Marcia Meoli: How do Americans not see that Trump is just another Putin?

Marcia Meoli
·4 min read
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Danang, Vietnam, in 2017.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Danang, Vietnam, in 2017.
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For those of you out there who still support former President Trump, I thought it would be important to mention what he has said about Vladimir Putin’s action to have his country invade Ukraine this past month.

Before I do that, however, I want to mention what Putin said on his way to attacking his brother country. He made false statements about Ukrainian atrocities against Russian-speaking people in Ukraine and that Western nations want to use Ukraine as a springboard to invade and destroy Russia.

Marcia Meoli
Marcia Meoli

He has never accepted that some of countries the USSR dominated after World War II joined NATO after the dissolution of the USSR. NATO is an organization created in reaction to the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. But the last time NATO admitted a former Soviet country was in 2004. (Other countries joined in 2009, 2017 and 2020, but they were previously part of Yugoslavia, which was a dictatorship, but not Soviet.) So, assuming NATO expansion is a threat to Russia, nothing has happened in that direction for 18 years. He seems to blame the West, and U.S. in particular, for most of the problems of Russia and its predecessor going back to WWII and before.

All hogwash.

And nowhere does Putin seem to spend time thinking about what the people in those countries, like Ukraine, want. He alone will decide what happens to them and force his view upon them. Then he warns anyone who tries to intervene: “Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

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Sound familiar? This is what former President Trump said more than once while in office. He said it in 2017 when he threatened North Korea with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” One year later, in 2018, he declared that North Korea posed no nuclear threat after meeting directly with the North Korean dictator, posing with photos with that man and leaving with nothing. So far as I can tell, the situation with North Korea at the end of his presidency was not different than at the beginning. He made no progress on that problem.

Which brings us to Trump’s statements about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He referred to Putin as “savvy” and “genius” and the invasion as “smart.” His admiration here reminds me of his numerous statements of admiration for dictators who forced their will on people in their own countries. Remember, in 2018, what Trump said after the Chinese leader Xi Jinping secured indefinite rule over his country: “Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”

FILE - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands prior to their meeting on Sentosa Island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. North Korea basked in the global limelight during the last Winter Games in South Korea, with hundreds of athletes, cheerleaders and officials pushing hard to woo their South Korean and U.S. rivals in a now-stalled bid for diplomacy. Four years later, as the 2022 Winter Olympics come to its main ally and neighbor China, North Korea isn't sending any athletes and officials because of coronavirus fears. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Well, maybe, if Trump gets back in office, we will give it a shot to attack another country (again). Or perhaps we can see the poisoning of political opposition leaders. Trump already called the press the “enemy of the state” as Putin has, so that can resume. Trump can take a page from Putin and advocate for laws which make it illegal for the press to cover certain events. (Sound familiar? Isn’t that what some states are now doing with education on subjects which make white people feel guilty?) We can watch Trump copy Putin to basically use the entire government to consolidate riches for himself. With the various investigations going on, we may find out soon in detail how Trump already did that while in office.

One thing seems certain: With Trump, we get a constant stream of false narratives on just about everything. Like Putin.

People who voted for Trump — and the Republican Party which still enables him — need to think about this as they go forward. How much are you willing to stomach? Calling Jan. 6, 2021, “legitimate political discourse” is illegitimate political leadership. It is no less culpable than giving a gun to a troubled teen and sending him off to school.

Another thing seems certain: If people continue to support Trump and put him back in office, he will interpret that as the go-ahead to do all these things and more. And it won’t be as simple as someone getting shot on Fifth Avenue, New York.

— Community Columnist Marcia Meoli is a Holland attorney and resident. Contact her at Meolimarcia@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Marcia Meoli: How do Americans not see that Trump is just another Putin?