maybe, those two acts, both of which would be public admissions of personal error, are simply too much to ask of some people. Maybe, following Trump's lead, they see their only option to be to double down and hope the Republicans maintain control of both houses of the Congress. This, likely, is not the whole story, but maybe it's part of it - the part that seems to be about integrity.
17
How will we react, I wonder, when the President decides to begin relaxing the sanctions against Russia? I'm imagining he will sell it to us as destabilizing the US-Russo conflict and ensuring world peace and order, while stimulating the US economy via the lower gas prices at the pump created by the new flow of oil from Mother Russia's oil fields. How will we react then?
And how will we react when the Trump propaganda machine begins its campaign to paint Russia as an ally and friend, justifying Putin's grab of Crimea as a defensive reaction to the "aggression" of Obama and NATO in seeking to place missiles on Russia's border?
And finally, how will we react when we discover that Putin has meddled in our midterm elections to the extent that Democrats have failed to oust the Republican majorities, thus guaranteeing the President will neither be impeached nor opposed as he seeks to consolidate unprecedented power and wealth in his hands, exactly as Putin has?
What will we all do then?
56
If Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election, would we be hearing about the interference of Russia in our elections? Probably not. The liberals are upset that President Trump is our leader and will never get over it. He was not supposed to win the presidency and shocked everyone when it actually happened.
Even if Russia was involved in the collusion of our election, there is no proof that Mr. Trump was involved. We will never hear the end of this and it is becoming tiresome. President Trump won the election (electoral college) on his own merits and he is doing just fine running our country. The Trump haters will never give him any credit for his success.
5
Actually, a whole lot of us that voted for Hillary are simply hoping for a better America and felt that she was a superior choice than Trump. Many like me hoped that Trump would want to become the best president ever and grow into the position we felt he was unprepared for. Many of us wished him well. Why because we are patriotic Americans first.
But we are well past that point now and can clearly see that this president is not about us (including you). He is all about himself (and yes to some of us that comes as no surprise). But please get over the Hillary thing because for any realist, that ship has long since sailed.
We couldn’t care less about Hillary, the last election, or how Trump won. We care only about America’s future and as soon as you realize that, you too will be better able to understand the rest of us.
569
@Not Really
We do care about the last election. We care because if what we're learning about last election is true, then Trump is an illegitimate president. The electoral college, too, failed to play the role the founders intended by allowing Trump's mob to have its way with the country. You can't have a better future without reckoning with the past and this "past"is not even past yet: the Russians are still attacking us, daily. I don't know about you but I am terrified.
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@Lisa
In the US military I was responsible for the security clearance of the people in the unit I was in. Mr. Trump would not qualify for Top Secret or Secret clearance because of his lying, lawsuits, personal behavior, bankruptcies and a host of other abnormal or criminal actions. Therefore, he would not qualify to be a candidate for high public office.
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Time had reached that place of political reset, the old cycle having run out of time, the universal way of thinking giving way to the new considerations and limitations of the personal plane. Politics overnight have descended to the personal level with Trump the candidate fully taking advantage of this new political arena to win the election. His predecessors on the other hand had continued the foreign policy, and economic plunder that put special interest groups first, like tomorrow would never come.
Our European Union, and Nato alliances, are hardly going to be threatened by what could easily become a one term president who is kept too busy to fully comprehend what these changes really mean, in this a worldwide revolution, that's just beginning to hit its stride.
Besides being devoid of morals or ethics, Trump is becoming more and more deranged. As a New Yorker, I knew enough to expect him to be a lousy president, but I didn't even guess how truly disastrous a commander-in-chief he would be. That said, I'm disgusted by the Republican congress, whose twisted rationalizations and excuses allow him to rampage through both foreign and domestic situations with terrible consequences. His involvement with the Russians is obvious, though he seems egomaniacal enough to have convinced himself that he managed to win the presidency on his own, erasing the three million more who voted for Clinton by designating them "illegal voters." As he proclaims "No collusion!" he seems to be reinforcing his own fantasy. I've stopped trying to understand his unnatural psychology; it's the supposedly rational Republicans who amaze and sicken me with their comfortable complicity.
267
A man with deep seated insecurities and a man with deep seated antipathy towards the human race meet to possibly divide out the fate of the world and we can't win for losing.
Is there a solution?
19
I read multiple comment boards from news media across the country. What's most striking to me is the number of Trump defenders who seem to believe that Donald Trump was (and continues to be) the only politician in American who understood them and their problems. Besides failing to discriminate between genuine concern and fake concern for the purpose of manipulation and self-promotion, it's astounding that they see no one in their own party or in any third party who "gets them." If Donald Trump is the best you can do in finding a sympathetic ear, even among independents and Republicans, then you're not really trying. You are your own worst enemy. There continue to be much better alternatives to Donald Trump, people with more loyalty to the U.S. than to Russia, who are not Democrats, if that's what's sticking in your craw. Here's a clue: you won't hear about them on Fox.
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I agree. What Schwarzenegger said to Trump bears repeating: "You’re the president of the United States. You shouldn’t do that. What’s the matter with you?" Something is very wrong with this picture. Either his crude words and actions--which reflect zero knowledge, expertise, smarts and experience--are the fulfillment of campaign promises and other white nationalist pandering. Or he is simply doing what Putin wants, as a Russian asset of some kind--after all, everything that he has done has directly benefitted the Kremlin. The explanations need not be mutually exclusive.
33
@Robert Trump's "crude words and actions" just reinforce to his base that he is one of them.
Trump does and says what he thinks plays to his audience, those voters in Red states and districts who delight in his audacious antics -- in his disrespect of the conventional -- in his acting out of their resentment and distrust of those whom they see as the "swamp creatures" of Washington. They feel ignored and unheard, and he is a acting out their revenge and resentment. Whether that still works for him and they still are taken in, we will find out in November.
