Donald Trump’s Love For Vladimir Putin is Disgusting and Dangerous

In his lustful search for more power, Putin has mortgaged Russia’s future with his intervention in Ukraine, as any hope of integrating the Russian economy with the West has largely been forsaken via his actions. Given Russia’s utter dependance on oil, as soon as oil prices dropped, Russia’s economy tanked. Perhaps with Trump’s many bankruptcies and shady business dealings, he admires Putin’s bullheadedness in the face of economic failure.

In the post-truth world in which the Trump campaign exists, you’re not wrong if you never admit to being wrong—you just start shouting louder. If Trump were elected president, is it really a stretch to imagine his presidency turning into the kind of authoritarian nightmare of a regime Putin has murdered to create and to keep in place?

In the past decade, Putin has invaded two neighboring countries, Georgia and Ukraine, and annexed Crimea, a move that marked the first major land grab in Europe since World War II (but hey, that turned out to be pretty fun). Is it that difficult to imagine Grand Imperial King Of America Trump simply deciding to take over part of Mexico in order to better “police” it? Or to invade Cuba illegally—most likely because it’s a wonderful location for his next series of gaudy resorts?

Unsurprisingly, many with intelligence and military experience are—yet again—appalled by Trump’s actions and dangerous praise of such a man. Former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell and former undersecretary of Defense for intelligence Mike Vickers wrote a letter to the Washington Post deriding the two’s cosy relationship. Paul Ryan seems to be growing ever closer to spontaneously combusting every time Trump praises a man who in all likelihood was behind a recent large-scale cyber attack on our government (and honestly, at this point Ryan is probably praying that sweet relief in the form of spontaneous combustion comes someday charitably soon).

Lindsay Graham—who is probably as surprised as anyone that he has become a voice of reason in this most horrifying of presidential elections—was even more exasperated than Ryan with Trump’s continued political crush, saying of Putin, “Other than destroying every instrument of democracy in his own country, having opposition people killed, dismembering neighbors through military force and being the benefactor of the butcher of Damascus, he’s a good guy.”

Lindsay Graham ladies and gentleman: standup comedian extraordinaire.

It’s so clear that Putin is licking his chops and salivating when thinking of the games he could play with Trump that his “admiration” of the Donald recalls that of the cool teens in a high school horror movie trying to manipulate the hopeful rube of their class into thinking he can hang out with them. Think of The Donald as Carrie… which unfortunately would make the world that gym she burned everyone up in.

Of all of Trump’s troublingly dangerous statements, his open and ongoing appreciation of Vladimir Putin’s regime is his most misguided and alarming—and that’s saying something. A man who openly praises a murderous tyrant who is clearly an enemy of the state has no place in the White House. Period. I wouldn’t even let him on the lawn.