Don’t look now, but for over a decade, Donald Trump has sought to become the “best friend” (quoting a 2013 letter) of Russia’s murderous, Ukraine-blitzing, Alexei Navalny-snuffing ruler. While straining to liken himself to Navalny (go figure), Trump remains about as much a “dissident” as Al Capone was a Junior G-Man.
Trouble is, Trump’s tirades hit close to home. Navalny spoke truth to power. In recent years, far too few Americans have been able to bring themselves to do so- to the point the specter of appeasement looms large.
And the plot sickens. Precisely in line with Putin, Trump smears journalists who tell the truth about him as national “enemies.” As reported in Raw Story (“’Trump plans to jail us’…,” 2/24), the National Press Club’s Freedom of the Press Award winner Brian Karem quotes President Biden’s warning that, with a view to Trump prevailing this fall, two (unnamed) network newscasters have felt compelled to make plans to leave the USA.
Along with that First Amendment-shredding prospect, Mr. Biden lets on that Trump, like Putin, “endorses political violence.” (Aside to those who’ve seen the J6 tapes- on the Ellipse and at the Capitol: YA THINK?)
Re Trump’s ugly, indecent attempt to identify with Mr. Navalny’s cause, pundit/professor/author Ruth “Strongmen” Ben-Ghiat reminds us that his fake victimhood schtick (in search of all-too-real absolute power) follows the same old, same old fascist playbook from which Putin and Trump alike have cribbed all along.
Sigh. I swear you can’t make this stuff up. Last Thursday, for all of his own donning of Il Duce and puttin’ on the Putin’, Trump flipped the narrative on Mr. Biden. To the National Religious Broadcasters, he bore grossly false witness by smearing the current administration as (you guessed it) “fascist.”
Lord. Could any Big Fib smack more strongly of the late Fuhrer? Big Brother? Vlad the Mad Emir? The GOP’s newest and “coolest” foreign goon, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele? Or any other un-American tinpot twerp you might care to name?
In all, better late than never, can we raise our heads and lift our eyes?