By David Futrelle
Never doubt the ability of Reddit’s The_Donald — the site’s biggest hangout for meme-loving, conspiracy pushing Trump stans — to turn the worst debacles into wins (in their minds at least) for our illegitimate president.
But today was something special, even by their standards. On a day that even some GOP Senators came close to calling Trump’s shameless behavior in Helsinki treasonous, The_Donald’s regulars praised Putin even more effusively than their boy Trump for what they saw as the rousing success of the faux summit.
And then they turned around and accused Hillary Clinton of collusion with Russia.
Here’s the top post in the subreddit at the moment, inspired by an evidence-free accusation from Putin during the joint press conference today.
The_Donald’s regulars expressed their faux outrage:
Meanwhile, some suggested literally colluding with Russia to get Hillary sent to Russia for a show trial:
Others, in the same thread, praised the great collusion cooperation between Trump and Putin.
![jomamasophatCA 66 points 9 hours ago These are Men. They are done fucking around with the Clinton cancer on the globe. They are well aware of communism's ills, and not playing that game either. Fuck globalism, fuck the deep state, fuck the media trying to start fires around the globe faster than Trump can put them out. I love seeing these two bad-ass motherfuckers getting along. Real recognizes real. permalinkembedunsavereportgive goldreply [–]River_26 7 points 8 hours ago Agreed. Been waiting for a comment like this. permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]Automatiic 2 points an hour ago " I love seeing these two bad-ass motherfuckers getting along. Real recognizes real. "](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/yut8iyguoih.png?resize=572%2C828&ssl=1)
Nice racist kicker there, dude.
Someone called Drooperdoo added:
Elsewhere in the subreddit, The_Donald’s regulars mocked those who’ve accused Trump of treason today:
Irony isn’t just dead; it’s been run over by a steamroller.
@ who?
It might not be that simple though. We’ve talked a bit about John Brown, the abolitionist, here. There’s some precedent from his trial that could form a basis.
In common law jurisdictions there’s been a fair bit of discussion about the definition of enemy. It almost certainly doesn’t require an actual state of war. For example, any US citizen who’d assisted with the Pearl Harbour attack could probably have been charged with treason; even if their actions had taken place whilst be US and Japan were ostensibly at peace. And although the Rosenbergs were actually convicted of espionage, the consensus was they could have been tried for treason.
There’s so few modern treason cases that the law is a bit nebulous; but William Joyce could testify that if someone’s out to get you, they can probably find a way.
Of course in Trump’s case it’s almost certainly all hypothetical, and even if a case were brought then the stacked SCOTUS would probably be sympathetic to him.
As for the sentiment that the United States has always been shitty, I thought of this comic:
https://medium.com/the-nib/thats-not-who-we-are-24c384ee5bff
I still believe things can be better, and have been better at certain times in certain ways.
Alan: Interesting, I still think the newspaper “probably not really treason” has a point. The question if the Donald is guilty of that crime is borderline, so nobody will probably try to make that clear by making the case against the USPräsident (at last no one in power). But from reading today the posters here are not alone in the asigment.
But to make this a bit more difficult: Today I learned that I am part of the biggest enemy for America, of the EU. (I would still have called the relationship between the countrys in the EU and America dificult alies before but it seems I was to optimistic)
And what should be forgotten in the discusion. Regardless if Trump did comite treason or not, he did hurt the USA which what he said to Putin. This should be (at last) enough to say that he is unfit to be president. If the republicans are not completly dumb, they should be worried (and do something).
I think the photo for this article is far more telling than the other one.
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/there-is-no-precedent-a-president-sides-with-americas-enemies/
@Skyla
Thank you for the article. This is a brilliant if frightening summation. Uncharted waters indeed.
Our next question is why? What is the strategy that fits the tactics? What is Trump going to get out of all of this? So much for the end of history announced with so much hubris just three decades ago. This seems more like history in capital letters.
And thank you Miss Cobalt for the Richard Wolff suggestion. I’ve been reading. I hope that he mentored people because we need ideas. We also need ideas for an economic system not based on infinite growth, which both socialism and capitalism are. The economics of conservation is what we need. But at least someone is thinking.
@AuntieMameRedux:
Strategy? Bah! Strategy is for sissies who believe in that ‘consensual reality’ nonsense. Trump defines his own reality!
More seriously, most of the suspicion of what he’s getting out of this is threefold:
– He already owes money to the Russian oligarchs because nobody with actual standards would lend him anything, and making nice to them makes them less likely to mess things up for his finances;
– He wishes desperately that he could actually be Putin in the ability to do things without facing serious consequences, so he butters up Putin in hopes that some of the strong-man ability will rub off on him;
– His ego just will not allow him to admit that maybe he didn’t actually win legitimately, so he goes to great lengths to suppress any talk otherwise.
All this combined with the fact that the only thing he seems to remember from the past is grudges, and that his relationship with reality is ‘whatever is good for me at the moment’.
“Real recognizes real.”
More like Putin recognizes a real patsy. tRump is dumber than a box of rocks and easy to lead around by the nose so long as you stroke his ego. Putin knows this and is taking advantage of it.