The strange persistent troubling Russian hang-up of Donald Trump

So President Donald Trump’s main concern at the border with Mexico is the supposed discovery of “prayer rugs.” Trump came into office as an anti-Muslim bigot; he is still an anti-Muslim bigot. In fact, he remains himself in every aspect, his miserable pettiness impervious to any glimmer of uplift through his office. I will ignore the hermetic sealing of Trump’s personality against decency, and resist the temptation to riff on Abraham Lincoln’s brooding portrait in the White House dining room above the buffoon in chief with his burgers, to ask a simple question: If Trump is a Russian asset, what would he be working to achieve? The central thrust of Russian foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin is the dismantlement of NATO.

Putin seeks this in order to sever the trans-Atlantic bond between European powers and the United States that secured Western Europe against the Soviet Red Army, and still embodies the shared defence of democracy and freedom. Tick that Russian box. Trump holds NATO in contempt, has discussed a US withdrawal from it, and works to undermine it. Let’s face it: Things are spiralling downward. If they were not, Jeanine Pirro of Fox News would not have asked Trump: “Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia?” As I write, Trump has just tweeted “AMERICA FIRST!” He tweeted “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Out of nowhere, as if he’s on some autopilot! The president is way over his skis.

As Eric Trump observed a few years ago: “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” Just think, Trump might have lost to Hillary Clinton, gotten to build the Trump Tower in Moscow, and kept lying and swindling in some backstage office rather than centre-stage, exposed under the lights. But back to Russian interests: Putin also pursues the unraveling of the European Union because the 28-nation bloc has made European nations stronger, wealthier and more stable. Russia backs far-right politicians, like Marine Le Pen in France, who oppose European integration. A splintered Europe is more vulnerable to Moscow.

Tick that box, too. Trump has described the European Union as “brutal,” called it a “foe,” spoken in favour of British withdrawal from it, and downgraded the EU ambassador’s status in Washington. In short, the president has shown disdain for an organisation that has furthered American interests. Safeguarding the stability and security of Europe was the greatest single American strategic challenge from 1945 to 1990. The EU was a foundation of this effort that ended with the establishment of a Europe whole and free. Like every “enemy of the people” in the press, like every poor schmuck who ever worked for this guy, like any American patriot who wants to respect the president, I’ve struggled to find a redeeming feature in Donald Trump. I can now report: There is none. But I must return to Russia again.

Just because Trump furthers Russian designs does not mean he’s in Russia’s employ. Of course it does not. I want to be clear about that. Just because you assist Russia does not means you’re an asset of Russia even if you assist Russia from the Oval Office. Putin, who has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the last century, seeks the collapse in the 21st century of the American quasi-imperium that has provided the organising structure of the free world. The Russian president favours a retreating United States that has abandoned its values, granting open season to autocrats — an America for which human rights, a rulesbased international order, the rule of law itself, and the dignity of the free citizen in a democracy have been nullified. Again, Trump is working in sync with Putin.

Tick another box. There is not a despot on the face of the earth who fears Donald Trump’s United States. From Beijing to Budapest, authoritarianism and illiberalism have been given a boost by Trump as alternative models to liberal democracy. The president’s principal emotion in the face of dictators is envy. He is a would-be King Ubu for whom self-aggrandisement never self-aggrandises quite enough.

None of this proves that Trump is a Russian asset, any more than his encouraging Russia to hack Clinton’s emails in 2016; or the firing of James Comey as FBI director and later of Attorney General Jeff Sessions; or concealing his conversations with Putin from senior officials; or his cringe-worthy Putin adulation in Helsinki; or his defence of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; or his handing Syria on a plate to Russia; or, if BuzzFeed has it right, his instructing his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build that Trump Tower in Moscow.

I don’t know what Trump’s Russian hang-up is, but Trump has one. Somehow, he’s compromised. It’s not a necessary condition for impeachment that he be a Russian asset. Cohen’s expected testimony to Congress on Feb 7 is a more gripping prospect by the day.