So, just how badly does Donald Trump want to lick caviar off of Vladimir Putin’s gleaming, naked chest?
A Pentagon memo outlining the incoming Trump administration’s top “defense priorities” identifies defeating the Islamic State, eliminating budget caps, developing a new cyber strategy, and finding greater efficiencies as the president-elect’s primary concerns. But the memo, obtained by Foreign Policy, does not include any mention of Russia, which has been identified by senior military officials as the No. 1 threat to the United States.
How much of a threat? According to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford:
“If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia,” Dunford told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “If you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming.”
And Team Trump’s response to this (latest) disturbing news? Despite the release of the full memo from his Pentagon transition team that details “the President-elect’s defense priorities,” an unnamed Trump official sobbed:
For the media to speculate that this list of issues represents all of the president-elect’s priorities is completely erroneous and misleading.
Uh huh. This anonymous official also “declined to say where Russia fits into the president-elect’s defense priorities.” But it’s certainly becoming more and more clear which part of Vladimir Putin’s anatomy that Donald Trump fits into.