“Sooner or later the [malignant] narcissist cannibalizes his own power base and treats as enemies his most rabid lackeys and toadies. People shrug and say, ‘But aren’t all politicians narcissistic? So what? Who cares?’ Well, the answer is a resounding no. Not all politicians are malignant narcissists.”
Sam Vaknin[i]
Who is the gangster we are all looking for? The left thinks it is Trump. The right thinks it is Zelenskyy. In the recent controversy over Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy’s visit to the Oval Office, MAGA conservatives have heartily attacked Zelenskyy as evidenced by Dennis Prager’s Facebook post, where he asked, “What do you think about Zelenskyy in the Oval Office today? Does he owe Trump and America an apology?”
Prager’s first respondent wrote: “[Zelenskyy] was dead wrong in how he acted. He should have kept his mouth shut while the press was there.” Another respondent wrote that Zelenskyy had been bullied and “deserved better.” Another wrote that “Zelenskyy … [was] Russia 2.0 … with half the corruption.” Others replied that Zelenskyy had ruined his reputation, that he did not understand there was “a new sheriff in town,” that the Ukrainian leader was “arrogant and overly confident.”
Conservative voters, of course, tend to follow their leaders. Senator Lindsay Graham, formerly an enthusiastic supporter of Ukraine, told reporters that Zelenskyy “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.” Graham added, “I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of J.D. Vance standing up for our country.” House speaker Mike Johnson said that Zelenskyy “needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country….” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, against the advice of many Senate colleagues, fiercely defended President Trump’s behavior during Zelenskyy’s visit, saying, “What Zelenskyy did, unfortunately, is that he found every opportunity to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue….”
How could any American of good will be offended that Zelenskyy spoke on behalf of his country to the press? And yet, Vice President J.D. Vance, who ranks below the Ukrainian president, publicly scolded the Ukrainian about answering press questions. Vance later glorified this scolding in an interview on Fox News.
A Psychological Interlude
Something is not right here. Somebody is not right. Who is the gangster we are all looking for? Is it really Zelenskyy? Or is it J.D. Vance? Perhaps we are not looking for a gangster at all. Perhaps we are looking for a psychological type. Professor Sam Vaknin, after studying over 600 hours of Donald Trump videos and reading everything Trump has written, recently made the following statement: “by now I am convinced that Trump is a malignant narcissist.” This view, he added, “is shared by dozens of mental health professionals who went on public record with their analysis of his mental infirmity.”[ii] According to Vaknin, “Trump is dangerous, antisocial, destructive, vindictive, sadistic, and hyper-vigilant.”[iii]
Although Vaknin is left-of-center, he has previously commented on President Barack Obama’s narcissism. This suggests that Vaknin is not politically motivated in his analysis. Some might interject, at this point, that psychology is nonsense; and perhaps it is, indeed. But let us take a look all the same, if only to test our prejudices. According to Vaknin, Trump is not open to good advice. This is because “Trump regards himself as omniscient. In other words, he knows it all. He is all-knowing. He is an authority on anything and everything, from aesthetics to ethics. Trump lacks intellectual curiosity simply because he knows everything. Why would he be curious and what would he be curious about?”[iv]
Unfortunately, this description of Trump has been confirmed by journalistic sources who say that Trump does not always care to read his daily briefing papers. He holds to a small coterie of “advisors.” But these may not be advisors in the usual sense. According to Vaknin, “[Trump] regards outside advice as both superfluous and injurious. Accepting advice implies that you are less than perfect, and Trump is perfect. Trump is likely to surround himself with timid yes-men and sycophantic acolytes. He is likely to generate an impregnable echo-chamber.”[v]
Indeed, there is something like an echo-chamber around Trump. This echo-chamber includes Senator Lindsay Graham, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and various pundits from Ann Coulter to Alex Jones. The Trump Revolution suddenly has a peculiar, historically familiar smell. Perhaps it is Chanel Number 33, with a whiff of Rightwing Jacobin. It contains, as well, a distillation of Jacques Mallet du Pan’s comment: “like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children….”
“Aiming to disavow his own fragility,” suggested Vaknin, “and the indisputable fact that his public persona is nothing but a fabrication, Trump ostentatiously … abhors the weak, the meek, losers … and anyone else who might remind him by their very existence of how far from perfect and brilliant he is.” Vaknin added that “the public trump is about … resentment, rage, envy, and other negative emotions because he is mercilessly driven by these very demons internally.”[vi]
The Gangster
Exhibit One: The 28 February Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy. How did the meeting begin? It was entirely routine. Trump fielded questions while the Ukrainian Head of State described the horrors visited upon his country by Moscow: kidnapped and murdered children, abused Ukrainian prisoners of war, etc. Zelenskyy asked for security guarantees, saying that he would sign the preliminary agreement but hoped for American protection in the future. There was, of course, a question about President Zelenskyy’s attire. The room broke into mocking laughter. Then came a question from a Polish journalist, prompting Zelenskyy to explain that Putin had violated many ceasefires. This was too much for Vice President J.D. Vance, who talked over the Ukrainian Head of State, saying Zelenskyy’s was disrespectful for “litigating” the question of Putin’s trustworthiness in front of the American people.
Vice President Vance attacked President Zelenskyy for forcible conscription in wartime. In responding to this, Zelenskyy told Vance to come to Ukraine and see the country’s difficulties himself. Then Vance accused Zelenskyy of operating a “propaganda tour.” Vance again charged Zelenskyy with being disrespectful, and of “attacking this administration that is trying to save your country.”
This is surreal. Zelenskyy made no attack on the administration, as the record shows; but Vance was determined to show Zelenskyy in a bad light. The vice president asked whether Zelenskyy denied having problems in his country. Taken aback by this storm of accusations, Ukraine’s president replied, “I will answer…. Let’s start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems. Even you; but you have nice oceans; but you don’t [feel the problem] now’ but you will feel it in the future—”
Trump interrupted with, “You don’t know that. You don’t know that.” Zelenskyy attempted to continue by saying, “God bless, God bless, you will not have a war.” Trump could not tolerate this and talked over the Ukrainian, “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.” Trump evidently regarded Zelenskyy’s advice as “superfluous and injurious.” He wagged his finger at Zelenskyy and said, “You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.”
Zelenskyy was astonished at Trump’s suggestion that he was dictating to the American president. Zelenskyy denied dictation, but Trump cut him off. “We’re going to feel very good and very strong,” said Trump. “You’re right now not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position.” As the scene unfolded, Trump cut Zelenskyy off again, saying, “You’re not in a position. You don’t have the cards right now.”
The Ukrainian president replied emphatically, “I’m not playing cards!” And here we reach the culminating point of the most terrible scene in American diplomatic history. Trump then countered Zelenskyy’s reply: “You are playing cards. You are gambling with the lives of millions of people. You are gambling with World War III.”
What is wrong with Trump? The Russians are threatening World War III, not the Ukrainians. The Russians started the war by annexing Ukrainian territory and launching a massive invasion. Is it possible that Trump believes wars are the fault of those who stand against military aggression? Is Ukraine morally obligated to surrender to save American from the danger of Russian nuclear missiles?
At this point in our analysis, what are we to make of Trump’s attitude toward the victim as opposed to the aggressor? Looking back a few days, Trump voted with Russia and North Korea against Ukraine in the United Nations. And Trump demanded that Zelenskyy resign his presidency without demanding that Putin resign his. Trump also called Zelenskyy a dictator without calling Putin a dictator. And yet, Trump claims he is a “neutral” mediator. Does this look like neutrality? Or is Trump tilting toward Russia?
“You are gambling with World War III,” repeated Trump. “And what you are doing is very disrespectful to this country.” Trump pointed to the ground. In response, “Zelenskyy said, “I have respect for you.” But then Vice President Vance inserted himself again by asking the Ukrainian: “Have you said, ‘thank you’ once?”
To the charge of ingratitude Zelensky tried to defend himself, but Trump talked over Zelenskyy and shut him up, telling the Ukrainian president that he had done enough talking. “You have a damned good chance of coming out of this okay because of us!” Trump declared. To this the Ukrainian replied, “I said thank you.” Trump turned to his audience and said, “It’s going to be very hard to do business like this, I tell you.” Then the American vice president said something about Zelenskyy being wrong. He said, “We know you are wrong.”
TRUMP: You got to be thankful.
ZELENSKYY: I am thankful.
TRUMP: You don’t have the cards. People are dying….
ZELENSKYY: Please, Mr. President –
TRUMP [making a face imitating Zelensky]: You tell us, ‘I don’t want a ceasefire.’ I tell you to take it so the bullets stop flying and your men stop dying.
ZELENSKYY: Of course we want to stop the war, but I said to you … ask our people what they think of a ceasefire.
TRUMP: Without us you don’t have any cards. [Turning the audience again] It’s going to be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.
A reporter then asked if Trump could trust Putin. Trump dismissed the question as a ridiculous “what if?” He is immune to a double cross in the same way Superman is impervious to bullets. Trump might otherwise be a man without qualities, but everyone will agree that he impervious to certain things, like reality.[vii] Being impervious and impenetrable is Trump’s superpower, along with being fearless and dogged. His followers believe in Trump’s mastery of the Great Game. Vaknin argued, “[This] is a form of collective regression to toddler level [thinking], with Trump in the role of the omniscient, omnipotent father. In abnormal psychology this is called ‘shared psychosis.’ The members of the cult deploy a host of primitive, infantile psychological defense mechanisms…”[viii]
There, in that Oval Officer meeting, Trump was doing everything to shake off America’s allies and join up with America’s enemies. He trusts Putin, he distrusts Ukraine. He distrusts Europe. According to Vaknin, Trump’s followers are possessed by a “malignant optimism founded not in reality, but in idealization.” At the end of this most extraordinary meeting, President Trump said that he allowed the rancorous discussion to drag on because it was “good television.” But there was nothing good about it, unless you were Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy was then kicked out of the White House. He was not allowed to sign the agreement he had come to sign. Did Trump intend for Zelenskyy to sign that document in the first place? An analytical mind, going over events carefully, has to wonder. Perhaps the best characterization of the 28 February meeting was in Cormac Smith’s Thursday interview with Jonathan Fink:
“People can say [about Zelenskyy], maybe he should have worn a suit [to the Oval Office]. This is ridiculous. This was an ambush, and as a former advisor [to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry], I can sit there with hindsight and say, ‘Mr. President [Zelenskyy], this is how you should have handled it.’ I don’t believe it would have made the slightest difference how Zelenskyy dressed, or what he said. I think this was an ambush, and they were out to get a particular result out of it. They were out to humiliate him. They wanted to portray this as master/slave. This broke every rule of diplomacy, of good manners, of hospitality. Let us bring this down to basic norms. You do not invite an important guest to your house and treat him in the way that the Americans Treated Volodymir Zelenskyy on Friday night. It was absolutely gut-wrenchingly disgusting, and we need to remember that.”
Trump has made a deep wound in the West. The danger of a Third World War is now greatly intensified. It is disheartening that a majority of U.S. Senators failed to condemn President Trump’s mistreatment of Zelenskyy. It is disappointing that Congress has not voted to censure this disgraceful performance. It is disappointing that Fox News congratulated the President on his cynical bad manners. And, finally, there is no surprise that Russia is making fresh demands in the wake of Friday’s meeting. What is likely, now, is that tens of thousands of innocent Ukrainians will be slaughtered. If any man wants to say, “So what?” – let this be his epitaph, ringing in his ears all the way to Hell. “So what? So what? So what?” Again, Cormac Smith echoed my own thoughts when he said,
“This is as black and white as it comes. This is about right and wrong. You do not treat somebody [like this] … when … the president of 40 million people … [with] the ravages he has seen on his people, with over 140,000 war crimes now recorded and being investigated … had the temerity to challenge President Trump and Vice President Vance, and to say, ‘But don’t you know that Putin does not keep his word?’ And he was attacked by Vance for being disrespectful in litigating this in front of the American people. We need to give our head a little wobble. This is not normal. Speaking to President Zelenskyy as if he was a naughty child, and telling him, ‘You are not grateful enough.’”
Sean Hannity interviewed Vice President Vance on Fox about last Friday’s meeting with Zelenskyy. Vance joked and said it was “great TV.” They both laughed. Why were they laughing? The event was a disgrace. What kind of idiots laugh at their own disgraceful behavior as if it were a wonderful thing. Clowns laugh at their own disgrace. Listen carefully: “For the first 45 minutes the president bent over backwards to be kind and gracious to Zelenskyy, even when Zelenskyy was kind of needling him … saying things I thought were untrue….”
What things did Zelenskyy say that were untrue? About Putin being a murderer and a treaty-breaker? Incredibly, Vance said that Trump was “trying to be diplomatic….” It was so hard, of course, but Trump had to “try.” One tries and tries so hard to be diplomatic. But that annoying little Ukrainian was opening his mouth.
A Polish journalist asked a question, and it set Zelenskyy off, you see…. Vance said, “Then I went back at him; and what I tried [so hard] to do originally was actually try [so hard] to diffuse the situation a little bit…. Let’s try [and try and try but fail] to have this conversation in private, and then….” As if he were recounting a brave exploit before the television cameras, Vance became giddy. How brave we were. How brilliant I was. How amazing it all turned out. Yes. Keep trying to be diplomatic. And then, said Vance, President Trump decided to let the American people see what this discussion was all about, to expose Zelenskyy’s badness. Vance continued:
“I think there was a sense of disrespect, a sense of entitlement, and most importantly – look, we can look past all that stuff; but the president has set a very clear goal for his administration. He wants the killing to stop. And … I really don’t care what President Zelenskyy says about me or anybody else, but he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process that President Trump has set. It is the policy of the American people and their president.”
Vance ended his interview with an impassioned plea for diplomacy. “We used to believe in diplomacy” – and yet, ironically, the interaction he retold was the most undiplomatic in American history. Undiplomacy, if ever there was such a word, was Vance’s watchword; for when he speaks the word “diplomacy” he means the exact opposite. And when he says he was “trying” he meant that he really was not trying. All the key words and phrases of this man are inverted or perverted or turned upside-down. Ripping apart the victim of aggression, like a hyena getting his scraps. Ah, but it is all about the “beautiful boys.” What a bad smell such phrases take on at last! And what about the boys who will die when the Chinese land in California, or come flooding in from Canada and Mexico? — after our power grid is knocked out and our oil refineries are nuked, and our fleets sink as radioactive waste from the hypersonic missile strikes? No help from Canada or Europe, I suppose. No encouragement from Japan either. We gave them all up, remember? We pushed them over, we undermined them, we called our allies useless. Trump said they could not defend us. Instead, let us make Putin our friend. To Hell with the others. All of it in the name of “the beautiful boys” that must be saved. It is a road is paved with good intentions, except there are no good intentions in it. According to the vice president, Zelenskyy tried to get back into a meeting with Trump that evening. He apparently wanted to sign the deal. But President Trump was not interested. Why? According to Vance, the reason was Zelenskyy’s unwillingness to discuss a peaceful settlement. Read peaceful surrender. Why won’t Trump throw him a bone? Why not an itty witty guarantee to Ukraine? Just a tiny one. “You can’t just fund the war forever,” said Vance. Forever? Is that the issue? Is that why we are cutting Ukraine off? Because of FOREVER?
The intention is clear. President Trump intends to expose Ukraine to destruction. He is cooperating with the genocidal enemy of Europe and America. The real truth is that Russia, far more than America, cannot continue forever. Russia cannot carry on this war another year. Secretary Marco Rubio intimated as much, and for that slipup, rumor has it that Rubio is being excluded from White House strategy meetings.[ix] Meanwhile, Russia prepares to invade the Baltic States and Poland. NATO is next and Trump does not care.
Here, also, we discover why Trump wants to exclude Europe from the peace talks. Because Europe is on Russia’s menu. Trump knows this. So he excludes Europe from the peace in Ukraine. He betrays Europe. He sells them for Putin’s favor. Yet Europe, like Japan, has trusted in the good faith of the United States, of the American people. Yet so many of those people watched and listened to the disgraceful anti-Ukrainian broadcasts of Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters. If Trump can force Ukraine into effectively surrendering, with the fig leaf of new elections, then Trump can give Moscow a great gift and, in Trump’s words, “It will be Europe’s problem.” But after Europe’s problem comes America’s problem. Each ally, struck off the list, brings America closer to isolation and destruction. The missiles from Russia are ready. The troops are standing by in China. Beijing’s long-range transports were not intended for a short-range trip to Taiwan. Beijing’s goal lies beyond the first and second island chains. The next great war, say the Chinese strategists, will be fought in North America.
And why does Trump tell the lies that he tells? Why deceive the American people by saying the United States has spent $350 billion in Ukraine? Yet the Congressional Record shows that Congress has voted on five bills for Ukraine totaling $175 billion over three years. And a good portion of that money never left the United States.[x] Why does Trump lie about these fundamental numbers? Because he does not want Europe interfering in his project of surrendering Ukraine.
Since last Friday’s fiasco Trump has suspended the dispatch of American military supplies to Ukraine. He stopped sharing intelligence with the Ukrainians and asked the British to stop their intelligence sharing. At the same time Trump is preparing to remove sanctions on Russia. In other words, Trump is giving away the West’s bargaining chips before the Ukrainians have sat down to negotiate.
Obviously, Trump’s plan is to make Russia into America’s ally against China. This would be a difficult maneuver even if it made sense; but it makes no sense whatsoever. As Zelenskyy has said, the Kremlin cannot be trusted. But MAGA believes in their god and his “art of the deal.” Trump is playing eight-dimensional chess, they say. The truth is, Trump is not a normal person, and his followers are participating in his psychopathy. Is any of this innocent, in a moral sense? Think carefully. Trump is not in a clinic, and we are not psychiatrists seeking to cure him. The setting is completely different. Instead of sitting in a madhouse Trump sits in the White House. Ironically, Sam Vaknin admits, however reluctantly, that “narcissism” might simply be another word for “evil.”