Will the anger at him expressed in the serious press cause them to abandon him and his toadies, or will it cause them to become defensive and support him to spite of a liberal, "establishment" journalistic community that they also have come to distrust? Do they prefer to believe instead the trash peddled on sensationaist Faux news and its ilk? Again, we shall see in November. I have my fingers crossed, but my hopes are not high.
14
@Penseur Indeed they do prefer to believe; that is the nature of the problem. Believing is so much easier than rational, evidence based thought. They need an authoritarian father figure to tell them everything will be OK.
4
It's always been Trump first, when do we all figure that one out? I knew it when he ran for President.
18
The big clue most folks seemed to miss is that he never had any interest in being anything but president—not senator or governor, but just the most powerful man in the world.
9
Tom,
I am glad that you had a chance to participate in the discussions at Aspen with Trump antics at Helsinki being Topic A, and Putin's interference with our elections being topic B, you must be frustrated beyond measure.
I share your frustration but to remain stable, I try to stay focused on the realities of our current situation. I luckily saw the appearance of Trump at the VFW convention in, I think, Kansas City and he is able to get a rousing response from the audience by tooting his own horn about his accomplishments, poor-mouthing his predecessors, saying very ugly things about his critics and the fake news generating media.
From the audience response, it appears to be an effective stump strategy, for 2020. Bottom line he asked for their patience and assured them it would all work out and America will surely be great again.
I don't expect his party can slow his momentum. He gets a 100 times more coverage than all 535 members of the Congress.
However, I believe his first surprise will come in November when he realizes that a new majority in the House has been elected and from this point on it will be tough sledding and of course there is the continued work of the Special Counsel.
This will be a difficult reality that I doubt he will be able to continue his illusion that he is the new force for greatness, even though he is already suggesting that the mid-terms will be tampered with by Putin & Co. and he already knows that Putin wants him to decline.
6 Nov.
36
Why did people vote for Trump?
He was selling a white nationalism. Do you think that hasn't worked in the past? What is the southern strategy of the last 40 years but that as a dog whistle.
It is people who live in fear of the other. They are afraid of a community that doesn't look like them, they are afraid that the other, if they gain power will use it against them... The way they have used it against the other for generations.
The fear they are losing grasp of that power, to coastal elites, to black men, to women, to Europeans, to the Chinese, to Mexicans. And the reality is... They are, because as people get out from under oppression, as they make economic gains that aren't dependent upon America, the white men of America don't have the control they once did.
Trump vocally defends White superiority. American superiority. He defends the raw power of the few over a community of the masses. They don't want American leadership they want raw American hard power control.
Anyone who thinks that others deserve power are the enemy.
It isn't that Putin is a friend to them, it is that he has power and a desire to destroy many of the same enemies.
They look at Trump as an imperfect tool. But one they feel they can somewhat direct, compared to Obama or Clinton.
Look at Sean Spicer or James Comey, the one thing they know is that if Trump throws you under the bus, the mission will go on, and you will be forgiven for your part, because with Trump it is never your fault.
13
The demarcation between Americans and Americans in Name Only is whether the headline "America First or Trump First?" is a rhetorical question or a genuine one.
11
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity...? It is inexplicable to me."
Tom, it is inexplicable to me that pundits continue to ponder questions of "integrity" whenever an ever-growing mountain of evidence suggests its complete absence. It's easily explained by power, but if you keep searching for integrity, you'll stay in the dark.
You claim Trump was once bound by the likes of Kelly and Cohn. Kelly has repeatedly shown that he shares Trump's worst instincts. He hates immigrants and foreigners; he wants to "deter" and punish them. He's a bigot and a bully. Yet pundits continue to hope that Kelly will "restrain" Trump. No, he's still around precisely because he has no integrity and his agenda aligns with Trump's.
And what can we say about the integrity of a former Goldman Sachs exec who took the lead on tax cuts for corporations, deregulation of initial public offerings on the stock market, breaks on bringing tax haven money back to the US, and defanging Dodd-Frank before returning to a hero's welcome back home on Wall St? Cohn failed to resign after Charlottesville - but after the tax cuts for his buddies were finished, tariffs turned out to be a bridge too far.
None of these men are who you wish they were. They're not worried about integrity because they never had any. None of them can be counted on to check Trump. Let's stop wasting time hoping and pretending they once did, or one day might.
57
Of cowardliness, we also have those Republicans who will make some statements but not do anything of substance to challenge Trump. For them, it is their self survival first, and country last.
And one also has to wonder about Kelly, and why he has not resigned at this point. Whatever respect he had has melted away in the heat of the moment
16
"Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" - Chico Marx, 1933
"What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening" - d j trump, July 24, 2018
57
These are sad days for America. Many political scientists have predicted a multipolar world with the rise of countries such as China and India. However, America plays a leadership role for decades to come in all these analysis because everyone foresee the America order as embodied by the international institution will survive. Of course, we didn't expected Mr. Trump who decided to shot America in the head for his own personal glory. It may be too late to prevent already but Pax Americana is disintegrating in front of our eyes.
17
It has been remarked elsewhere (I forget by whom) that Trump has a talent for finding hidden character flaws in people and bringing them to full bloom. If you serve Trump, that’s the price - your own destruction.
29
Thank you for this column — all this needs to be repeated as long as he’s president. We all know the answer to “why”— for Trump, it’s treason motivated by personal finances. For the rest of Republicans, it’s pure grasping for power and money, whether it comes from Russian influence, the blood of children thanks to the NRA, or the greed and power of corporate interests.
So depressing where this will lead — more division and hate in our country, environment destroyed, the world’s suffering increased.
24
It is so glaringly obvious that this administration (and President with family in tow) are knocking down all of the traditional alliances and trade pacts to suit partisan and personal gain.
