Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.
On the eve of his meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Trump spent his day attacking American allies, the American free press, and his fellow American elected officials — all while paying Putin a compliment.
After attacking the European Union as a global “foe” in a Saturday interview, Trump fired off a series of tweets on Sunday that attacked American values and institutions.
Trump said he was “looking forward” to meeting Putin — then launched into a rant about Democrats and the media that had disturbing historical echoes.
…over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
“Unfortunately,” Trump complained, “no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition!”
“Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people,” Trump said, and added that “all the Dems know how to do is resist and obstruct!”
Even as he prepares to meet with a dictator who is responsible for the murders of journalists, Trump is attacking the American free press as “the enemy of the people” — a term that echoes Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s murderous purges of his enemies.
Trump has used the phrase “enemy of the people” to describe both journalists and Democrats before, but doing so in this context is doubly outrageous.
In his Twitter rant, Trump also blamed Democrats for “hatred and dissension in our country.”
To add insult to injury, Trump followed up his attacks on the press and his fellow Americans in the Democratic Party by complimenting Putin directly.
“[C]ongratulations to President Putin and Russia for putting on a truly great World Cup Tournament — one of the best ever!” Trump tweeted.
But Trump had nothing to say to Putin about the 12 indictments against Russian intelligence officials for interfering in the 2016 election, which were announced Friday by Trump’s own Justice Department.
American intelligence officials have determined that Russians attacked American democracy by doing exactly what Trump baselessly accused Democrats of: sowing “hatred and dissension” in the United States.
However, Democrats are the ones who have been pressing for Trump to cancel the summit with Putin over the indictments — unless Trump is prepared to demand that Putin turn over the criminals who attacked us.
So far, Trump shows no interest in attacking Putin for Russia’s crimes against the United States. He seems too busy attacking American democracy instead.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