Radical Stupidity
The political philosopher Eric Voegelin suggested that evil is closely related to something he called “radical stupidity.” After all, evil is the most radical form of stupidity. Voegelin takes great pains to explain how this works. Man is a very special kind of being. Owing to his nature, men can choose not to be man. In fact, he says, all men are not fully man. Aristotle wrote about this problem, pointing to Hesiod. Voegelin explained: “Hesiod classifies men into three groups: First … [the man] who himself considers or thinks through all things, who can advise himself…. The second type is [one] … who listens to the best. [Then comes the useless man] who neither thinks … nor listens….”[xi]
According to Voegelin, Aristotle said the man “in full possession of freedom is the man who has authority and lets himself be led by his own” intellect. “Then there are the others, some who … listen when a wiser man tells them what is right and what is wrong.” And then there are those, in Aristotle’s reckoning, who are “slaves by nature.” These are the “useless men” in Hesiod’s formulation. Voegelin tells us that useless men form “a kind of social substratum,” though they exist “at all levels of society up to its highest ranks, including pastors, prelates, generals, industrialists, and so on.” They are everywhere, at every level. Voegelin says these “natural slaves” or “useless men” are best understood as “the rabble.” He wrote, “There are men who are rabble in the sense that they neither have the authority of spirit or reason, nor are they able to respond to reason or spirit….”[xii]
This explains Trump. It explains Vance. It explains the American left and right today. Every ideologist is rabble. Rabble one and all. They fall from one foolishness into another. They cannot think. They cannot take good advice. They do not see with their eyes or hear with their ears but apprehend with hollow heads filled with straw. What Voegelin finds “extremely difficult to understand,” in this context, is the emergence of Adolf Hitler as the leader of Germany in the 1930s. How was it possible “that the elite of a society can consist of a rabble?” After all, the German elite – commercial and military – went along with Hitler. Sadly, a society can be overtaken in its highest ranks by “radical stupidity.” An elite can consist of rabble. How does this happen? Through a collapse of real morality, and the blindness that results from losing access to the divine ground [Voegelin’s terminology, taken from his interpretation of Plato].
As Socrates suggested long ago, wisdom is knowledge of the good; that is, the moral good. Cicero emphasized that there is no other good.[xiii] Radical stupidity, with its attending moral idoicy, signifies the abandonment of true goodness. It takes hold when moral illiteracy becomes rampant, when men are no longer oriented toward the divine. What follows is dehumanization and the loss of reality. What we saw in the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting was a horrifying example of this dehumanization process. Voegelin asked his German students in the 1960s: “How does a man bring himself to commit crimes, and at the same time dispute he ever committed them, and still be honest?”
The answer is simple. He must use words like “peace,” and “forever,” and “try,” and “diplomacy” inappropriately. He must call good evil and evil good. He must lie. He must deceive himself. “We have to save the beautiful boys,” he says. We might rephrase Voegelin’s question: “How does a man bring himself to destroy his allies and enable his enemies, and at the same time dispute he ever did this, and still be honest?”
Well, he is not honest. Real achievements in politics and statecraft require tremendous honesty. Trump and Vance are rabble. They cannot think or listen to good advice. They are people who cannot see the truth because they are fundamentally dishonest.
Quoting from Karl Kraus’s Dritte Walpurgisnacht, 185-86, we see the problem clearly. A society that begins to rely on “a political morality based on telling tales about things that never happened” will find itself unable to discover the truth. In that case, “the alleged becomes real and the real alleged, and … the murderer, if he lies about it enough, has not murdered….”[xiv]
By telling tales and distorting language, Trump has blamed Zelenskyy for threatening America with World War III. Here is an allegation, out of Trump’s mouth, which suggested the victim (Zelenskyy) is guilty and the murderer (Putin) is free of guilt. Others in MAGA might jump in and say that Putin is fighting the “globalists” (i.e., an arm of Moscow’s scissors strategy), or they might say that Putin is fighting the New World Order (not seen on any maps consulted for this essay), or he is fighting some other gang of invisible conspirators (ask Marjorie Taylor Greene for the latest). The effect of this moral confusion is that America opens fire on its own allies. America destroys its own alliance system. At the same time, Trump intends to embrace the Kremlin mass murderer. Here Trump’s pettifogging whitewashes Russian butchery, refashioning the butcher into a proper ally (against China)!
This moral idiocy could be found on the left during the Vietnam War. Today we find it on Fox News. We hear anti-Ukrainian comments every day. These people are like the strident leftists of the 1960s talking about the Republic of Vietnam, deriding it as a corrupt CIA puppet regime undeserving of support. When the Republic of Vietnam fell, when millions died at the hands of the communists in Cambodia and South Vietnam, did the leftist puppets of Moscow realize their mistake? No. They blamed everything on Nixon. Always blame someone else. Yet the death and loss of life at the end of the Vietnam War was far greater than all the deaths in twenty years of fighting that war. This fact went unnoticed, and the left merely grew in arrogance. Today the right is using the same script that the left used in the 1960s, only it is bolder and more insane. Even as the left of the 1960s was heavily infiltrated by Moscow, the right of the 2020s is also infiltrated. And there, in Ukraine, where no American forces have been used, with the Eastern Bloc bogged down and trapped, the West might have been saved. But now, instead of treachery from the left we see treachery from the right. Whenever you hear anyone mouthing Russian talking points, you are hearing the sound of the infiltration – “like rats’ feet over broken glass.” And yes, the infiltration is easy because the enemy has targeted our hollow men – headpieces filled with straw. Trump is destroying America’s alliance system. He is destroying America’s economy. What we saw in the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting was Trump’s moral idiocy, his imprudence, his cowardice, his injustice, his intemperance. In this case, the absence of virtue is not vice. The absence of virtue is hollowness. As Vaknin said of the narcissist, his core is an empty wilderness beset by a howling wind.
“Our dried voices, when
“We whisper together
“Are quiet and meaningless
“As wind in dry grass
“Or rats’ feet over broken glass
“In our dry cellar”[xv]
Trump’s moral idiocy is something we cannot unsee once we have seen it. Many of us turned a blind eye to Trump’s wickedness because we were afraid of the left. And now our champion is ready to collapse the West faster than the Democratic Party.
