Is Trump A Russian Agent Or Merely Insane?
He may be some of both and something else as well
Einstein’s principle of equivalence states that gravity is indistinguishable from acceleration. For example, suppose you were inside a spaceship without windows, instruments, or other communication with the outside. In that case, there is no experiment you could perform to tell you if your vehicle was sitting stationary on Earth or accelerating at one G in outer space.
We now find ourselves in a similar situation with the US President. Is he a cultivated Russian asset beholden to Putin over Kompromat? Or is he just nuts? We can call this Trump Equivalence.
It seems obvious that Trump has mental health issues. This has been corroborated by experts who have observed him in public and by his niece, a psychologist who has spent years in contact with him in family situations. But does his mental health entirely explain his behavior, or do the Russians have dirt on him? It seems impossible to answer this question merely based on the effects. Either would lead to the outcomes we are seeing today. These include praise and submission to Vladimir Putin, the threat, Putin style, to annex Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, the declaration of a tariff war on Canada and Europe, the chainsaw destruction of multiple government institutions, which will cause great harm not only to the US but many other parts of the world.
The Ketamine Junkie
Recruited to swing that chainsaw against the government that helped build his companies with tens of billions of dollars in subsidies and contracts is Elon Musk, whose drug-addled brain is a mere shadow of what it was in its former creative prime. The cognitive and psychological impairments resulting from long-term use of ketamine are well documented.
Why has Trump put this mental case in charge of destroying the government, and why is there so little pushback from the Republican-dominated Congress? First of all, they fear the power of Trump and his fanatical base. Second, they get what they want for their ultra-wealthy funders: more tax cuts and the continued gutting of the IRS. It has been shown that the IRS recovers twelve dollars for every dollar spent. The wealthy, like Donald Trump himself, have the resources to continually outmaneuver the underfunded IRS to avoid paying their share of taxes. In this respect, Trump’s Republican supporters in Congress are behaving entirely rationally — for power-at-any-cost sociopaths, that is.
Trump and Musk have found each other. Smashing and breaking things is a manifestation of their power. They are like a couple of kids running down the beach kicking over other children's sand castles for the sheer joy of it.
But what about Trump’s base? What drives their fanatical devotion? I’ve had Trump supporters tell me that nothing will change their minds. What would it take then? Locking up kids in cages? Oh yeah, he already did that. Roasting and eating them? Maybe.
Cult members are capable of obeying crazy commands. Take the example of David Koresh and his followers in the Branch Davidian sect. Koresh required his male followers to live communally in celibacy while they gave their wives over to his harem. But cult leader Jim Jones demanded even more than that. In 1978, he ordered a mass suicide of his followers that took over 900 lives, including 276 children. And there was Charles Manson, who directed his followers to commit multiple gruesome murders.
Critics of Donald Trump’s policies and even people merely doing their jobs — like counting votes — have been subjected to death threats. Often, these threats include gruesome details and extend to family members. Neither Trump nor any of the senior Republican leadership that I know of has ever condemned these threats. These are classic Fascist terror tactics.
Trump said that he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “fell in love.” Kim, also a cult leader, rules the world’s most repressive regime. In addition to the murder of many of his citizens, Kim ordered the killing of his uncle, his brother, and his ex-girlfriend. And he had her entire dance troupe executed just for good measure. Kim is the person Trump says he “loves.” Unequivocally, this is a sign of a sick mind.
I have been haunted all my thinking life by the knowledge that people could give mindless devotion to a leader. Members of my family belonged to the Nazi party in Austria before and during the war. My grandmother had “Heil Hitler” inscribed on her tomb. She passed in the late 1980s. She had lots of time to get over it. Mass psychosis can have a long duration.
Cult followers live in an alternate reality. Jan 6 was a peaceful demonstration, or a false flag carried out by the FBI, or leftist radicals, or….whatever bizarre explanation the Trump followers are willing to embrace. Some believe that the violence was justified because the election was stolen — contrary to all evidence. “I just have a feeling” seems to be a common justification for this belief.
What about those Tariffs?
Yesterday, I was listening to a debate on CNN; a well-educated Trump supporter was arguing that the tariffs should be given time to work. What was left out of the discussion were the facts about tariffs. Contrary to Trump’s claims, importers, not exporters, pay tariffs. I know this for sure because I have read the works of economists like Nobel Laurette Paul Krugman, and I have owned more than one business — where I paid tariffs.
Arguing that time should be allowed for the Trump tariffs to work is entirely irrelevant — if the premise of who pays them is a lie. It’s like discussing intercontinental shipping routes with someone who won’t acknowledge the Earth is round, not flat.
Trump has intimated that his tariffs against Canada are intended to break Canada economically to further his annexation plans. Americans will just have to suck up some pain as well for the greater glory of Trump the Conquerer.
Not all Trump Voters Belong to His Cult
Not everyone who voted for Trump is one of his fanatical cult followers. I watched an interview with a black voter who said he didn’t want to vote for the same party all the time. “Maybe next time I’ll vote Democrat again,” he said. Yeah, good luck with that. Some voted for Trump because he promised them goodies. Like the young female forestry worker looking forward to a promotion but got fired instead because of DOGE. She knew Trump was a bad man, but she voted for him because he promised to pay for in-vitro fertilization. Trump is a lifelong grifter; somehow, people keep falling for his grift. Maybe it’s a weakness in the American psyche. Perhaps it’s not so much about America First, but rather, Me First.
The Big Difference from Trump’s First Term
Trump, in his first term, whether crazy or compromised, had guardrails around him. A number of his cabinet were competent and conscientious. They held him back from his worst impulses. This time, he has surrounded himself with sycophants who will do his bidding.
I keep hearing that we have to put up with Trump for almost four more years. That is naïve. The only reason that Trump failed in overthrowing the government and left office last time was that he didn’t have the support of the military. He won’t make that mistake again. Trump is already in the process of replacing the top military brass with loyalists. He said it while urging a Christian group to vote for him during his campaign: “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
So why is Trump now betraying the very people who voted for him? The answer is simple: He doesn’t need them anymore.
Maybe Trump is both Russian-compromised and crazy. But maybe there is an even simpler explanation for most of his actions. As Robert DeNiro has told us, “He is just evil.”
Disclosure: I live in Canada — one of the places Donald Trump wants to annex.