So if you look at the partisan gain, then you are by default, excluding MORE than half of the country. (since this administration was voted in by a clear minority - 3,000,000 fewer votes overall)
Also if you at the partisan gain, this administration has started multiple trade wars and implemented tariffs. This hurts nonsensically a vast majority of Americans and businesses.
However the administration is also turning around and offering cut-outs to certain businesses and sectors. These are highly partisan in nature and are in essence using the taxpayer's (you) money to pick winners and losers.
That might mean a particular voting block and a particular President and his family/backers.
This is all excluding of course that Russia has propped up the President and his businesses to the tune of hundreds of millions (that we know of since he has still not released his tax returns) while reaping a majority of all these reversals of trade stances.
Obviously it is America way down the list.
26
It's not just the man, it's the party, which has done a 180-degree turn from its opposition to all things Soviet.
Can't remember his exact wording, but around 2005 Putin lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union because it represented the end of the Russian empire - and he wanted to Make Russia Great Again.
Putin's advent as President completed a transition of rule by Communist oligarchs to crony-capitalist oligarchs, and with many of the same cast of characters. You can take the Putin out of the KGB but you can't take the KGB out of Putin.
His communist forerunners must be green with envy in their tombs at the way he has so spectacularly succeeded where they failed. Beyond sowing discord within and between Western nations and merely neutralizing the United States, he has mysteriously been able to recruit its Head of State as his accomplice - or obedient servant.
And meanwhile, with just the occasional exception, the Republican Party rolls over and does its best to lose a new cold war that's beginning to look suspiciously like the old one. Why, we're even seeing a few East European satellites starting to swing back into Moscow's orbit, or at least imitate its authoritarian party line.
33
@mancuroc, nevertheless, some of Putin's communist forebears really had ideals. Even some of their leaders, not necessarily saints, men like Khrushchev and Gorbachev who wanted to do better than their predecessors. I'm pretty sure Gorbachev despises Putin, and one can still ask him, too!
My point is that Putin is worse than some of the Communist leaders.
21
Republican's want to "lock her up" for use of a private email server, and yet defend trump in his disgraceful performance in dealing with, and defending Vladimir Putin. I think this country is in serious trouble.
127
Trump’s behavior towards Putin can all be explained by the fact that trump is and has always been a conman who is only interested in enriching himself. Putin can make trump a very rich man, and trump can help Putin get his billions stolen from the Russian people safely out of the country and into the global banking system. It is clear and obvious how their interests align.
When are sophisticated commentators going to stop assuming if Trump just understood his actions were harmful to America, he would change. There’s nothing wrong with him that isn’t wrong with his supporters. They are the “greed is good, every man for himself” generation, with a lot of racism thrown in.
Fortunately they do not represent the true spirt of America. It started with Reagan but it will end with Trump when the true Americans reclaim this country in November.
53
"It is inexplicable to me."
How many essays have I read that contain the word "inexplicable?"
Too many.
Why does Trump behave the way he does? Why do elected officials of the GOP who serve in a constitutionally co-equal branch of government tolerate his behavior and support policies they once railed against? Why have so many Americans become xenophobic and tribal?
There have been many interesting explanations, but perhaps the most intriguing is that proposed by Jonah Goldberg in his book The Suicide of the West.
Essentially, Goldberg is arguing is that what we are living today is not an aberration. To the contrary, it is actually the beginning of a return to the normal state of human affairs.
The distrust of the other, the security of one's tribe, the desire for the strong leader who will protect us - all the normal state of human existence.
What we are seeing today is entropy.
We did learn how to set aside our normal impulses and engage each other in constructive ways. The values and institutions flowing from the Enlightenment made this possible.
However, those values and institutions have been taken for granted by too many, attacked by others both here and abroad and ignored by those who should have been teaching the next generation about the fundamental values and institutions that created what Goldberg called The Miracle.
30
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity.", Friedman asks.
It’s difficult to understand why so many pundits deplore the wimpy reaction of Republicans about Trump’s approval of Russian intervention in our elections. Does anyone really believe that Republicans regret the fact that Putin helped Trump instead of Hillary? Does anyone believe that
Republicans would be offended if Putin helped Republicans in the midterm? Some of them may shed some crocodile tears about Russia’s campaign of misinformation, but do the Russians do anything different than what the Republicans themselves do? It is true that both parties tend to distort the truth, but there hasn’t been any “bothsidism” in recent days. The Republican’s “truths” have been truly outrageous by any standards and we have not seen anything approaching this from the Democrats. And, of course, Democrats haven’t received, or welcomed, help from a foreign nation.
29
@paul mathieu "Why do they sacrifice their own reputations and integrity?" As we said when younger, "They cry all the way to the bank." Paul Ryan is a prime example. Once he was touted as a man of integrity and vision. Now, he is a mere place holder in roll call. He really doesn't care what the various factions of the GOP House do including calling for Rosenstein's impeachment. (He can't get out of there fast enough, off to some lucrative lobbying post.)
Trump looks like he's been reeled in. His lifetime relationships with the mob will have informed him he'd better deliver if he wants to please his master.
He is so obligated he is perfectly willing to put the US in pawn.
How anyone can think our cowardly bully in chief is thinking of anybody but himself is beyond me.
Putin is experienced and smart, with 40 years of KGB/GRU craft and all his manipulations that brought him to the head of his country. Notwithstanding his delusions of past Russian glories, he's well on the way to defying NATO and getting back some of its former ascendance in the region thanks to Trump's antics and the other chaos he's fostered - rightists and Brexit and isolationism, and hatreds and blamefests all over the place.
Divide and conquer. Napoleon was a little guy too.
How Republicans and businesses can think Trump's overheated economy will serve them well is beyond me. Surely they remember the big crashes of 1929, 2007-8, and even 1987-88, the ones that come when shot-term profits, looting, and exploitation take over.