Evil can take many forms, but here we must emphasize evil’s clownish aspect. According to Voegelin, the Third Reich was a farce. It was a clown show with violent clowns committing mass murder. What set the clowns loose? Radical stupidity, moral idiocy and illiteracy on the part of society as a whole. A clown of this type can live out his life without killing anyone, but such clowns
“can become criminal through social circumstance. So [that] whoever is a stupid man [or clown, in this sense] … [and is put into a position] in society where he has no business to be, gives orders or tries to instruct others is criminally stupid; and because of that he becomes criminal, even if he himself does not understand this at all.”[xvi]
Those who tried to humiliate Zelenskyy in that Oval Office meeting are radically stupid in Voegelin’s sense. They are rabble. Moral idiots. Vaknin calls them narcissists, but their root pathology is spiritual rather than psychological. The rabble is inwardly disordered. It takes power during disordered times. One of the classic studies in criminal stupidity, of course, is Shakespeare’s King Lear. Voegelin offered the following observation on the relationship between disordered times and the success of disordered souls:
“In a situation of disorder and chaos, qualities such as cunning, craftiness, and violence are indeed necessary in order to preserve one’s life and to prevail, and whoever lacks them is incompetent and perhaps may perish. Under ordered conditions, however, precisely this craftiness, violence, misuse of trust, and so on, is a symptom of stupidity, because a man who behaves this way will be socially boycotted.”
When our society inevitably recovers its sense of moral order, how will Donald Trump be regarded? As a hero or a villain? King Lear is a play that ends with mass death. However cunning you are, your immorality catches up with you. Cunning is overthrown by cunning, and everyone loses.
President Donald Trump imagines, by betraying the Ukrainian people and feeding them to the Russian crocodile, he can make the crocodile into his pet. But crocodiles are not pets. Perhaps Trump will change course. This morning he tweeted something about hammering Russia with sanctions. Such momentary changes, however, do not change the fact of what has already been attempted. Furthermore, Trump has surrounded himself with moral idiots and clowns. Inevitably, he will make more mistakes. The damage to the West is already done and the trust between America and Europe has been undermined.
All sensible people, who have knowledge of international affairs and moral clarity, are appalled by the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting of last Friday. All those living in the echo-chamber of Trump’s narcissism, see nothing but Zelenskyy’s alleged “disrespect” and “ingratitude.”
The rabble have found their gangster. He is the one they have always been waiting for.
Video and Audio Presentations
Apologies for the technical difficulties at the beginning of the KLW World News Broacast. The important part of this video is the visuals of the Russian building along NATO’s border in Russia and Belarus, which begins around the one hour and 17 minute mark.
A discussion
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Links and Notes
[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJWZkzGkVrw
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] The Man Without Qualities, a novel by Robert Musil, features a protagonist who has no commitment to moral virtue, nor any sense of life. He is something akin to Mishima’s voyeuristic Shigekuni Honda character, who listlessly appears throughout The Sea of Fertility tetralogy – the last books that Mishima wrote before his symbolic attempt to overthrow the Japanese Government in 1971. This type of ambivalent, insignificant, and insubstantial character reminds us of the alienated man and the subtler dangers associated with him, rather than the more dramatic possibilities inherent in a political figure.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] See Rubio’s Fox News interview directly following the events of last Friday.
[x] How Much Aid Has the U.S. Given to Ukraine?
[xi] Eric Voegelin, Hitler and the Germans (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1999), p. 88.
[xii] Ibid, pp. 88-89.
[xiii] Cicero, On Duties.
[xiv] Voegelin, p. 95.
[xv] T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men.
[xvi] Voegelin, p. 106.
270 responses to “The Gangster We Are All Looking For”
Here in Brazil, Trump’s policies are arousing a lot of enthusiasm, Mr. Nyquist. He may be wrong about Ukraine and Russia, but in Latin America he is promising a war against the drug cartels, the oligarchy and its bureaucratic ramifications. We are expecting strong positions against all the political forces of the São Paulo Foro.
The people who were persecuted by the Supreme Court are repeating the key points of MAGA (even the blaming of Zelesnky), because they see in the Trump administration the opportunity to get justice and revenge against the oligarchs who dominated the institutions along with the São Paulo Forum. Trump’s victory has also sparked hope that Bolsonaro will reverse his ineligibility and be able to run and win the elections in 2026, since there will be no foreign aid for the fraud (like in 2022), neither pressure against investigating elections inconsistencies….
Most of the right is completely blind about the truth on Ukraine, repeating russian propaganda. Maybe the leaders fear that going against the Trump administration’s position on the issue would spoil the relationship between them and they would close the door for a come back in 2026.
Be very careful with Trump. He will break his promises to you and make Bolsonaro look like a traitor to Brazil and lackey of the White House.
Yes, Trump is already doing this with Argentina’s Javier Milei. He has made support of Russia the litmus test for right-wing populism, and people are making their choice. It was no coincidence that Argentina abstained from the UN vote affirming Russia’s responsibility for the war. Rumors are that Milei is desperate for a trade deal with Trump. I don’t know why, seeing how the US keeps breaking its agreements.
https://x.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1896907079849558328 Mar 4/25
Remember the photoshoot between Argentine President Javier Milei and Zelenskyy?
Milei has now deleted all these photos from his account. The demonization of Zelenskyy is in full force.
I hope Italy’s Giorgia Meloni resists this onslaught of pro-Russia right-wing populism.
Damn, that’s unfortunate. I was worried this is exactly what was going to happen after Putin’s so-called “conservative turn” back in the mid-2010s or so. Despite the fact that it (just like Russia itself) is a complete and utter fraud in pretty much every way, it’s the NARRATIVE of “Christian Russia” that’s become more important than anything else as opposed to the actual truth. Just like the narrative of Ukraine being a latter-day Sodom and Gomorrah.
Very interesting essay.
https://x.com/Noahpinion/status/1898697777515020688
“The MAGA movement, you see, is an internet thing…A bunch of deracinated, atomized individuals…There is nothing in it of family, community, or rootedness to a place. It’s a digital consumption good. It’s a subreddit. It is a fandom.”
There are Brazilian Catholic visionaries who had revelations, in 2024, similar to a certain mystical Canadian priest, that WWIII will start with France declaring war on Russia.
In the case of the Brazilians, a nun had a revelation that an explosion, without specifying what type, will happen in Poland and affect nearby countries. This explosion will cause France to declare war on Russia.
The nun also had another revelation, in the same year, saying that Poland is the last barrier to protect Europe. Upon taking notice of these revelations, I asked you some time ago if there was any kind of strategic advantage for Russia in attacking Poland. I couldn’t see any logic in it, and you confirmed my thinking. However, it seems that now the scenario has changed.
I think Poland will be attacked.
Do you happen to have any links to share so we can see who said these things?
