“Donald Trump, who is not president, is trying to use a small number of Republicans to hand victory to Russia and weaken America’s power and credibility,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ann Applebaum said recently. written. “why?”
Really why?
At this stage, where Trump has won the Republican presidential nomination for the third time and appears to be in the final stages of the game, it’s tempting to shrug and move on. He has long held unique views on the fairness and legitimacy of the U.S. defense alliance and the U.S. system, particularly on thefraudulent election and “american genocide” That much is clear. There is no more satisfying answer than that.
But what if we paused and asked again, more seriously and with purpose? When was the first time Donald Trump expressed an opinion, and his most recent statement was about the Russian Federation’s It was an invitation.do whatever they wantTo allies who are said to be not paying their dues?
Most people who pay attention to such things know the answer.Trump was the first and most bold to declare such views September 1987when he took out full-page ads in major newspapers attacking America’s allies for not covering their fair share of the common defense.
“Why won’t these countries pay the United States for the lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests?” the ad asked provocatively.
However, President Trump’s comments on U.S. foreign policy reported before September 1987 were negotiate a nuclear disarmament agreement Together with the Soviet Union. The ad had nothing to do with disarmament. The theme has completely changed. what happened?
Surprisingly, few people know that President Trump ran the presidential election. his first It took less than two months and four trips to Russia to publish this infamous full-page ad. Traveled to Moscow by private jet at the invitation of Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin.two russian colonels” (his words), President Trump claimed that he would meet with Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. That expected meeting did not take place, but others did.
In the barrage of talk shows and speaking appearances that followed over the next two years, Trump took every opportunity to return to the same theme. A typical statement from President Trump: declared To the 1988 Lehigh University graduates: “Forget about our enemy Russia. Russia, we don’t have much to do with them…Our friends have made billions of dollars and we… They are stripping away their dignity.”
This message was completely consistent with the KGB’s talking points at the time. My father, Paul Auerswald, headed the U.S. State Department’s Office of Public Affairs in the 1980s. His office, as well as Congressional investigators and the CIA at the time, released a pair of reports on the “active measures,” as Soviet influence operations were known. In the United States and Western Europe, such activities had the overriding objective of weakening public support for defense alliances, particularly NATO. A second similar purpose was to denigrate American institutions.
By 1990, the world had begun to change. Like a KGB insider young KGB lieutenant colonel in the name of Vladimir Putin—but unlike most others in the Western world, Trump was dissatisfied with Gorbachev.
in playboy interview, he foresaw the imminent collapse of the USSR and said: The signs of demonstrations, picketing, etc. are all there. Russia is out of control and the leadership knows it. That’s my problem with Gorbachev. My hands aren’t strong enough. ”
But while Mr. Gorbachev was absent from Mr. Trump’s ruling class, other unnamed Soviets drew his admiration. I asked Playboy about “top-level Soviet officials” he met “to negotiate potential business deals, as well as real estate deals.” he answered: “In general, they are much tougher and smarter than our representatives.”
“There are people in this country who are just as smart, but unfortunately they are not elected officials,” he added.
playing cards returned to Russia He is best known for the Miss Universe pageants he hosted in 1996, 2007, and 2013. His children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, went on their first trip to Russia. in 2006. In 2007 Trump sent a letter to President Putin In it, he enthusiastically congratulated the Russian leader on being named Timeman of the Year. “As you probably know, I’m your biggest fan!” he shouted..
Each of these trips, coupled with the ostensible purpose of scouting hotel locations, never materialized despite thirty years of effort and letter-based obedience by the dealmakers.
The next story is better known. President Trump clearly failed to invest in Russia, but Russia did not fail to invest in President Trump. Eric Trump by 2014 said Author James Dodson, “We are not dependent on American banks…We get all the money we need from Russia.” Furthermore, it is argued that “We go there all the time,” Eric Trump lashed out three years later, after his father was elected president. denied This quote.
Donald Trump may be dangerous, but he’s not insane. President Trump’s message to undermine the NATO alliance has been consistent for more than 36 years, since his first (but not last) visit to Moscow.
Philip E. Auerswald is a professor of public policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
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