Meanwhile, the planet too is heating up. Bad news all around, truly toxic.
52
Then there's his stupidity with Iran and abdication to Russia and the Saudis in the middle east.
Buddying up with Netanyahu too.
All those dictators he envies. He's lost in admiration for fascists everywhere. Well described here:
" the pre-fascist agenda. The blooding process has begun within the democratic world. The muscles that the propaganda machines need for defending the indefensible are being toned up. Millions and millions of Europeans and Americans are learning to think the unthinkable. So what if those black people drown in the sea? So what if those brown toddlers are scarred for life? They have already, in their minds, crossed the boundaries of morality. They are, like Macbeth, “yet but young in deed”. But the tests will be refined, the results analysed, the methods perfected, the messages sharpened. And then the deeds can follow."
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-trial-runs-for-fascism...
17
@Susan Anderson: Fintan O'Toole's column you linked to is all to credible, and truly horrifying. Even if the abuses we see are not a deliberate trial run of dehumanizing American's reactions to brutality, it is having that effect.
1
Trump has out foxed them all. The economy was doing fine. But he needed to grease the wheel for his path to destruction. So he passed a massive tax cut that juiced up the economy at the expense of inflation and the deficit. He has taken down every regulation he can get his hands on. Why? To provide as much economic stimulation as possible and literally bribe as many industry leaders as he can. He has played the race card brilliantly. His supporters truly believe that Democrats want open ended, unlimited immigration from south of the border. Only his wall will save us from the Democrat sponsored surge of brown skinned people.
Why is he doing this? Everything Trump has done from the day one is to carry out Steve Bannon's destruction of our institutions and the global status quo. We are witnessing the Bannon revolution as implemented by Trump.
The EU is out. NATO is out. Multilateralism is out. The FBI, State, Justice, all of it is out. Executive power is in. Ultranationalism is in. White power is in. And Trump supporters love it all.
They feel that they are so disenfranchised, so left out, so forgotten that they cheer Trump on as he demolishes everything that they believe caused the haves to have and for them to have nothing. Tear it all down! Stick it to the man! Trump cares about us.
You can always get rid of termites by burning the house down. That's what Trump is doing with no plan to rebuild. That's phase 4 and it will be a rude awakening.
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@Bruce Rozenblit
I couldn’t agree more that this is all Brannon. He’s been all over Europe stirring the pot. The Brannon story must be revisited. But we rarely see these dots connected in the media.
"Why is he doing this? Everything Trump has done from the day one is to carry out Steve Bannon's destruction of our institutions and the global status quo. We are witnessing the Bannon revolution as implemented by Trump."
This is a brilliant and perspicacious commentary by Bruce Rozenblitt. Bannon's anarchistic influence has never gone away even though he is no longer an official special advisor to the president; unwittingly or clearly cognizant of what he is destroying,Trump is playing right into Bannon's unorthodox views of a new world order. Bannon once described himself as a Leninist. "Lenin wanted to destroy the state and that’s my goal too,” said Bannon. “I want to bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Trump seems to have already begun that process under his unofficial mentor.
Trump's use of propaganda messaging to attack the free press from day one of his presidency eerily echoes Lenin's own actions. When his Bolshevik party mounted a successful coup and Lenin made himself dictator of Russia, one of his first acts was to censor the press which he called “a weapon no less dangerous than bombs or guns aimed at us. Why should we place it in our enemies’ hands?”
If we, the majority of the American people are in fact Trump's 'enemy', how and when will we mount an insurgency to remove this narcissistic authoritarian and his administration and begin to restore our damaged democracy and the world order of the past 70 years?
2
@Bruce Rozenblit - Yet another dead-on accurate, no punches pulled comment. Keep 'em coming! They help me keep my tenuous grip on sanity.
The GOP has made short term thinking it’s mantra. We saw how that plays out in the Great Recession. But the American people failed to learn a lesson from that catastrophe and elected a man who has made a fortune pursuing a quick buck and leaving his partners, wives, and employees holding the bag. It might take a year or five, but the bills are all going to come due someday. And Trump will be nowhere to be found.
15
The desperate and highly questionable behavior of Trump et al. invites other questions in the vein of Arnold's, "what's wrong with you?"
How about the White House now altering the official transcript of the Helsinki summit to delete the question to Putin- if he had authorized Russian officials to help Trump win the 2016 election? Putin said ,"yes I did" twice. How about the tax returns? Trump first promised to reveal them after an imaginary audit; then , after his election, claimed America ultimately voted for him to hide them. Lastly, do the tax returns reveal that Trump's financials are laden with overwhelming debt and investment in Russia? I'm going to go with Occam's Razor on the last question. Yes!
17
I’m a democrat and find the Russia stuff boring. Maybe it will be more consequential, but one group that’s deserve arguably less respect than Trump are our intelligence agencies. Just in the last two decades they fabricated “evidence” for war and operated a domestic spying regime. Based on their record, it strikes me as a dumb to assume they’re telling the truth or allies you want to have in the long run. Some, I assume, are good people.
4
@Joe Smith
It was the neo cons with George W Bush, who exaggerated intelligence reports regarding Iraq’s WMD’s. The UN weapons inspectors, including Hans Blix, kept saying they found no evidence of WMD’s, so his reports were ignored or undermined. There were no caveats or questioning of the intelligence. When you remove all the qualifications from a report, it no longer resembles the original report, regarding the certainty of its conclusions.
The Russian stuff may be boring, but even the Republicans in Congress have accepted that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to assist Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. Dismissing this attack on the very basis of US democracy, is not boring, it is essential that it be fully investigated, and that the US institutions be allowed to investigate, without the President interfering with their work.
