Friday, June 03, 2016 1:59:09 AM
Trump the Chump
Of course Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un support the presumptive GOP nominee. He serves their interests.
By Fred Kaplan
Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, and Vladimir Putin.
Photo illustration by Sofya Levina. Images by Spencer Platt/Getty
Images, KCNA/Getty Images, Alexandros Avramis/Getty Images.
It is no coincidence that two of the world’s wiliest dictators—Russia’s Vladimir Putin and, now it seems, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un—are keen to see Donald Trump win this fall’s election.
Trump’s bromance .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/17/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-and-a-budding-international-bromance/?tid=a_inl .. with the Kremlin chief first blossomed late last year, when he praised Putin’s “leadership” and said, “I would get along with Putin”—sparking Putin to call Trump “a very lively man, talented without doubt,” whom he could “get along with” as well.
--
Fred Kaplan Fred Kaplan
Fred Kaplan is the author of Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War.
http://tinyurl.com/hmkdm4y
--
The salutations from the hermit kingdom of Pyongyang came just Monday, in the form of an article in the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party hailing Trump as a “wise politician .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/world/asia/north-korea-donald-trump.html?_r=0 ” in contrast to “the thick-headed Hillary.”
Some attribute these odd salutes to the like-mindedness of authoritarian personalities, but this misses the point. More likely, Putin and Kim pine for a Trump presidency because they see he’s an easy mark, someone who thinks he’s smart and tough but who, in fact, is all set to give away the store.
Most leaders, perhaps especially authoritarian ones, don’t care about an opposite number’s charms or lack thereof; they care only about advancing their interests. Putin’s main interest in global affairs is to preserve what little semblance of an empire Russia once had—and, toward that end, to split the Western powers: both within Europe and across the trans-Atlantic alliance with the United States.
Trump serves this interest well, having said many times he regards NATO as “obsolete .. http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/02/donald-trump-tells-crowd-hed-be-fine-if-nato-broke-up/ ” and that, unless the Western European nations spent more for their defenses .. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/04/donald_trump_s_foreign_policy_speech_was_an_incoherent_mess.html , he’d withdraw our army from the continent entirely.
Putin must also have been amused by Trump’s naive remark (uttered in the same interview in which he gave the Kremlin chief an “A” for leadership): “I’ve dealt with Russia”—no doubt knowing that Trump’s only such dealings have been with Russian real-estate magnates and as the proprietor of a Miss Universe contest in Moscow. (Trump later acknowledged this fact with no apparent embarrassment, calling the Miss Universe pageant “a big deal .. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-russia-moscow-miss-universe-223173 .”)
--
Donald J. Trump ?
@realDonaldTrump
Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in
November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?
1:17 PM - 19 Jun 2013
--
North Korea’s chief interest, dating back to the country’s founding in the 1940s, has been to play larger regional powers off one another—the shrewd strategy (as Kim’s grandfather, the original Great Leader Kim Il Sung, put it) of “a shrimp among whales .. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-russia-moscow-miss-universe-223173 .” And the regime’s fanciful dream has been that the Korean peninsula reunify under the Communist North’s terms.
--
Top Comment
More likely, Putin and Kim pine for a Trump presidency because they see he’s an easy mark, someone who thinks he’s smart and tough but who, in fact, is all set to give away the store. 100% truth. More... http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/06/kim_jong_un_and_putin_support_donald_trump_that_should_make_us_nervous.html#lf_comment=518506687
--
By this measure, Kim must be giddy at the prospect of a Trump victory as the presumptive GOP nominee has wagged his finger at our Asia–Pacific allies with special ferocity, wondering out loud why U.S. forces need to be paying anything to defend South Korea and Japan. The opinion piece in North Korea’s official party newspaper expressed the joy explicitly: “Who knew,” it says of Trump’s policy plans, “that the ‘Yankee, Go Home’ slogan we shouted so enthusiastically could come true as easily as this?” It added, “The day that the ‘Yankee, Go Home’ slogan becomes reality will be the day Korea is unified again.”
This is why, whenever President Obama meets with allied leaders these days he is plastered with questions about Trump—who is this guy, what does he want, could he really be elected? The foreigners ask these questions not out of mere curiosity but panic. They see Trump would be a disaster for their interests and U.S. interests—and a feast for our shrewdest adversaries.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/06/kim_jong_un_and_putin_support_donald_trump_that_should_make_us_nervous.html
---
President Trump fills world leaders with fear: 'It's gone from funny to really scary'
Most of the world seems to agree a Donald Trump presidency is a disturbing possibility that would inflict unthinkable damage, Guardian reporters found
‘Surely it won’t happen’: world leaders express shock, disbelief and dread at the mere thought
of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
David Smith in Washington and Julian Borger in Vienna
Friday 29 April 2016 02.00 AEST
Last modified on Friday 3 June 2016 07.37 AEST
Dangerous, foolish, irrational, scary, terrifying, irresponsible, a clown, a disaster. These are just some of the words used
to describe the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency by politicians, diplomats and analysts around the world.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/28/donald-trump-president-world-leaders-foreign-relations
Of course Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un support the presumptive GOP nominee. He serves their interests.
