re: #211 Sir John Barron

I can’t help but notice the stark difference in the way DJT talks about our allies in regard to trade issues and how he talks about Russia and it’s well known meddling campaign.

On trade, he routinely yells, abuses, insults, allied countries, claiming that they’ve been ripping us off and taking advantage of us, etc, and how he, with his great MAGA trade policies will end this abuse. And of course, these tirades are almost always bereft of actual data and details.

But with Russia, this combative tone and bullying attitude disappears. Instead, he tries to divert blame from Russia to someone else, anyone else, and when that fails, just kind of shrugs his shoulders and says rather meekly that, hey, don’t we want good relations with Russia?

Spit

I’ve always thought that Trump’s noticeably-different attitude towards Russia (vis-a-vis “real” allies) stems from the fact that they probably own him. Literally. AFAICT, the extent of the Trump Organization’s debts (or Donald’s, personally) to Russian-connected interests has never been thoroughly explored (still less exposed) - I’m thinking that the possible uncovering of these foreign liabilities is what lies behind Trump’s frothing ranting at even the barest mention of official inquiry (say, by Robert Mueller) into his “personal business”.

IMO, what used to be quaintly regarded as “corruption” on the grandest scale (the POTUS having enormous and undisclosed financial obligations to foreign lenders?) - shrugged/blown-off by the Congressional Majority out of raw power-grabbing and generally ignored/dismissed by the media.