35
@Barry of Nambucca -- No, they can't evade responsibility. It was the head of the CIA, George Tenet, who said their Iraq lies were a "slam dunk." It was them who briefed and armed Sec of State Powell for his disastrous UN appearance.
And it was Friedman who gave us the Friedman Unit, that the Iraq War would come right in six more months if only we would be believers like him.
No, they can't hand it all off to one or two bad guys. They did that.
Your image selection interests me. It depicts President Trump with his hands/fingers together forming a point, a familiar pose for him. I've seen it before several times. Once at the White House seated next to Chancellor Merkel when both she and the press asked and he, thrown a curve, stonewalled their suggestion of a handshake. What a creepy thing to do. But there is more to it than creepy.
In 1967 as I neared completion of my training as a US Navy fighter pilot with a likely Vietnam deployment, I and others got orders to a week-long Survival Training in the woods of Maine in October. The 1967 harsher version of a reality show. After trekking the forest for 3 days/nights with compass & maps and little food we were "captured" and put into a POW camp, where we experienced some mind-bending, sleep deprived manipulation and interrogation. Especially interrogation. We were broken down.
Later a debriefing left me with some useful feedback. The heretofore "enemy" officer told me that I sat in a chair across from him with my elbows on my knees and my hands/fingers together forming a point. As if pointing a pistol. He described the pose as an unconscious display of anger and aggression; one that could trigger aggression in the interrogating officer. It showed high anxiety and fear due to being in an unfamiliar situation. Reduced to instincts I began to behave as a cornered animal. Or maybe a jailed gangster with no rational response.
58
@Allen Great and perceptive post. Thanks for relaying, as no one else has had your background and skillset to interpret this photo.
1
@Allen This is a fascinating observation. Thank you very much for your comment, sir.
1
@Allen Great observation.
Let’s get this straight - the EU imposes a 10% tariff on American cars and the US a 2.5% tariff on Foreign cars - and it’s the fault of foreign countries! I expect tariffs in to the US Re low because foreign cars are made here (BMW, Honda etc) and because the American car industry wants it low. Foreign car dealerships outnumber domestic in many parts of the country and huge tariffs would harm this lucrative industry. Who buys expensive foreign cars - the wealthy - regardless of political persuasion. I would bet this includes conservative talking heads!!!
2
Just like Confederate Soldiers, none of these people will be held accountable. White Americans are never going to admit this Administration’s crimes, corruption and erosion of America’s influence in the world. Long after this Administration is replaced the GOP will continue to wear their MAGA hats and saying that this period was not about hate but heritage.
Don’t be surprised when schools and statues are named after Trump, Sessions and Steve King.
14
@BJ As horrible as what this country has become we can turn around again. After all, although it's now hard to believe, this is the country that elected Barack Obama. Twice.
What I believe (and maybe I just have to or I'll go crazy) is that Trump's enablers and supporters will be seen the same way we now view Hitler apologists, segregationists and those who supported McCarthyism.
Congressional Republicans support Trump because they're afraid of the base back home if they don't. But if we manage to flip the house in November, they'll be afraid for the jobs anyway and they'll walk away from Trump. And then they'll limit some of the damage for the remaining two years if he's not pushed out of office first. He doesn't need to be impeached. He just needs to quit or face the destruction of his businesses. Or, if a Democratic majority in the House makes Trump's support of Putin moot, Putin can call in all of his loans.
“It applies... to all the people enabling him.” I wonder if Mitch McConnell ever contemplates what his legacy will be. If not, now is the time.
22
Tom Friedman just can't get himself to realize the truth: Putin owns Trump and Russia has owned Trump for decades, back to the 1980s. Without massive amounts of Russian money, the Trump Organization would have gone broke long ago.
Trump is fighting for his political life now because if he's forced out of office, all of that Russian money stops and the Russian oligarchs sell their Trump condos, driving down the price.
The underlying reality: Vladimir Putin is the real US President. Donald Trump is just the shadow president carrying out Ptin's directives.
60
At this point, the people enabling the president very much includes the 88% of Republicans that continue to support him, despite the ongoing circus. We the People means that we too are absolutely complicit, not just politicians and cabinet members. What is wrong with US might be a more apt question.
17
@JL, try less biased polls. 41.4% and going down: https://fivethirtyeight.com/
He's going down, though it's surprising 40% of people think he's OK. He is so obviously not OK.
16
@Susan Anderson
The ~88% is Republican support, ~40% is the entire voting population. But either way, his supporters are his enablers...discouraging doesn't even begin to describe it.
Phase 4 is Trump pushing his narrative that Putin now favors Democrats in the mid-terms. Coincidentally, Democrats are gaining momentum in turning the House over this Fall. I see it as a way to question election results. Couple that with depraved negligence in defending our election infrastructure and pervasive warnings about Russian meddling, and we have a scary recipe for invalidating results.
42
"Why do they so freely sacrifice their own reputations and their own integrity to defend a man with no integrity, a man who would sell each and every one of them down the river the second he decided it was in his interest?"
That one's easy, Mr. Friedman. Millions of people, including his toadying cabinet, have coalesced around Trump in a manner best described in Ionesco's "Rhinoceros". Essentially, they are all now part of the Cult of Trump. And it is very much a cult.
Trump has succeeded in forming this cult, by his ability to, in effect, reprogram how nearly half of our people see this nation and see the world. They accept every lie he tells them.
Cult leaders also make extravagant promises to their members, usually having some emotional appeal. This is Trump in spades. He has told his followers that they are the "true" Americans, and that as whites, America is their country.
And as for Kelly, Pompeo and Nielsen, they have been annointed by Trump as his disciples, who must carry out his vision. They cannot escape the lure of serving as henchmen to someone who has limitless power. They see that this Republican Congress is powerless against Trump. They see a Supreme Court with five solid votes in his pocket. They see that he is only limited by his imagination and the laws of physics.
