Vice President JD Vance traveled to Greenland to promote President Donald Trump’s claim that America has to have the Danish territory—and that Greenlanders would be more secure under U.S. protection.President Trump “has repeatedly suggested the U.S. should take over Greenland ‘one way or the another...
Hmm. You think this might be an extension of Russian foreign policy?
So instead of “What does Trump gain from this?” we should be asking “What does Putin gain from this?”.
That is one of those things I’ve never really been able to fully wire in. Why is Trump seemingly so perpetually willing to enact (and somehow aware of) Putin’s will? Its totally out of character for him. Trump is incredibly predictable. Maybe one of the most predictable people there is. Whatever serves Trump, most directly and completely, whatever elevates him above all others; this is the thing he will do.
And yet he always defers to Putin. I’ve never fully understood this. I know we can all speculate, blah blah, peepee tapes, blah blah we all hate Trump sure.
But it still doesn’t match. He’s a guy who doesn’t keep promises. He doesn’t pay his debts. He’ll lie, cheat, steal, anything, to set the situation up to serve himself. Why is he keeping this one? Why is his loyalty/ sycophantry to Putin beyond reproach?
Maybe they’ve got something really, really big on him. Something he values beyond all else – even money, even fame, even attention, even power, since those seem to be all he loves.
Maybe Putin convinced him years ago he will bump off Ivanka if he doesn’t obey, or something.
This is exactly why I struggle with the assertion. I literally can-not come up with anything he loves any more than himself. He’s not a loyal person; he has no loyalty in him: its a purely one way street, loyalty is only a thing shown to him, not something he ever shows to someone else. He would sell Ivanka, or anyone in his family, and has, for a mere peppercorn.
Which is why I come to the conclusion that the explanation is insufficient. There is something being missed here, even if we don’t know what it is. And until we can identify that something, we wont be able to build a strategy that splits Trump off from the real source of his power: Putin.
Perhaps his admiration of despots like Putin, and his seemingly desperate desire to become like them, to be considered an equal by them, is the thing that drives him. It could be that he just truly, truly wants to be like Putin, so does anything he can to impress or aid him.
If that’s true, then there’s really nothing anyone can do. (Well, nothing I can mention, that we all know full well, without being on some lists).
I had a kindergarten teacher who grew up in Romania suggested a similar interpretation to me. I should have her over for wine and pick her brain on the matter.
I do think it matters to understand the mind, however horrendous, of someone like Trump. There is plenty to do. Lots of work ahead of us.