Contrary to what his dumbest son says, Donald Trump is not a strong person

Before you buy into yesterday’s statement by Eric Trump — the dumbest of Donald Trump’s sons (and he’s up against some stiff competition) — that Putin’s KGB training allowed him to see that Trump was a strong person…

…consider for a moment these recent headlines of Trump’s inability to criticize Putin in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

• Rolling Stone — Trump Refuses to Condemn Putin Despite Sean Hannity Practically Begging Him To
• Washington Post — Sean Hannity’s remarkable, failed attempts to get Trump to call Putin ‘evil’
• The Guardian — Trump ‘admired’ Putin’s ability to ‘kill whoever’, says Stephanie Grisham
• Vanity Fair — Despite Hannity’s Best Efforts, Trump’s Mouth Is Incapable of Forming the Words “Vladimir Putin Is Evil”
• Politico — ‘I got along’: Trump avoids criticizing Putin
• The Atlantic — Congressional Republicans Have Found Their Red Line

• The Wall Street Journal — Putin’s Groupies Walk Back Their Praise
• New York Magazine — How Trump and Putin Have Been Allies Against Ukraine
• The Independent — Trump dodges opportunity call Putin ‘evil’ in Hannity interview
• CNN — Trump has been on Putin’s side in Ukraine’s long struggle against Russian aggression
• The Daily Beast — Even Hannity Can’t Get Trump to Admit Putin Is ‘Evil’
• Business Insider — Stephanie Grisham says Trump greatly admired Putin and ‘wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him’
• Business Insider — Ex-Trump national security advisor John Bolton says ‘Putin Saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him,’ so he chose not to invade Ukraine
• MSNBC — Trump demurs when encouraged by an ally to criticize Putin

Eric Trump is right, but not in the way he thinks. Putin did read Trump correctly, but Putin’s assessment wasn’t that Trump was a string person, but quite manifestly the opposite. Putin knew he was dealing with someone who was half-man, half-marshmallow.

Just look at the differences in their body language at the 2018 summit in Helsinki, where he chose to listen to Putin over the FBI about Russian election interference:

Trump has said far worse things about allies than he has about dictators. He admires dictators, in that way that weak people admire brutality, in the hope that maybe one day, they’ll get to be the oppressor. That’s not strength at all.

Also worth reading: A whole lot of links on Trump, Putin, Russia, and Ukraine