Dependence Day
Trump's thraldom to Kremlin fascism is scrambling America's moral compass
(Fires in Kyiv after a record number of Russian drone & missile attacks, July 3-4)
The United States was founded on this day 249 years ago with a declaration of independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Over all those years, Americans have had much to celebrate and many other nations have imitated this path of self-determination – until now.
Today, for the first time, a US president and his administration are in a relationship of dependence on a foreign power. That power is fascist Russia.
This is not political or economic dependence: Russia has no such sway over America. It is a case of strategic dependence: Trump and core members of his Administration are unabashedly pursuing key policies that are made in Moscow.
Yesterday Trump spoke to ‘Putin’ for the sixth time since he returned to office. It was, in Trump’s words, “a pretty long call”; on Ukraine, the president briefly added, “No, I didn’t make any progress with him today.”
On the White House website and Trump’s social media there was no official readout on this call. For more detail, we must turn to the Kremlin website where we learn from ‘Putin’s’ assistant Yuriy Ushakov – a hoary veteran of Kremlin political warfare against the west – that: (i) the call lasted almost one hour; (ii) ‘Putin’ congratulated Trump on his latest bill; (iii) ‘Putin’ claimed Russia played a role in securing American independence and ending the Civil War; (iv) ‘Putin’ proposed exchanging films that “advance traditional values that are close to us and the Trump administration”; and (v) ‘Putin’ advocated a political-diplomatic approach on Iran.
According to the same Russian readout, the two presidents had similar views on Syria and a “mutual interest in implementing a series of promising economic projects in the energy sector and space research.”
The Kremlin’s comments noted that Trump again raised the issue of a cessation of military operations to which ‘Putin’ reacted by saying that “we continue to seek a political negotiated resolution of the conflict.”
To spell out more fully what the Kremlin means by “negotiated resolution of the conflict,” Moscow launched 550 drones and eleven missiles at Ukraine last night, causing fires and devastation across Kyiv and other cities.
Moscow’s readout on the conversation with Trump also confirmed the following: “Russia will achieve its goals, that is, the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, to the current acute confrontation. Russia will not retreat from these goals.”
In other words, Russia still seeks to conquer Ukraine.
The president of the United States does not seem to have objected.
He did not even mention – in private or public – the possibility of tougher sanctions against Moscow or redoubled military support for Kyiv.
On the contrary, his administration is cutting off vital missile defence and other military supplies just as Moscow ramps up its attacks.
Once again, this is not just depraved policy on the part of the US chief executive — breaking with decades of US policy and that of every major US ally.
It is full alignment with Russia’s aggressive agenda. In the words of the Kremlin’s readout, the presidents “were on the same wavelength.”
While other allies continue rightly to boycott ‘Putin’ and his clique of war criminals, Trump is doubling down on contacts and re-opening a range of bilateral initiatives.
The only other ally who has recently called Putin — presumably for FOMO-related reasons — is Macron, whose unreliability on such issues is subordinate to a clear and principled commitment to support Ukraine.
Trump has never made any such commitment. In fact, all available evidence indicates he has long been under decisive Russian influence. He has deliberately placed the top several dozen Russia apologists and proxies in the United States into many of the most senior positions in his administration.
They are not just fans of fascist Moscow: they are its conscious instruments.
Trump is arguably now in closer and more harmonious relations with ‘Putin’ than with any other leader. This is not just ‘wag the dog’ or ‘lapdog’ behaviour. Trump is taking strategic direction from Russian war criminals.
He is actively supporting the largest-scale aggression in Europe since 1945.
He is taking the side of a regime whose models are Hitler and Stalin.
A new declaration of independence is urgently needed.
Does anyone in Congress, in any US political party or in the judiciary have the authority, clarity of vision or influence to draw a line under this madness?
With a US president now ‘on the same wavelength’ as a genocidal dictator, America’s much-vaunted checks and balances seem to be AWOL and MIA.
For now at least, the outlook looks very bleak indeed.
Happy 4th of July.