Fun Fact: American and Russian Presidents are not best friends forever or well, are not permitted by history and ideology to be.
Yes, I know that’s a very big mystery, nearly as colossal as the discovery that a snowball would likely not survive in a desert.
These guys, whatever pair govern their respective countries at any particular time would prefer to have some delight watching Wolverine give the opposite number a rectal exam than exchange handshakes (Oh, maybe that’s a little too gory a detail but you can’t unread it)
But welcome to diplomacy. Briefly and accurately defined by Winston Churchill as the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions. So these guys absolutely have to shake hands, smile and even raise expensive wine glasses in toasts at state dinners and chat each other up during bilateral talks. Diplomacy expertly denies us the mortal combat tournament highlights that I suspect would have been the expression of their actual feelings towards each other.
How about we get a feel about how nicely these guys think about themselves;
‘Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you’, ‘If you (the USA) start throwing hedgehogs under me, I shall throw a couple of porcupines under you’ – Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Union Chairman.
‘The Soviet Union is the focus of evil in the modern world’, ‘Here’s my strategy on the cold war: we win, they lose’– Ronald Reagan, 40th US President
Gone may be those days of Nikita Khrushchev delivering fiery passionate anti-American rhetoric and Reagan’s point blank scary arms race and near bellicose posturing speeches may be behind us but the cold war never really ended in its entirety.
Based on this understanding of the mutual distrust and hostilities between the two world’s most powerful humans, there’s this incoming conundrum. It’s centered on the 45th President of the US, and no, it’s strangely not about his really weird hair, that sorry musical pitch for his voice or his marriages, it’s about an item on the checklist of anyone who becomes President.
Relationship with Russia.
Just when you thought Donald J. Trump bulldozing his way to becoming White House landlord was the most 2016 thing to happen, revelations were unraveled that The Donald and Vladimir Putin are for reasons best known to them and maybe a few celestial beings, strange buddies. A complete reverse of what we know about men who occupy those offices. They love each other (they likely won’t be moving in together or something but yeah, the mutual admiration is quite interesting).
“I would be willing to bet that I would have a good relationship with Putin. It’s about leadership”- Donald J. Trump
“Bright and talented Trump is the absolute leader of the US Presidential race”- Vladimir Putin.
As far as the establishment is concerned, Mr Trump is spitting on the grave of each and every US President who fought the Soviet Union for the supremacy of The US from Harry S. Truman to Ronald Reagan. And that’s a drop dead scary piece of development running down the spines of his own party members, the Republicans. I mean, however cute or whatever a Russian President is, hating and opposing him at every turn is the tradition. It’s like the 2nd or 3rd item in the ‘How to be POTUS’ manual.
But it gets worse.
For a man who has made his twitter account a deputy to the oval office, his tweets have unsettled traditional Washington as regards having closer ties with Russia. They have been successive punches to the solar plexus of the elders of his own party who are finding it increasingly difficult to queue behind their number one representative.
And just when The President-elect seemed to be making moves to assure the base by publicly flirting with the idea of potentially nominating their anointed Boy Scout, Mitt Romney for the post of Secretary of State, he made a spectacular U-turn- something we have come to associate with him over time, by nominating someone like himself. The Rich, (No. Super Richy Rich) CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tilllerson. A man with no experience in political diplomacy but who closes international business deals for breakfast. A Trumpoid if you like, afterall he (Trump) did tag his book ‘The Art of the deal’ ‘a deep deep second to the bible.’ Oh, one more thing, Rex was a recipient of the ‘Order of Friendship’ honor in 2013 by the Russian Government. There you go, another honorary member of the Putin fan base.
This is a pill that might take a while or a little opening wider of the mouth before getting swallowed by the establishment. But hey, it’s ‘The Donald’ we’re talking about. The thesaurus for the word Unpredictable. So who knows? Maybe he’s just speaking softly but carrying a big stick like President Theodore Roosevelt suggested or maybe he just really loves Vladimir Putin.
Whichever way, as long as you’re not Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham or Speaker Paul Ryan and other top Congress Republicans who spearhead the anti-Russia brigade and who have to deal with a President from their party who opposes the mandate of that brigade, then this is going to be one very cool political movie ride with a truckload of plot twists.
You’ve seen the trailer and the fireworks have begun already. Congress is not giving Mr Trump’s nominee for the position for representative-in-chief of the US abroad a walk over in confirmation hearings. He’s been challenged already during a session to tag Putin a gangster and this looks like they’re just getting started.
