Why the surprise that Trump shuns America's European allies in favor of Russia?

[louis c]

Last edited Thu Jul 21, 2016, 12:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Hitler did the same thing in 1939.

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/german-soviet-nonaggression-pact

[Ex Lurker]

1. As a KGB agent, Putin was trained to mirror whatever his target wanted to see

and he's been cultivating Trump for a long time, stroking his ego, pretending to be a like-minded ally--two alpha males astride the world.

[pampango]

2. Authoritarians respect other authoritarians even if their massive egos

lead them to go after each other later on.

[louis c]

3. I agree

[MowCowWhoHow III]

4. There's a Berlusconi shaped hole in Putin's life that Trump could fill

[Hortensis]

5. Trump's admiration for a strong, authoritarian leader

is no surprise, but any shunning is probably mostly just an accident. Trump can't name even our NATO allies and couldn't find most of them on a large, labeled map. He has no ideology. He's as shallow as water spilled on a table, interested in nothing except as how it shows him off to the world, and he operates at the emotional level of a child.

It seems obvious that Putin is a model for how Trump wants to see himself as a world leader, but he of course would be even stronger. He's made many statements suggesting he thinks our president has that kind of power and has no idea of the differences between Putin's developing autocracy and our democratic republic.

As for his followers, the frightened commie-phobia and flag-waving, bloviating patriotism of years past have evolved into a frightened, generalized xenophobic and anti-establishment fervor that craves Putin's ruthless authoritarianism. Putin would keep us safe. Trump will keep us safe.

[louis c]

6. kick

[gratuitous]

7. Well, he's married to a woman born under communism

I remember when conservatives just hated commies! "Grrrrr," they'd growl, "We hateses commies!" Now they're trying to elect someone with more communist connections than many of the people whose lives they ruined in the 1950s.