By Fred Kaplan
Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, and Vladimir Putin.
Photo illustration by Sofya Levina. Images by Spencer Platt/Getty
Images, KCNA/Getty Images, Alexandros Avramis/Getty Images.
It is no coincidence that two of the world’s wiliest dictators—Russia’s Vladimir Putin and, now it seems, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un—are keen to see Donald Trump win this fall’s election.
Trump’s bromance .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/17/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-and-a-budding-international-bromance/?tid=a_inl .. with the Kremlin chief first blossomed late last year, when he praised Putin’s “leadership” and said, “I would get along with Putin”—sparking Putin to call Trump “a very lively man, talented without doubt,” whom he could “get along with” as well.
--
Fred Kaplan Fred Kaplan
Fred Kaplan is the author of Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War.
http://tinyurl.com/hmkdm4y
--
The salutations from the hermit kingdom of Pyongyang came just Monday, in the form of an article in the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party hailing Trump as a “wise politician .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/world/asia/north-korea-donald-trump.html?_r=0 ” in contrast to “the thick-headed Hillary.”
Some attribute these odd salutes to the like-mindedness of authoritarian personalities, but this misses the point. More likely, Putin and Kim pine for a Trump presidency because they see he’s an easy mark, someone who thinks he’s smart and tough but who, in fact, is all set to give away the store.
Most leaders, perhaps especially authoritarian ones, don’t care about an opposite number’s charms or lack thereof; they care only about advancing their interests. Putin’s main interest in global affairs is to preserve what little semblance of an empire Russia once had—and, toward that end, to split the Western powers: both within Europe and across the trans-Atlantic alliance with the United States.
Trump serves this interest well, having said many times he regards NATO as “obsolete .. http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/02/donald-trump-tells-crowd-hed-be-fine-if-nato-broke-up/ ” and that, unless the Western European nations spent more for their defenses .. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/04/donald_trump_s_foreign_policy_speech_was_an_incoherent_mess.html , he’d withdraw our army from the continent entirely.
Putin must also have been amused by Trump’s naive remark (uttered in the same interview in which he gave the Kremlin chief an “A” for leadership): “I’ve dealt with Russia”—no doubt knowing that Trump’s only such dealings have been with Russian real-estate magnates and as the proprietor of a Miss Universe contest in Moscow. (Trump later acknowledged this fact with no apparent embarrassment, calling the Miss Universe pageant “a big deal .. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-russia-moscow-miss-universe-223173 .”)
--
Donald J. Trump ?
@realDonaldTrump
Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in
November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?
1:17 PM - 19 Jun 2013
--
North Korea’s chief interest, dating back to the country’s founding in the 1940s, has been to play larger regional powers off one another—the shrewd strategy (as Kim’s grandfather, the original Great Leader Kim Il Sung, put it) of “a shrimp among whales .. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-russia-moscow-miss-universe-223173 .” And the regime’s fanciful dream has been that the Korean peninsula reunify under the Communist North’s terms.
--
Top Comment
More likely, Putin and Kim pine for a Trump presidency because they see he’s an easy mark, someone who thinks he’s smart and tough but who, in fact, is all set to give away the store. 100% truth. More... http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/06/kim_jong_un_and_putin_support_donald_trump_that_should_make_us_nervous.html#lf_comment=518506687
--
By this measure, Kim must be giddy at the prospect of a Trump victory as the presumptive GOP nominee has wagged his finger at our Asia–Pacific allies with special ferocity, wondering out loud why U.S. forces need to be paying anything to defend South Korea and Japan. The opinion piece in North Korea’s official party newspaper expressed the joy explicitly: “Who knew,” it says of Trump’s policy plans, “that the ‘Yankee, Go Home’ slogan we shouted so enthusiastically could come true as easily as this?” It added, “The day that the ‘Yankee, Go Home’ slogan becomes reality will be the day Korea is unified again.”
This is why, whenever President Obama meets with allied leaders these days he is plastered with questions about Trump—who is this guy, what does he want, could he really be elected? The foreigners ask these questions not out of mere curiosity but panic. They see Trump would be a disaster for their interests and U.S. interests—and a feast for our shrewdest adversaries.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/06/kim_jong_un_and_putin_support_donald_trump_that_should_make_us_nervous.html
---
President Trump fills world leaders with fear: 'It's gone from funny to really scary'
Most of the world seems to agree a Donald Trump presidency is a disturbing possibility that would inflict unthinkable damage, Guardian reporters found
‘Surely it won’t happen’: world leaders express shock, disbelief and dread at the mere thought
of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
David Smith in Washington and Julian Borger in Vienna
Friday 29 April 2016 02.00 AEST
Last modified on Friday 3 June 2016 07.37 AEST
Dangerous, foolish, irrational, scary, terrifying, irresponsible, a clown, a disaster. These are just some of the words used
to describe the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency by politicians, diplomats and analysts around the world.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/28/donald-trump-president-world-leaders-foreign-relations
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