This power is so irresistible to them that they no longer focus on what he's asking them to do. If this sounds like 1930's Germany, it should. Because this is exactly where we're headed.
37
Just in passing we should remember that about 15 years ago Minnesota elected a wrestler as governor also California twice elected movie stars as governor.Fame and fortune and media hype seems to boost candidates.This time the Russian government intervened in a major way and people bought the falsehoods, Donald Trump is the unfortunate result.To your question why- it is hard to admit you made a mistake particularly when a majority of the population thinks you are naive and uninformed.Maybe you don't throw in the towel because you hope your poor judgment will in some fantasy world be vindicated.
13
"What's the matter with you?" is one of those questions psychologists tell us you should never ask because it's not a question but a blanket condemnation. But sometimes you get so angry and frustrated you blurt it out anyway. These are those times.
There are so many things wrong with Trump and yet, there he is, after the disaster of Helsinki with a massive jump to his national approval rating from 40% to 45% and an 80% to 88% jump in approval rating by Republicans. What on earth do they approve of?
Here's a clue. Today we read about giddy businessmen, an economy that is racing full tilt, consumer confidence way up. Which Republican in his right mind would want to stand up and slow this train down? Who wants to go against this president now? Answer, almost no one.
Meanwhile the earth is being plundered like there's no tomorrow. Allies are spurned, enemies of the state courted and sparked. Dissent is being quashed. Intelligence agencies mocked and denigrated. Truth is what Trump says it is today. Tomorrow it's what he will say then.
This will end badly and I hope it ends on Trump's watch by will of people who will not be fooled. But when it does end be very aware that Trump and his cadre may declare whatever is deemed necessary marshal to keep power.
They will not call it fascism. They will call it freedom. And many people will believe it to be true because they will be too frightened to believe otherwise. It's already happening.
Vote!
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@Memi von Gaza Fascism is exactly where we are headed.
Now we know who is next to be "FIRED" by our apprentice president...the 3 good people.
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When all these harmful actions do so conjointly meet, let not men say these are their reasons, they are natural.
For I believe they are portentous things, unto the man that they point upon. Trump has unleashed a perfect storm of dire forces to destroy this country. His behavior is not inexplicable but quite predictable, according to the desires of Putin. Economically, socially, geopolitically, environmentally, psychologically, and strategically, Trump’s one clear policy is inextricably to make America a narcissocracy. His latest attempt to strip security clearances from our top defenders of this country, using their constitutional rights to criticize Trump for his treasonous behavior with Putin. Whose security should be removed is Trump himself. Meeting alone with Putin for over two hours was a sure sign that he is not to be trusted in the defense of this country.
I would prefer the leadership of Brennan, Comey, Rosenstein any day to a Putin puppet.
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Events are in the saddle and tend to ride mankind. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson; See e.g.: Vietnam War, Great Depression, Germany 1933-, Great Recession, Chicago Cubs (x2016), Watergate, et al.
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When will a lot of fellow citizens get it that it is constitutionally impossible for Trump (i.e., due to his own make up) to look out for the well being of anyone other than himself? This man has run rampant for decades and if it’s determined that the “President is above the law,” he’ll continue to run rampant to the detriment of us all.
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Mr. Friedman - your analysis assumes that Trump is rational. I think that you are in error. There are psychiatric and/or neurologic problems. Although he is POTUS, his judgement is not to be trusted.
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Trump Phase 5 or 6, dependent upon the Midterms: under indictment, under arrest and under trial. Hallelujah.
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Worried about Trump having colluded with Russian President
Vladimir Putin prior to the
2016 US Election....well stop just worrying about that; because
Worry about Trump's present collusion with Vladimir Putin...which is happening NOW...!!!
And the US Congress sits on his hands....without protest; and
Trump supporters cannot see the danger in this deception.
I call on every reporter to get on TV ….and make the case
that Trump is a traitor...and that the GOP Congress MUST
impeach this maniac..
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Hardly inexplicable, Thomas. The man has stonewalled the american people by refusing to reveal the depth of his business dealings with foreign powers, including Russia.
He's a fraud, a con man, a psychopath, and he needs to be evicted from public housing at the first opportunity.
The damage he's already wrought will take decades to repair.
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Mistakes made twice are decisions. The republic is dead. Congratulations.
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The greater New York annual GDP is ~1.5 trillion dollars, making it the second largest city economy behind Tokyo. (NYC GDP > all of Canada). Despite this, Trump won't fund a new subway/train tunnel to NJ that will ensure continuity of the eastern corridor economic engine that helps sustain the US economy. Instead, he funds pig farmers.
All I can say is what an idiot.
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Trump Phase Four....you won't feel safe writing an article like this one.
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Mr. Friedman writes, "I hope we don't have a homeland security crisis on her watch," referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. That's supposed to be sarcasm, right?
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Friedman surely means economic advisor Gary Cohn, not Cohen.
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I think that many of his enablers, along with a large portion of his base, are quite happy with the idea of a fascist republic with Trump at the helm as autocratic strongman.
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Trump has been in Putin's hands ever since he borrowed millions from him and Russian oligarchs. The results are he sold out to the highest bidder. Why the one on one meeting with Vlad? Were they playing geopolitical Monopoly. I'll give you Crimea if you sell me Florida. Why hasn't Trump showed his taxes. Why is Putin coming to D.C. Is he going to sell Vlad Mar A Lago or a ranch in Moscow, Idaho? It's a scam. Trump has no conscience so it's easy for him to let Putin hijack our nation. Mueller will prove it. Trump is calling it a hoax. But the joke's on Trump. He'll end up with a horse's head in his bed. Godfather 2? Don the con will be punished for his treasonous acts.
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Why be so convoluted about assessing Donald J. Trump.
