When Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America, paraphrasing the old "Manchurian Candidate", I wrote of him as a "Russian President of USA"...who shall.. " always remain illegitimate ". His disgraceful and despicable performance in Helsinki has unfortunately proven my assessment to be correct. Acting as Putin's faithful and trained poodle, Trump salivated at his master's every gesture; in awe of and in complete submission to his master he, the Commander-In-Chief, attacked the United States of America and its institutions regurgitating Putin's talking points. It was treason--pure and simple; the most shameful performance of any President of the USA in that I've witnessed in the last fifty years.
Normally a Canadian, an immigrant from India--a child of India and a citizen of Canada--would not necessarily comment on what happens to our neighbours to the north. But these are no ordinary times. Trump is undermining democratic and egalitarian values not only in the USA but in the entire world and more particularly among USA's strong allies such as the UK and Germany. While he defers to Putin, shows him respect uttering nary a word critical of him, he regularly insults and harangues the allies such as Angela Merkel and Theresa May.
In Helsinki Trump dared not confront Putin with the indictment of twelve members of the GRU/Russian Military by the US intelligence and special counsel Mueller. In fact his words, actions, and omissions in Helsinki threw the US Intelligence and civil servants under the bus. I watched his pitiful performance and felt sad for the USA and the democratic world. In the NATO meeting, his meeting with May and his shameful performance with Putin Trump once again proved he was a friend of dictators and a detractor of allies and democracies--a friend of the rapidly growing nativist politics in the world and a committed foe of freedom and free trade. The USA is not a perfect country. But under its many presidents--from FDR to Eisenhower to Kennedy to Obama it has been a country of the world. Yes it has made many mistakes but it has also been a strong and leading force for good.
One doesn't know what Trump must have said to Putin in their private one on one meeting but his fawning and grovelling performance on public display in Helsinki only deepened the already healthy and reasonable suspicion that Putin definitely has some grave KOMPROMAT on Trump. Never fit to be president in the first place, it is about time the people of the United States of America awoke, rose above partisanship, and rescued their country from the clutches of Trump who doesn't see it as his duty to protect the country from foreign attacks on its democracy, who stands on foreign soil and sides with the adversaries of America while lambasting US institutions that work tirelessly to protect it from its enemies.
Trump has committed a High Crime: he stood with a committed US foe on foreign soil and attacked America. Presidents have been impeached for far less.
Impeach Trump!!