Here in Germany we have a new communist party called “Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht” (BSW). It emerged as a split-off from the party “Die Linke”. The foreign policy spokeswoman of the BSW is Sevim Dağdelen. In 2023 she gave a speech at a prestigeous university in China, glorifying Lenin and complaining about the evil NATO. Dağdelen, in an interview with the Berlin Newspaper, alleged being in an international network including Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy.
Kennedy was always suspicious to me. He was an important player in the German protests against COVID-related measures. These protests were highly influenced by Russian disinformation via the German edition of “Russia Today” and other Germany-oriented Russian propaganda institutions.
Tulsi Gabbard, as the intelligence director, being a hostile agent would be catastrophic for America. I just can’t believe that.
Can you give links to document this?
Here is the link for the article in the Berlin Newspaper:
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/sevim-dadelen-bewirbt-sich-in-mitte-fuer-den-bundestag-ich-kann-die-romantisierung-von-migration-nicht-verstehen-li.2295793
Unfortunately it’s behind a paywall.
This are the links for Dağdelen’s lectures in China:
https://www.sevimdagdelen.de/lecture-at-university-in-shanghai-fostering-freedom-peace-and-justice-in-this-world/
https://www.sevimdagdelen.de/guest-lecture-at-beijing-university-a-multipolar-world-in-the-making/
This is a video showing Kennedy giving a speech in Berlin towards anti-COVID protesters at about 34:10 Min:
Thank you, Tim. This is a potentially important tidbit.
Please tell us more about Russian disinformation against Covid measures. In hindsight the whole Covid phenomenon played a major part in radicalizing the American and European right, to the point that they are now eating out of Russia’s hand. Even today it’s a difficult subject and almost impossible to separate fact from fiction.
If you are planning a biological war you need to spread distrust of biowar defensive measures in the West.
Of course, the widespread lockdowns, vaccine and other Covid measures were excessive, and most importantly went against decades of US government research on best practices to deal with a pandemic. I think a lot of people forget the last part. When you realize that the government acted against its own best interests, the question of foreign influence becomes more clear. The Covid hysteria had the intended effect of getting people to automatically distrust any government response to a bioweapon attack. Who benefits? Our enemies.
Yes. And they will dump all their blackmail files and even create false digital muck to pour in everyone of importance so that no leader will be trusted. No defense will be possible.
Here in Germany we were told by pro-Russian influencers that the pandemic was fake and a complot planned by some kind of “American based Globalists”. Also the former leader of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab was accused of being the originator of the conspiracy.
An important medium was the video platform KenFM, now https://apolut.net/ operated by Ken Jebsen. He worked in public broadcasting until he was fired in 2011, because of spreading anti-American and anti-Zionist propaganda. After that he had a channel on Youtube and his own video platform. He was also a welcome guest at protests against the COVID-measures. In 2018 he was present at an event on occupied Crimea, together with politicians from “Die Linke” and the cryptofascist “AfD”. He promoted real estate and the transformation of Crimea to a “European Green Silicon Valley”.
There are much more influencers in Germany like this. The networks around the protests tended to be pro-Russia after the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
I think you have nailed the strategy exactly.
Professor Solovey had been insisting since 2020 that Covid came from Russian laboratory, but due to some secret agreement and in exchange to nobody knows what, China agreed to take the blame. No proof. Just his word. But to me it seems logical that it was their joint operation.
I have a source that said something similar but could never get confirmation.
I don’t want to be mean, but yeesh! This is so silly and superficial, totally unbecoming of a so-called intelligence expert. Trump is selling out Ukraine faster than Europe can mobilize to defend itself. Alex is in denial.
https://x.com/Recentr3/status/1898249842943512587
Trump is wearing a blue jacket and yellow tie. The colors of Ukraine. The intel community may have briefed him that Putin will be dead within 3 years. A deal could stall for time. There is a lot of classified info we don’t have in the public.
Here’s how Alex defends the cutting of intelligence sharing with Ukraine/Europe. I guess he hasn’t heard the latest news about Trump turning his back on East Asian allies.
“The EU needs to improve its own satellite system and other means to gather intelligence. We can’t tie up American satellites while the US has to focus on China in the Pacific. It’s not just about Ukraine.”
Mar 8/25 [subscription required]
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14476543/intelligence-United-States-explosive-facts-Trump-Russia.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=social-twitter_mailonline
‘We can’t risk sharing intelligence with the United States now’: That’s the explosive claim made to me this week by a senior intelligence source. And it all makes sense when you examine these facts about Trump’s relationship with Russia: DAN HODGES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Smj-BPxhEI
Bolton has theory on why Trump threatened Russia with sanctions
CNN – Mar 7/25
Anderson Cooper: How does this president go from talking about sanctions in the morning against Russia to essentially saying that their strategy of pounding Ukraine is what anybody would do in this situation?
2:30
Bolton: He knew that the threat this morning was totally hollow, as did Vladimir Putin. He did it simply to try to show some kind of balance given the things he said about Zelensky and the Ukrainians… He threatened sanctions, banking sanctions and tariffs. Last year Russian exports to the US were $3 billion which is trivial… As for banking sanctions, Russia has successfully evaded all financial sanctions by moving through China’s OPEC financial system to get to global markets.
4:24
Bolton: This is how Trump does business. I know it’s hard for people to understand, but it’s all personal with him. Trump believes that US relations with other countries are embodied in his personal relations with the foreign heads of state. He thinks Putin is his friend and he’s never liked Zelensky.
5:30
Bolton: Suspending US cyber operations against Russia is a huge mistake… All cyber operators will tell you that [you need] to have persistent engagement. If you’re not always probing the Russians, you’re giving them a chance to tee up their own offensive operations. This is just another Trump giveaway.
6:15
AC: Is it true that Russia is always probing the US and civilian infrastructure, hospitals and electrical systems, to try to find weaknesses?
Bolton: I think that’s clear.
All good points.
I know Alex’s German podcasts regarding this subject. He compares the appeasement and feigned sympathy towards the Nazis before WW II with the current situation. But the Nazis were not of the same caliber as Russia and China are now, especially regarding intelligence issues. I think that’s the big difference.
Yes. Hitler was an amateur. More like Trump.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/03/09/msnbc-guest-ukrainians-are-more-american-than-we-are/
God bless this man and amplify his voice.
