Trump and Russia. Apparently this topic will never get old. It just keeps going and going and going.
I’ve had the opportunity to speak with several people about this and they all ask the same thing. “Laina, what does this even mean? Did he break laws?”
I just give the same answer that I have given since Trump announced his candid acy. I have absolutely no idea. The term “Watergate” has been thrown around so much recently as if we’re all trying to convince ourselves that the next Watergate is here.
Let’s be honest, all of the media wants this to be another Watergate. They all get to go into work and have the President of the United States call them fake news, again. I mean, the least Trump could do is come up with something slightly original rather than saying the same thing over and over again. Sad!
However, is this the tipping point for the Trump administration? I wouldn’t be so sure. Unless the media can find actual, tangible evidence that Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin colluded together, there probably won’t be an impeachment over this.
I know that everyone wants to compare Trump and Nixon, including Carl Bernstein, a Watergate reporter. There are some startling similarities there. Both Trump and Nixon have authoritarian tendencies and neither of them were fans of the media. In fact, both called the media an enemy.
Nixon, however, had some very clear motives. He knew exactly what he was doing and how he was doing it.
I know that a lot of people say that Trump is smart and sure, to a degree he is. But I honestly think that he’s just going along with all of these outrageous stories such as Russia, Sweden and voter fraud because somewhere deep inside he genuinely believes himself to be the true authority on this.
Is Donald Trump trying to willfully deceive the American public with lies about Russia and Swedish attacks that never actually happened? I don’t think so. I think he’s convinced himself that he’s actually right about this and that the media is truly wrong.
Sure, Trump may do something stupid and that might actually get him impeached someday, but he probably doesn’t have some grand master plan for Putin to take over the United States.
For heaven’s sakes, he’s an orange man. That alone says enough.
I do think that Trump is easily deceived. I also think that his hackles start rising very quickly (if you don’t know what hackles are, look them up. People used that word all the time in 1860!)
Putin, on the other hand, may have some very nefarious plans that he could easily encourage Trump to be a part of.
The media should keep on digging because we have a president who is very susceptible to believing untruths. But can we stop with all of the Watergate and Nixon references? This is a different time and a different era.
Trump’s facts are a world away from actual, true statements. No one has any idea where he gets these “reports” and “information.” However, Trump seems to think that these are all true statements that are being made.
Nixon, on the other hand, had a purpose. He wanted to willfully deceive Americans about what he did and why he did it. His goals were for his own beneficial gain. That leads to the question, what does Trump have to gain from corresponding with Russia? Is he actually smart enough to plot with Russia so that he can get elected? I’m not so sure.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor