Summary
Putin’s actions after Trump’s election, including a delayed congratulations and a denial of a phone call, suggest a lack of respect for Trump’s personal relationship with him.
Russia’s intelligence chief’s statement that Trump owes them favors for their support in his election, along with hints that he is expected to “pay back” certain obligations, amounts to a bold threat of blackmail.
Trump’s foreign policy, which favors a realignment with Russia, may be challenged by Putin’s actions and the revelation of Russian interference in the election.
So much comes down to “is trump malicious or just an idiot?” His last term was largely idiocy, and if that repeats itself then I think things will be ok. My concern is that his rhetoric has turned more toxic, so I think he may have done so as well.
I think a lot of perceived malice is secondary to his selfishness and utter disregard for anyone or anything outside his extremely small inner circle (and even then, he has no qualms shoving them out).
He’s the kind of guy that would forge his own grandma’s checks to have money for the casino. Not that his intent to hurt his grandma, how she feels is a thought that doesn’t enter his head. He just needs money and there’s money and that’s the extent of his capacity to empathize. If he gets caught he’ll lie or rationalize. He’s not the bad guy for doing it, they’re the bad people who caught him and made such a big deal out of it.
Basic sociopath. He did so many unquestionably immoral and illegal things but didn’t even think to keep his fingerprints off of everything. He doesn’t even think about how others would perceive him and thus doesn’t even make a half-assed attempt to cover his tracks.
Not to say he’s not intentionally malicious, but usually that’s aimed at victims after they speak out, because in his mind, they’re the bad guys. He can’t comprehend how others think, or even that people could think or behave differently than him, so he just assumes a whole lot of other people do the same exact stuff and feels like he’s being singled out. There’s a module in his brain that never got wired
The danger in this term is that there are far more groups who are far better prepared now to take advantage of this traits for their own gain. I think a good chunk of why his first term had so much bumbling about was because people weren’t prepared. Now groups like heritage front and such have a playbook on how to handle him, the potential for actual damage in this term is much greater.
IMO, I think the best chance at damage mitigation is if the GOP congress is as dysfunctional as it has been the last 2 years, but I don’t hold much faith in that.
Yet he still managed to overturn Roe, stack the scotus and thousands of judgeships for a generation, and sabotage countless government agencies which has been a nightmare for our rights, environment, and the rule of law. We’re still feeling the repercussions and this time is shaping up to be an order of magnitude worse.
the leopards do not eat because they are hungry. they eat because they can.