This phrase “they’re more American than we are” is what will be remembered by the right. It is the left blade of the scissors. This plays into the America First idea that the American elites care more about everyone else above the American citizen. This hardens people in their opposition to Ukraine. It is possible the person who said this does not care at all about Ukraine, but was instead trying to antagonize the right in order to harden them against Ukraine.
Joe Biden was also working to turn and harden the right against Ukraine by bragging about how much we were giving to Ukraine (while withholding disaster aid to conversative regions). This was almost certainly intended to incense the right. If he had wanted to bring the right along, he would have stressed how that the munitions were expiring and needed to be replaced and how little it was actually costing Americans to help.
If one wants to appeal to the average American on the right to support Ukraine, one must appeal to them as good and generous people and also explain to them why it is in theirs and their children’s interest to support Ukraine. Attacking them or telling them that foreigners are more American than they are (taps into the replacement theory idea) will simply harden them against Ukraine.
No, he said “in some ways, they’re more American than we are over the last couple of years.”
And that is true.
You’re totally right about what Biden did though.
Yes
It is unfortunate, but Americans in general are intellectually immature yet are voting citizens of Republic. Neil Postman was right to say we live in a Post-literate society. People who don’t read won’t understand what they are up against. Our enemy values intellectuals. Our side does not cultivate intelligent young people in appropriate ways. The old conservative intellectuals were an embittered crowd, some of whom went over to the enemy. In some sense, the whole milieu was destined to fall for Soviet trickery because of the monumental hypocrisy and lying that had become routine in the right. You cannot cheat an honest man, and they let themselves be cheated.
Trump to pull US forces from Germany and transfer to Hungary?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/03/07/donald-trump-considers-pulling-troops-out-of-germany/
Clearing the way for Putin to steamroll through all of Europe, it looks like— “Lisbon to Vladivostok.” The more I search for news stories about Trump and NATO, the worse it gets!
Hungary is the worst place to deploy US troops.
If he were bringing them home I’d be less concerned, but it seems like they’d be sitting ducks in Hungary.
Yes. The Hungarian government is on the side of Russia.
Musk now calling for US to exit NATO and UN:
https://fortune.com/2025/03/09/musk-us-quit-nato-europe-defense-spending-donald-trump/
Under a 2023 law, a president can’t unilaterally withdraw from the alliance without a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate or an act of Congress. Looks like Musk is going to start making phone calls to congress members, again.
Does anyone know what will happen if Russia invades Finland, Poland and the Baltics in September, and Article 5 is invoked? Legally can Trump unilaterally refuse US involvement? I know Congress can declare war, but I don’t know how it would work for them to try to override a presidential decision of non-involvement with NATO. Maybe it would actually take a declaration of war by Congress?
I think that Trump has made it perfectly clear that he is on Russias side so therefore the country is on Russias side. When he takes us out of NATO I can’t imagine who is going to object to us staying out of the September war. The powers that be on the left are pro Xi and therefore pro Putin. We are just going to let the get the countries get swallowed up. Maybe I am not understanding this.
I think you’re probably right. So heartbreaking for Europe to be in this situation.
Here is the radioactive David Pyne’s peace plan for Ukraine. He was a political advisor to Ramaswamy and active in the Committee for the Present Danger China:
Here is a copy of my Seven Point Peace Plan to end the War in Ukraine that I was successful in getting to a prominent member of President Trump’s Cabinet. I believe they are the best terms for Ukraine that Trump could possibly get Russia to agree to. What do you think of it? Do know of any better ideas to include in a peace plan? All comments for and against are welcome.
1. All hostilities between the parties to the conflict will cease effective immediately. Ukraine pledges to amend its constitution back to its pre-2019 status to enshrine its permanent neutrality as well as to prohibit the presence of foreign troops and bases on its territory while removing its commitment to become a NATO member. Ukraine may retain all its bilateral security guarantees it has received previously and can join the European Union.
2. Ukraine shall withdraw all its troops from Kursk oblast, recognize Russian control of Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts along the current lines of control, as well as Crimea, and renounce any attempt to retake them by military force, pending a final determination of their status by 2040. Furthermore, all Ukrainian military forces, excepting Border Guard units, shall be withdrawn from the constitutional borders of the four oblasts. In return, Russia shall renounce all claims on the Ukrainian-controlled portions of these oblasts and shall withdraw all its troops from Kharkiv and Mykolaiv oblasts while guaranteeing Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
3. A four-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone, policed by an international force of no more than 15,000 unarmed United Nations Military Observers from states belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement led by India, shall be created along the entire length of Ukraine’s border with the four Russian-controlled oblasts to prevent future conflict. All prisoners of war shall be returned to their home countries and all refugees including forcibly displaced persons shall have the right to return to their homes. There will be no war crimes prosecutions or reparations. Ukrainian reconstruction assistance shall be provided by the European Union as well as from the proceeds of Western tariffs on Russian gas exports.
4. In exchange for Ukraine accepting Russia’s proposed limits on the size of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including National Guard, of 100,000 personnel, as outlined in the final April 15, 2022 draft of the Istanbul Agreement, Russia agrees to an expansion in the size of Ukraine’s Border Guard to 150,000 personnel. Border Guard units shall not be equipped with tanks or “strike systems,” except for drones. The total number of Ukrainian soldiers, airmen and sailors, including Border Guard and reservists, shall not exceed one million. In return, Russia agrees to limit the number of its troops in former Ukrainian-controlled territories to 250,000.
5. Ukraine agrees to Russia’s proposed limits on the quantity and ranges of its offensive “strike systems” systems’ outlined in the April 15, 2022 version of the Istanbul agreement including howitzers, heavy mortars, multiple rocket launch systems, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, combat aircraft, warships and medium to long-range combat drones as well as air defense missile systems. In addition, the maximum range of Ukraine’s combat drones shall not exceed forty kilometers. All weapon systems exceeding these limits will be returned to their nations of origin, sold or destroyed. In exchange, Russia agrees to Ukraine’s proposed quantity limits on primarily defensive weapon systems including tanks, armored vehicles, anti-tank guns, ATGMs, auxiliary aircraft, reconnaissance drones, auxiliary vessels, MANPADS and anti-aircraft artillery. Ukraine further commits to refrain from producing or possessing weapons of mass destruction and to close all foreign biological labs.
