Trump says Clinton is too tough —but only with Russia
by digby
Donald J. Trump suggested on Monday that Hillary Clinton was too “tough” in her language about Russia, and said that if he won the election, he might meet with President Vladimir V. Putin before being sworn in.
Mr. Trump made the remarks in an interview with the conservative radio host Michael Savage, who repeatedly affirmed Mr. Trump’s recent claims that the mainstream media was attempting to thwart him.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Savage that the United States’ current leadership, as well as Mrs. Clinton, was too aggressive against Mr. Putin.
“They insult him constantly — I mean, no wonder he can’t stand Obama and Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Trump said, calling the tensions a “very serious problem.”
“It is the worst situation that we’ve had with Russia since the end of the Cold War, by far,” he said.
Mr. Trump added that “she shouldn’t be talking so tough” about Russia, and he suggested, as he has repeatedly in recent months, that Russia could be an ally in fighting the Islamic State.
“We have Putin, who has no respect for Obama at all — doesn’t like him, and doesn’t respect him,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Savage, calling the difficulties “a really catastrophic situation here, I’ll be honest with you.”
He added, “If I win on Nov. 8, I could see myself meeting with Putin and meeting with Russia prior to the start of the administration.”
Democrats have often assailed Mr. Trump for his comments about Mr. Putin, whom he has characterized as a stronger leader than President Obama.
Mr. Trump, who has declined to make his tax returns public, has denied that he has business interests in Russia.
But he has also refused to acknowledge that the United States intelligence officials have attributed the hacking of the Democratic National Committee to Russian hackers who they said must have had the approval of the Kremlin’s top leaders.
But beyond the potential meeting with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump did not offer a strategy for dealing with Moscow.
This has to be one of the strangest aspects of this election and it’s something I hope someone gets to the bottom of eventually. Those comments could sound reasonable coming from a peace candidate like Dennis Kucinich or maybe even Bernie Sanders. It’s completely incongruant coming from Donald Trump. Indeed, it makes no sense whatsoever in terms of this other statements about world affairs. Even within his own comments he goes on about how the Russian president doesn’t “respect” the president and Hillary Clinton at the same time as he says they are too tough with him — which is not how Trump ever characterizes “respect.”
Here’s an example of how Trump talks about other rivals:
Today [Sunday morning] on the top of Drudge [Report]. Matt Drudge is a phenomenal person and a good guy — it is a big deal, top of Drudge. China is upset with Donald Trump.
How dare them? So they go — They’re upset. This is the story — biggest story, top of Drudge. Big story. China is upset because of the way Donald Trump is talking about trade with China. They’re ripping us off, folks.
It is time. I’m so happy they’re upset. They haven’t been upset with us in thirty years.
Japan:
“You know we have a treaty with Japan, where if Japan is attacked, we have to use the full force and might of the United States,” he said.
“If we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to do anything. They can sit home and watch Sony television, OK?”
I think for Merkel to have allowed millions of people into Germany… and Germany is totally destabilised now… I don’t believe it’ll ever be the same, maybe in 200 years but it’ll never be the same and Germany of all countries, I cannot believe they allowed this to happen.”
I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite They picked person who is ruining Germany— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2015
I don’t think I need to lay out his many insults against Mexico or the Middle East.
This, about “respect”:
Donald Trump thinks that tactical nuclear weapons may be worth using in the war against the Islamic State.
In an interview with Mark Halperin and John Heilemann of Bloomberg, the Republican presidential frontrunner refused to rule out using tactical nuclear weapons in the war against ISIS.
“I’m never going to rule anything out—I wouldn’t want to say. Even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t want to tell you that because at a minimum, I want them to think maybe we would use them,” he said.
Trump also said he’s open to tactics like waterboarding and monitoring American mosques in the fight. He also talked about respect, which he sees as one of the biggest problems facing the US right now.
A request for comment from the Trump campaign was not immediately returned.
“They have to respect us,” Trump said in the interview. “They do not respect us at all and frankly they don’t respect a lot of things that are happening—not only our country, but they don’t respect other things.”
“The first thing you have to do is get them to respect the West and respect us. And if they’re not going to respect us it’s never going to work. This has been going on for a long time,” he said. “I don’t think you can do anything and I don’t think you’re going to be successful unless they respect you. They have no respect for our president and they have no respect for our country right now.”
That is not a peace candidate who just wants friendly relations with foreign countries. It’s a fucking psychopath.
The only exception to his violent, dominating adversarial posture is Russia. Which is weird. There’s a story here but I have no idea what it is.
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