Groveling Fool

Donald Trump's performance at his joint press conference with Vladimir Putin was nothing short of disgraceful. For a man who constantly brags about how tough and strong he thinks he is, his appearance was a submissive, groveling mess.

The GOP adores Ronald Reagan and, for unknown reasons, Trump himself, yet one would be hard pressed to imagine the Gipper fawning and drooling before American's adversary like the current President did yesterday.

The Atlantic published two excellent pieces on Trump's abasement. The first, by James Fallows (link here), underscores how Republicans now have a moment of crisis -- they can either defend their party's compromised President or put country before party.

Fallows writes: "Either Donald Trump is flat-out an agent of Russian interests -- witting, unwitting, from fear of blackmail, in hope of future deals, out of manly respect for Vladimir Putin, out of gratitude for Russia’s help during the election, out of pathetic inability to see beyond his 306 electoral votes -- whatever the exact mixture of motives might be, it doesn’t really matter. Or he is so profoundly ignorant, insecure, and narcissistic not to realize that, at every step, he was advancing the line that Putin hoped he would advance, and the line that the American intelligence, defense, and law-enforcement agencies most dreaded. Conscious tool. Useful idiot. Those are the choices, though both possibly true—the main question is the proportions."

Republican David Frum also penned a withering condemnation of Trump (link here) yesterday, asking why the President is so compromised by the Russian dictator. He writes: "We still do not know what hold Vladimir Putin has upon President Trump, but the whole world has now witnessed the power of its grip. Russia helped Donald Trump into the presidency, as Robert Mueller’s indictment vividly details. Putin, in his own voice, has confirmed that he wanted Trump elected. Standing alongside his benefactor, Trump denounced the special counsel investigating the Russian intervention in the U.S. election—and even repudiated his own intelligence appointees. This is an unprecedented situation, but not an uncontemplated one. At the 1787 convention in Philadelphia, the authors of the Constitution worried a great deal about foreign potentates corrupting the American presidency."

Some Republicans have condemned Trump's behavior yesterday in a variety of terms, but most of them remain silent. What will it take to finally move them off the penny? Stay tuned.