6. Full diplomatic relations between Russia and Ukraine will be restored and all bilateral sanctions rescinded. All public and private Russian financial and economic assets seized by Ukraine, or for which it was the recipient, shall be fully restored to their Russian owners. Russia and Ukraine agree to renew the 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, committing each party not to use its territory to harm the security of the other and further their shared goal of peaceful co-existence.
7. The March 2022 decree banning eleven Ukrainian political parties shall be lifted. Ukraine shall hold presidential and parliamentary elections within four months of the signing of this treaty. All far-right, ultra-nationalist political parties shall be banned from participation in the Ukrainian government and all far-right, ultra-nationalist militia groups shall be disbanded. The Russian language shall be restored as one of the two official languages of Ukraine with equal status to the Ukrainian language. The rights of Ukraine’s Russian minority population as well as the rights of Ukraine’s Orthodox Christian church members shall be guaranteed by law.
This is most definitely radioactive. It brings tears to my eyes thinking that Zelensky will be forced into signing this. I uttered those same words Greyknight said. I hate Trump, I know I am not supposed to hate but I hate him.
The Russians had to know in advance how this would play out.
Zelenskyy should not agree to anything if it’s just going to facilitate Russia’s invasion of NATO countries!
The president decides, as commander-in-chief. Nobody can make him give the order if he will not give it.
From what I know article 5 is not compulsory to obey. Every country makes their own decision.
It merely says that an attack on one is an attack on all. What each nation can do about it is something very different.
I don’t think they will balk at breaking the law. Our presidents have not been following the law in many areas.
Well this is thoroughly depressing. I knew you’d have strong thoughts on the WH meeting.
Will you forgive my ignorance and let me ask: even if the US abandons Europe and withdraws from NATO, if Russia invades say Poland or the Baltics, wouldn’t they still be afraid of the rest of NATO ganging up on them?
The rest of Europe minus America does not equal Ukraine’s current military capacity. Poland has 202,000 troops. Germany’s army exists mostly on paper. You eliminate 700,000 Ukrainian troops and pull out the Americans and Europe has no effective nuclear deterrent.
Interesting. I didn’t realize they were that weak militarily.
Did I see or hear something to the effect that Ukraine believes the US is actually providing some sort of intel to Russia? I have been searching videos, posts and the Conservatives 4 Ukraine FB group for a while trying to find it. Did anyone else come across this info in the past few days?
Yes. It was posted here earlier.
Thank you. I’ll search again.
I remember at least one other forum member bringing it up but I created a post on Pro Board’s “The Final Phase” before Trump’s first election. Even had a badly photoshopped image of Trump and Melania as FSB agents https://ibb.co/gLrVFbQV. Jeff was part of that forum as were others I’ve seen commenting here but that forum has been closed some time. My theory was that it was likely that Melania was placed into a communist youth camp in Slovenia like the Komsomol in USSR since her father was very much aligned with the party, being a member. From there, it’s possible that she was recruited further to be placed in the field as a “swallow” as the communists refer them to. A honeytrap. But influencing Trump using an agent could have started since his first marriage, with Ivana whom the Czech STB recruited. It’s one thing to have other politicians influence you in public and it’s another to have someone who has a personal and intimate relationship with you. I think the FSB know the latter to be more effective and much more discreet. I think she’s done a lot to maintain her cover by seemingly giving a cold shoulder to Trump and press, ripping off speeches, being an ex-model, and other examples of actions that basically make people believe she’s no threat. There were other financial connections Trump had with Russia I remember bringing up as well but again, those posts are all gone from that old forum.
It now seems more than plausible that Trump has been under Moscow’s control all along.
If this is the case, what incredible patience they showed during his first term!
Trump was surrounded by old guard republicans and being investigated for ties to Russia. They had to be patient. It is the people around Trump who make the difference now.
And Trump even imposed sanctions to stop Russia from building of the North stream. Later Biden lifted them, but that must have required a lot of patience.
The communists are patient.
The Russians really hit the jackpot with Trump’s election. And how many of us would have crawled over glass to vote for him!
So this is how it plays out? The US withdraws from Europe and Asia, and Russia and China invade those areas. We buy, make a treaty with, or invade Greenland for the rare earth minerals. But it will make no difference because Musk and Trump manage to destroy our financial system and gut our conventional defenses in the meantime, all while putting America first.
Russia and China pretend to give us the Americas, but once they’ve mopped up everywhere else, then the missiles fly. Or maybe they won’t need to fly if Trump destroys our nuclear deterrent while in pursuit of his Nobel Peace Prize.
Then it’s game over. Attacks from the enemies within, the quarter million PLA troops. Further invasion of communist troops coming through Mexico and Canada.
As Trump would say, So Much Winning!
In this scenario, how long would the US have left? Four years, if we’re lucky? Jeff, do you think Russia & China want to finish this by the end of Trump’s second term?
We should all really try to make the best of the next four years.
The next weeks and months are crucial.
So Russia invaded Ukraine while Biden was president so that Biden could send billions to Ukraine, giving Trump the perfect excuse to pull the US out of Ukraine, NATO, the UN, the world. Brilliant. And it’s yet another reason the Democrats had to start “opposing” Russia in 2014.
In several Youtube videos I’ve watched in these crazy times, Felshtinskiy keeps on repeating one thought. America benefits from war in Europe. War in Europe (in Trump’s understanding) is the only way to make America great again. I wonder if it is just his conclusion or he knows more than he can tell.
If Trump is being controlled by the Russians, it would also explain why he reportedly had that almost visceral reaction when presented with Golitsyn’s claims that Russia and China were working together.
What specifically do you know about that. The only person I’ve seen mention Trump’s reaction to Golitsyn was Nyquist I don’t recall him saying anything other than we knew somewhat that was aware of Trump being exposed to Golitsyn’s ideas and just plain rejecting the basic premise. Whi h isn’t surprising considering almost no one has probably read him.
I’m just going from memory. I believe someone said that Trump immediately rejected the possibility of Golitsyn’s claims and after hearing them replied “I don’t believe that.” And it was the end of the discussion. This to me sounds like a fairly strong reaction. But maybe I’m reading into it too much.
Used paperback copy of New Lies for Old. It’s available in pdf free.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176532981669