Mick Hartley

Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times:

Trump truly is the Kremlin’s most useful idiot.

In fact, it is a genuine attraction to Putin’s exercise of unbounded brute power that makes Trump roll over to have his tummy tickled by the poisoner in the Kremlin. There is no need to seek a reason based on rumours of secretly filmed bizarre sexual antics in 1980s Moscow. When Putin sent his tanks trundling towards Kyiv three years ago next week, Trump was overcome with admiration for this supposedly decisive attempt to decapitate a nation on the pretext of protecting its Russian-speaking population: “This is genius.”

Now, even though it has been an abject failure (leave aside the cost in human lives and families destroyed), Trump declared last week that in this conflict “Russia hold the cards”. Actually, Putin, with a weak hand, not least economically, is being dealt aces by Trump.

Many Republicans swallow this astonishing debasement of their country’s reputation, without visibly choking, on the grounds that it is necessary to concentrate US firepower on an expansionist communist China — above all to deter it from a move on Taiwan. If so, they will be humiliated again by Trump, who, to be fair, is characteristically transparent. During the election campaign he declared: “I want China to do great. I love China.” But: “You know, Taiwan, they stole our business”— he meant microchip production. And Trump attacked the vibrant Chinese democracy because it doesn’t “pay us for protection”. As for Xi Jinping: “He’s a brilliant guy. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.” Trump had been entranced when the Communist Party ended term limits for the presidency, allowing Xi to rule indefinitely. “He’s now president for life. And look, he was able to do that. I think that’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give it a shot someday.” Watch this space.