Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Kremlin

Imagine what Donald Trump would tweet if:

• President Obama had 5 children by 3 wives?
• Michelle Obama went and bought a dress, wore it, then told the store she was only paying 40% of the bill because, after all, she is a successful person
• Hillary Clinton refused to make her tax returns public
• Joe Biden hired contractors and then refused to pay them the agreed-upon terms?

The tweets, whether they are by the "real" Donald Trump or a staffer, are insidious. They are not about policy or what America needs, they are lashon ha'rah, evil tongue, nothing but gossip and innuendo targeting the most serious process this nation has. The tweets divert the attention from the real issues and make the election of the next President of the United States nothing more than a game show. The only insight the tweets provide are an insight into the man in whose name they are being sent. 

Me ranting will not change anyone's mind, so there is no point. Instead, I would like to focus on a single factoid. This one little chain of comments presents an astoundingly rounded portrait of the GOP nominee. His own words illuminate the essential core of this man: who he thinks he is, who we think he is, and who he might actually be. 


This is about Donald Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin:

November 9, 2013 - MSNBC interview

Thomas Roberts (NBC):Do you have a relationship with Vladimir Putin? A conversational relationship or anything that you feel you have sway or influence over his government?
 Donald Trump: I do have a relationship, and I can tell you that he's very interested in what we're doing here today. He's probably very interested in what you and I am [SIC] saying today, and I'm sure he's going to be seeing it in some form.

May 27,2014 - National Press Club

Donald Trump: Russia does not respect our country any longer. They see we've been greatly weakened, both militarily and otherwise, and he certainly does not respect President Obama. So what I would do—as an example, I own Miss Universe, I was in Russia, I was in Moscow recently and I spoke, indirectly and directly, with President Putin, who could not have been nicer, and we had a tremendous success. The show was live from Moscow, and we had tremendous success there and it was amazing, but to do well, you have to get the other side to respect you, and he does not respect our president, which is very sad. 

Nov. 10, 2015 -  Fox Business News presidential debate:

Donald Trump: So, we have more than just Russia. But, as far as the Ukraine is concerned, and you could Syria -- as far as Syria, I like -- if Putin wants to go in, and I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates, and we did very well that night. But, you know that. But, if Putin wants to go and knocked the hell out of ISIS, I am all for it, 100%, and I can't understand how anybody would be against it...

November 11, 2015: TIME Magazine refuted the “stablemates” remark: 

In fact, they weren’t even on the same continent. Trump was interviewed by CBS’s Scott Pelley in his New York City penthouse for the season premiere of the hour-long docu-series, while Charlie Rose travelled to Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin.]

July 27,2016  Florida press conference:

I never met Putin -- I don't know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. He said I'm a genius. I said thank you very much to the newspaper and that was the end of it. I never met Putin.

July 31, 2016 -  ABC’s THISWEEK

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about Russia. You made a lot of headlines with Russia this week.

What exactly is your relationship with Vladimir Putin?

TRUMP: I have no relationship to -- with him. I have no relationship with him.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you have no relationship with Putin, then why did you say in 2013, I do have a relationship. In 2014, I spoke...

TRUMP: Because he has said nice things about me over the years. I remember years ago, he said something -- many years ago, he said something very nice about me. I said something good about him when Larry King was on. This was a long time ago. And I said he is a tough cookie or something to that effect.

He said something nice about me. This has been going on. We did "60 Minutes" together. By the way, not together-together, meaning he was probably shot in Moscow...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, he was in Moscow...

TRUMP: -- and I was shot in New York.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- you were in New York. But that's the thing.

TRUMP: No, just so you understand, he said very nice things about me, but I have no relationship with him. I don't -- I've never met him.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yet you said for three years, '13, '14 and '15, that you did have a relationship with him.

TRUMP: No, look, what -- what do you call a relationship?

I mean he treats me...

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'm asking you.

TRUMP: -- with great respect. I have no relationship with Putin. I don't think I've ever met him. I never met him. I don't think I've ever met him.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You would know if you did.

TRUMP: I think so.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I mean if he...

TRUMP: Yes, I think so. So I've -- I don't think I've ever met him. I mean if he's in the same room or something. But I don't think so.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You never spoke to him on the phone?

TRUMP: I've been in Moscow. I didn't meet him in Moscow.

Where?

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've never spoken to him on the phone?

TRUMP: I have never spoken to him on the phone, no. I've speak -- I've spoken -- when we had the Miss Universe contest a number of years ago, we had Miss Universe in Moscow, in the Moscow area, he was invited. He wanted to come. He wasn't able to come.

That would have been a time when I would have met him.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But a -- I just want to clear this up, because you did say on three different occasions you had a relationship with him. Now you say there is not.

TRUMP: Well, I don't know what it means by having a relationship. I mean he was saying very good things about me, but I don't have a relationship with him. I didn't meet him. I haven't spent time with him. I didn't have dinner with him. I didn't go hiking with him. I don't know -- and I wouldn't know him from Adam except I see his picture and I would know what he looks like. 

And even though he doesn't even know what Putin really looks like, Donald Trump went on:

TRUMP: Well, look, you know, I have my own ideas. He's not going into Ukraine, OK? Just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, he's already there, isn't he?

TRUMP: OK, well, he's there in a certain way, but I'm not there yet. You have Obama there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama, with all the strength that you're talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this, in the meantime, he's going where -- he takes -- takes Crimea, he's sort of -- I mean... 

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you said you might recognize that.

TRUMP: I'm going to take a look at it. But, you know, the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were. And you have to look at that, also.

This is nothing more than a small snapshot of one comment that has incredible ramifications. That he began with a lie is evident from his own words. That he compounded the lie is obvious. In his attempt to back off from the lie, he demonstrated he had no knowledge of foreign current events in regard to Russia and the Crimea. 

Ask yourself this question: Is this someone I would trust to be my friend? 

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