DJT is giving back the two compounds in NY and MD which Obama took away as a penalty for meddling in the presidential election.
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I'm just pissed that the punishment for Russian sanctions appears to have lasted a grand total of 6 months.
You're only upset because you've mistakenly assumed that Trump was actually in some kind of negotiation with the Russians where he wanted to get something in return. He already got everything he wanted. Returning those compounds to the Russians wasn't him folding his hand, it was him rewarding the Russians for their good work.
We saw the same thing when Trump became the republican nominee and the party promptly changed its official platform to classify Russia as an ally instead of an adversary. We saw it when they called Moscow during the campaign to discuss lifting sanctions the US imposed over Ukraine, if he won the election. We saw it when he appointed a recipient of the Russian Order of Friendship to be Secretary of State.
Donald Trump seems to love Russia, for reasons that aren't quite clear. Remember during the early debates when everyone made fun of him for saying that Russia was the biggest national security threat to America? Boy did his tune change quickly on that one.
And we already know that several of Trump's buildings were saved from bankruptcy by Russian oligarchs buying up the units as investment properties. He's literally made hundreds of millions of dollars from personal friends of Vladimir Putin giving him money for empty buildings.
But all of that would be circumstantial evidence if it weren't for the phone taps, and that's what I think will sink the administration. The US security apparatus routinely monitors the phones of Russian spies living in the US, and several of them had blatantly illegal phone conversations with members of the administration before during and after the election. That's the backstory to Trump's claims about Obama wiretapping him: technically we wiretapped Russian spies and suddenly we had all these hours of Trump staffers talking to the Russians.
Like everything else about this administration, the question is not whether any of this happened, it's just a question of
how illegal something has to be to take down a president. Obstruction of justice is illegal, unless you're the president. Revealing classified information is illegal, unless you're the president. Nepotism is illegal, unless you're the president. Pussy grabbing is illegal, unless you're the president. He's walking a fine line, trying to figure out exactly how much be can get away with. He openly admits to doing all of these things that would be illegal for anyone else, but then claims immunity because of the office he holds.
At this point I think it's only a matter of time before the special prosecutor decides it was all intentionally malevolent, and thus illegal, or just bumbling incompetence and thus stupidly embarrassing but not prosecutable. They need to get him under oath to give him the chance to perjure himself, because that's probably the only crime they can definitely nail him for. Everything else he can chalk up to "honest" mistakes.
Personally, I'm hoping it's incompetence and not malevolent anti-American activity. Right now Trumps's idiocy is the only thing standing in the way of Paul Ryan's wet dream of destroying the American economy from the inside. If Trump does get removed from office, then anyone else in the line of succession who would rise to the office is suddenly a competent and experienced right wing crusader who hates everything that makes America great. Looking at the list (Pence, Ryan, Hatch) makes me fear for the republic if Trump were to leave office before the next election.
No, as a proud American liberal who believes the strength of our nation lies in the cohesiveness of our diversity and our ability to look out for each other, I want Trump to stay in office, to tweet ridiculous things more often, to support fantasy legislation with no chance of passing, and to continue to so perfectly embody everything that is wrong with the republican party that broad swaths of America finally shake off their lingering reagan-era nostalgia and embrace a brighter, cheerier vision of our collective future by voting for people who don't openly espouse hatred and intolerance. #AnyDemocrat2020
Until then, Mr. President, be true to yourself. Don't listen to the haters. You have exactly the instincts America needs most in this time of peril.