I never expected to be watching the destruction of US dominance of science and technology in my lifetime.
I suspect the key factor here is humiliation, supported by stupidity of course. Even if Trump is essentially a Russian asset, the damage he’s doing goes far beyond anything his handlers could have hoped for.
The core issue is that Trump spent his life being humiliated by people smarter than him, more socially connected than him, and so on. His primary goal, which may not even be a conscious one, is to destroy the system that humiliated him.
While I disagree with this perception that Trump is a "Russian asset", whatever this means, I agree that his whole goal in the second term is to punish the people who opposed him in the first term. He'll do everything he can to make their lives miserable for the foreseeable future, and he doesn't care if this will destroy the country.
"Russian asset" implies that the Russian government has compromising information on Donald Trump, or otherwise has leverage over him, which enables them to exert some level of control over his actions. People often point to the fact that, though Trump loudly and frequently criticizes our closest military and economic allies, he seems completely incapable of saying a single negative thing about Russia or Putin. As well as Trump's apparent desire to leave NATO (Putin's number 1 wet dream) and allow Russia to take Ukraine (or otherwise end the war in ways beneficial to Russia).
The fact that someone agrees with Russia's position doesn't immediately prove that he's an asset owned by them. All you said could be explained if he thinks that peace with Russia would be much better for the US than NATO expansionism, since it would reduce the tremendous cost of maintaining a war machine, put less money on the pockets of the war industry, and increase the opportunities for someone like him who wants to invest in real estate abroad.
Russia can end the war it started whenever it would like. It could probably get formal recognition of Crimea as part of the deal, at the very least. Instead, Russia continues to choose war.
> The fact that someone agrees with Russia's position doesn't immediately prove that he's an asset owned by them
“Asset” in the officer/agent/asset trio of terms for relations to foreign intel/influence operations does not denote ownership, and refers to people who provide access and information or other support without necessarily having the kind of formal control relationship and commitment that makes an agent. (One analogy I've seen used is with romantic relationships, where an agent is like a committed partner and a asset is in a friend-with-benefits relationship.)
It's an undefined term that changes with whatever conspiracy they want to push. That's why I disagree with it. I don't like Trump, but he's the result of bad decisions made in America, not by some foreign power.
I think the problem here is that there isn't just one way in which Donald Trump is unduly influenced by Russia in ways that are difficult to explain. I can understand being skeptical, but there's several independent actions Trump has taken that are all inexplicably sympathetic to Russian interests.
Just some quick examples:
* Recommending American de-nuclearization while stating that Russia is no longer a threat to America.
* Dismantling cybersecurity programs that are intended to identify and counter Russian hacking efforts.
* Peace negotiations with Ukraine and Russia that require no concessions made by Russia.
All of these actions are being taken despite polling poorly with Americans. You could say that none of these definitively proves that there is Russian leverage over Trump and you would be technically correct. The flip side of that coin is that you also can't explain why these actions are in America's best interest.
You forget that Trump's enemies are all married to this narrative of Trump as Russian asset. So I'm very clear that he will try to destroy as many as these people as possible during his second term. This includes all the people pushing support for Ukraine, which is seen as a Biden project. It has nothing to do with helping Russia and more with his personal preservation in power.
Respectfully, you're chalking a lot of this administration's questionable behavior that consistently benefits Russia up to temporarily aligned goals based on his fragile ego and fear of rightful imprisonment.
I'm not saying that you're wrong, but that is an awful lot of accidental benefit for Russia and precious few others. Far too much for my tastes.
You don't have to be murderous to be an enemy. They clearly want to throw him in prison, so isn't that enough for someone in that position to call them enemies?
Well, we can't understand the motives, because Trump won't tell us, and even if he did, it's not like we shouldn't be skeptical of whatever he might say.
I do think another plausible explanation is that Trump has dictator envy and idolizes Putin, and so he tries to emulate him and do things that would make him happy.
But it's not clear how far something like that would go. I think it's reasonable to suspect that Putin has something that he can use as leverage over Trump, but that's of course near-impossible to prove at this point.
Isn't it really, like, obvious? Not spending money on a war being waged in an unknown place for an unknown reason seems like reasonable behavior. Trying to stop this war seems like reasonable behavior.
But funding the dictator Zelensky so that he can capture people who do not want to fight for him and send them to certain death in storm troop units is unreasonable behavior, and from a Christian point of view, even disgusting.
You just said a lot of things that are easily disproven.
>war being waged in an unknown place
It's Ukraine. They've been an ally in a strategic location for decades. Just because you can't find it on a map doesn't mean I can't.
>for an unknown reason
They were invaded by Russia.
>But funding the dictator Zelensky so that he can capture people who do not want to fight for him and send them to certain death in storm troop units is unreasonable behavior, and from a Christian point of view, even disgusting.
>They've been an ally in a strategic location for decades.
Ally in what? Typical gaslighting.
Before the invasion, no one could find Ukraine on a map and no one considered it an ally (if they even knew it existed). To such extent that many Ukrainians in the USA before 2014, when introducing themselves, often said they were from Russia - just to avoid having to explain what is Ukraine.
>They were invaded by Russia.
Yes. But what is the war being fought for? What is the end game? Because without an answer to this question, any support for Ukraine looks like warmongering. And for some reason, no one answers it, making the whole situation look like the war is being waged to busificate and kill all Ukrainian men (except for the privileged relatives of officials who successfully left the country despite the ban).
Rather, you hide behind your children, the invaders scream that they only want your money, but you kick the children closer to the attackers so that they slow them down at the cost of their lives, while simultaneously locking your front door and barricading the windows so that the children cannot escape from the house instead of dying at the hands of the attackers, as you want.
The children are crying, screaming that they don't want to die, asking you to let them go. But you are adamant: they must die for you.
Why? For what? There is no answer. Their job is to die, not to ask questions, and if they don't want to die at the hands of invaders, they will die at your own hand.
Incredibly well said. That's also the pattern of conspiracy theorists who compensate for their struggles in life and simply refuse to accept the world they live in.
I suspect the key factor here is humiliation, supported by stupidity of course. Even if Trump is essentially a Russian asset, the damage he’s doing goes far beyond anything his handlers could have hoped for.
The core issue is that Trump spent his life being humiliated by people smarter than him, more socially connected than him, and so on. His primary goal, which may not even be a conscious one, is to destroy the system that humiliated him.