He is a TRAITOR !!!!…..isn't that obvious.....and the plainer
you get this message through to the gullible people who are
Trump supporters....and supporters of those who are GOP
members of the US Congress ...the sooner the journalists of
this fine newspaper make the case...that Donald J. Trump is
a traitor...the sooner we the citizens of the USA...and those
around the world will sleep a little better...so Tom Friedman
this isn't about a complex theory of Phase One etc...this is
OPEN to view....: Trump has sold out to Putin...before the
election in 2016....and continues to do so today...and intends to do so tomorrow....He is a TRAITOR ~~~~just get on PBS
and make the case...ASAP
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Tom, of course, doesn’t do deals: he comments on them. So, he may not recognize that Trump, very much FOR America and, if truth be known, doesn’t give a hill of beans about Russia or Russians, nevertheless recognizes that Vlad the Impaler has something he wants: in order to get it he needs to play up to him – as he needed to play up to Kim Jong-un; and, if we can ever get talks going with Iran, he may be forced to play up to Ali Khamenei, as well.
Some, who never do deals and are not charged with actually having an impact on world affairs, can afford to look at stone killer former KGB agents and “little Rocket Men” down their noses. Barack Obama certainly fit that mold, was played outrageously by Putin, Khamenei and Kim; and in the end accomplished nothing lasting or beneficial to America with any of them. Trump means to accomplish something lasting and beneficial to America.
Europe and America under other presidents have been flinging spitwads at these worthies for decades, and where did it get us? Nowhere. I’m sure a willingness to cut deals instead of waxing self-righteous outrages some, but fortunately they don’t really count.
But, don’t worry, Tom. When Trump does accomplish what he seeks FOR America, I’m sure you’ll be there to comment on it.
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@Richard Luettgen: Richard, even for someone who reads Trump's mind, this is truly silly. Stating reasons here would be wasted, as they are already well known to anyone with an open mind who reads the Times' news pages.
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@Richard Luettgen: Obama got us a deal with Iran that the Iranians have adhered to (even after Trump decided that no deal with the U.S. is necessarily worth the paper it's printed on). No wars with Iran, no wars with the PDRK and no wars with Russia. So it seems he really did accomplished a GREAT "deal." Kim hasn't yet come close to living up to his end of the deal he struck with Trump. As for Putin, he's already getting what he wanted- an end to the alliance between the U.S. and Western Europe. When Trump does accomplish what HE seeks for America will you be joining him in singing The Internationale? And they used to say that we liberals were Russia's enablers...
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@Richard Luettgen
Someone’s been watching re-runs of “The Apprentice,” wherein the master deal-maker glowers and dresses down and gets what he wants. Every time.
Trump’s real-life deals include Trump Air and the Plaza Hotel, Trump University and the New Jersey Generals, and of course Trump Taj Mahal and other Atlantic City casinos. In each of these, he failed to do his homework and gain an understanding of the landscape, destroyed alliances by making unreasonable demands and playing zero-sum games, and took risks that ultimately blew up in his face and the faces of his partners and investors. The damage he did was mainly confined to his reputation and to the wallets of those foolish enough to back him.
The stakes now are much higher. As Trump does similar “deals” for America, we’re all on board to go down with him. Clearly, some will still be singing his praises during the descent.
27
We have to look at Trump in a different way. I've thought about this very much and I've arrived at this way of thinking.
Having Trump as our president has given me a far greater appreciation for those individuals who live life trying to perfect the virtues of: truthfulness, morality, humility, and teamwork. These are the standards that all of us - Republican or Democrat - would like to instill in our own children.
We don't have to look any further than our own family unit to see just how deranged our current president is by comparison, and how he uses his value system to mock 250 years of adherence to virtues that have brought Our Great Nation to its role as leader of the Free World. Vote. Vote. Vote. Our lives and the survival of our world leadership depend upon it.
Make America Proud Again.
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Unintended? That's an interesting observation. My interpretation of Helsinki, the NATO summit, and the Repubiclan tax theft is that the destruction of global trade, long standing alliances, and the US economy is wholly intended. That's been the plan all along. It will get much worse before it gets better.
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@ADM I have said repeatedly that the more trump takes us down, his debt to Putin and other Russian oligarch s goes down. Follow the money. Always.
7
We know Wray, Rosenstein, Coats, et al, aren’t driven by political donations at least.
The rest of the crew either is, or owe their current elevated positions directly to Trump. I’m sure by the time we’re in Phase 4, it’ll be more clear who is funding who. Maybe that is the reason for “Trump first”?
9
Mr. Nielsen said it best. The Russians goal was to create instability and they’ve been wildly successful. We have an “outsider” President with a compromised press corps via a successfully unregulated social media. Add a confused and weak Democratic Party with leadership that has underestimated the Russian China cyber threat for years, (the GOP also), and I’d say the Russians couldn’t have timed this any better. The question I never see asked other than by Rand Paul is how are we going to fix future foreign manipulation attempts on the election process.
16
Perhaps Tom Friedman can explain why it is acceptable for the US to run a $150 Billion trade deficit each year with the EU.
Perhaps he can explain why the Europeans have a 10% tariff on US made cars why we apply a mere 2.5% tariff in the other direction.
If Europe wants free trade, great. But don’t stack the deck and call it fair.
11
The US Europe trade deficit is much less than this - more like $100B and you will find few economists who believe that such a metric should drive economic policy. In any case, a bi-lateral trade deficit can have many causes and certainly does not justify a trade war, the consequences of which are very easy to understand.
12
The weighted average tariff that the EU has on imported goods is 2% (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/TM.TAX.MRCH.WM.AR.ZS) vs 1.7%for the US. That's not too huge of a difference. Tariffs on some goods are higher and lower on others, probably for opaque reasons. But in all likelihood for similar reasons as the US' exceedingly high tariff of 25% import tariffs on light trucks: lobbying.
