Vladimir Putin, having helped install Trump, is categorically enjoying the fruits of those labors, with an America much more divided and hating on each other than any time since at least the 1960s uprisings, and possibly even more than any time since the Civil War. Putin benefits from this discord caused by his unwitting agent provocateur, and he is clearly smug about the wounds to NATO, to the G7, to the EU, and so forth. The U.S. has fallen from its role as world leader, a fall that many might welcome under many other circumstances, but not when Russia and China are rushing in to fill the vacuum. Trump is Putin’s useful idiot.
Benjamin Netanyahu plays Trump like a fiddle, gaining great advantage in his militaristic postures toward Palestinians and Iranians, claiming great victories as he runs for another term as Israel’s Prime Minister. The Israelis working for regional peace, and toward an end to the destruction of Palestinian villages and agricultural land, make no progress under Bibi’s hardline rule. Trump even tells American Jews—citizens of the U.S. going back many generations—that he has done a great deal for “your Prime Minister.” Trump then claims that when he moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, that made Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Excuse us? Do Israelis not get to decide where their capital might be? Trump the tool.
Kim Jong-un chuckles his chubby face every time he thinks about his unprecedented achievements as the little dictator who brought the putative leader of the most powerful country on Earth to him. Kim manipulates Trump at will, elevating himself on the world stage far more than his thuggish father, far more than his autocratic grandfather, all thanks to Trump biting on the bait every time, with the stupid American even lying about stupid stuff, the latest lie being that “Melania has gotten to know Kim Jong-un.” Um…no, actually, they have never met. Cripes. Trump the puppet.
Mohammad Bin Salman knows that, thanks to his cozy relationship to Trump and especially Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, he can literally get away with murder and continue receiving everything he wants from the U.S., including a greater amount of arms with which to slaughter Yemenis and generally threaten other regional powers in the Middle East. MBS could never have managed this level of U.S. compliance without the U.S. looking the other way. Trump praises MBS at every chance and even vetoed the highly unusual bill to deny U.S. support for Saudi war crimes in Yemen. MBS knows Trump is his marionette.
Under Trump, the former U.S. concern for the environment, care about human rights, and sometimes leadership in nuclear disarmament—all that has fallen into desuetude, rusting and broken. Repressive leaders everywhere are benefitting, the people at home and abroad are hurting, and leaders of the countries on Earth with the strongest democracies are dissed and ignored by a U.S. they don’t even know anymore.
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