Also, before Trump, there were ongoing negotiations for a free trade deal that would have (virtually) no tariffs between the EU and the US. Haven't heard about that amymore lately.
12
You omitted the 20% tarrif we levy on all trucks and SUVs imported into the United States. Probably a big driver of why BMW chose to manufacture their SUVs here in the US.
Donald Trump conveniently omits this fact in his rallying cries too.
18
Mr. Friedman, if Russia wanted to influence our elections they could easily hack our electronic voting machines. Computer experts have proven over and over that voting machines can be hacked (or manipulated by insiders) without leaving a trace.
Victoria Collier points out in her article below that Jimmy Carter and James Baker stated in their report for the Commission on Federal Election Reform that “There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries.”
Harper’s Magazine: How to Rig an Election https://tinyurl.com/y9xx63f6
This is what democracy looks like:
Commenter Eric from NYC wrote, “I remember my youth when growing up in France.
“France uses only paper ballots that each voter puts into a translucent box in plain view of everyone present with the voting officer shouting ‘voted’ each time.
“My fondest memories are of going with my father after the polls were closed to witness the counting of ballots. It is always open to everyone. The people counting are private citizens randomly selected on that very day. There can be dozens of people watching this important operation.
“I remember these evenings as the most democratic moments of my life, when French people who didn't necessarily know each other came together to witness democracy in action. We were all indeed ‘fellow’ citizens, although I was not in age of voting.”
Europe Rejects Digital Voting Machines https://tinyurl.com/yczjwo64
A secret ballot count is undemocratic.
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This is not what democracy looks like:
It’s very alarming that voting machine companies are pushing touchscreen machines which create “ballots” that have a “barcode.” Human eyes would not be able to identify which candidate the voter selected. It’s important to mention that paper-marked ballots that are dropped into an optical-scan machine are not much better because election integrity expert Jonathan Simon says that “ballots give us a false assurance” since “they almost never see the light of day.”
Barcodes Stir Anxiety As Georgia Eyes New Voting System https://tinyurl.com/ybut5bfu
Why would election officials destroy evidence during pending litigation and destroy ballots before 22 months as required by federal law?
E-Voting Server [and Backup Server] Wiped Clean After Lawsuit Challenges E-Voting Machines’ Reliability and Outcome of Sixth District Race [Ossoff/Handel in Georgia] https://tinyurl.com/y8p36h6z
Politico: Experts [Say] Broward’s Election Chief Broke Law Destroying Ballots
Steven Rosenfeld: In Violation of Federal Law, Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election Records [and Ballots] Are Destroyed or Missing https://tinyurl.com/y9eo4ovp
Mark Crispin Miller: Can U.S. Elections Really Be Stolen? Yes. https://tinyurl.com/y96scqlt
“The [vote-counting] system is computerized and privatized. Private companies tell us what the vote is. And we have no way to check it. We have no way to tell if it's honest. That’s the real danger here.”
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@RLS
Well said. Since its Revolution, France set out to raise citizens. America has settled for raising consumers.
12
@RLS Keep posting this important message until someone takes notice. I am relaying it as well. Our voting machines are absolutely vulnerable.
PAPER BALLOTS are democracy in action. When will we learn that elections can be rigged? Jimmy Carter and James Baker knew that. When will we learn?
4
"Phase 3" will be the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives this November, the result of an electorate fed up with the Fake Treasonous President's incoherent and dangerous governance, with the concomitant subpoenaing of Trump's tax returns, his legislative containment, and a multiplicity of investigations commenced targeting various Executive Departments, including E.P.A., Interior, Education, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Consumer Protection. Oh, there is also that matter of an impeachment following the devastating conclusions of the Mueller Investigation.
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@John Grillo
DJT's tax returns will not reveal the depth of his foreign investments via US operations. What they may reveal is that his 'business success' is more sound and fury than substance. How many bankrupt companies lie in his wake?
2
@John Grillo We can only hope!
Tonight Trump said”Don’t believe what you read or see”; so Trump has his own reality. It is difficult having a president who is divorced from reality and sees himself as the center of his fake universe. For the majority of Americans, it just doesn’t work.
116
@Truthiness: Personally, I still can't believe that Donald Trump is the president of the U.S.- despite what I read and see.
18
I continue to insist, Mr. Friedman, that it is an unpatriotic and cowardly-seditious Republican Party that has enabled Donald Trump in his predations of American government, history, its present and future and character of the United States.
We are only as safe as the sanity of our commander-in-chief. Under every previous American presidency in my lifetime, I only once (Richard Nixon, being swallowed by the anaconda that he created--Watergate) feared that the Republic might founder. In 1973-1974, Republicans in the House and Senate stood proud to the colors. They may have thought the "third-rate break-in" a "caper," as it was first reported. But when the tide kept cresting ever higher every time it came in, Howard Baker stepped up for America. My old employer, the Chicago Tribune, had enough and headlined a famous editorial that went this way: "Listen, Mr. President..."
Directors Wray and Coats and Deputy Rosenstein are paddling upstream. Mr. Wray knows full well what happened to the man he replaced. He knows that he may be expunged by presidential whim on a dime.
The genuine traitors to the colors, or at least derelict in their Constitutional duties as performers of "checks and balances" upon an unseemly and aggressive executive, are the Senate Majority Leader and the House Speaker. Their silence is acquiescence, catnip to a man to whom prudence and wisdom are adjectives to be applied to someone else who has the time and patience to bend the knee in humility.
Not he.
549
Trump would have us believe that the biggest threats to our country are from Iran, immigrants and Muslims. In truth, America’s greatest dangers are from within - a pathological President, spineless Congress, and the so-called Justice Department led by Jeff ‘I do not recall’ Sessions.
23
I agree with you so very much. I'm afraid our "leaders" are putting us on a very dangerous course.
7