Patton: Why Is Russia Supporting Donald Trump?

An editorial in the Washington Post (7/26/2016) makes clear the benefits offered to Russia by a Donald Trump presidency.

"The potential benefits Mr. Trump offers to Mr. Putin have been clearly and repeatedly spelled out by the candidate himself. Russia's most cherished goal is to weaken or destroy NATO; Mr. Trump has called the alliance obsolete. Mr. Putin dreams of reestablishing dominion over the pieces of the Soviet Union. Mr. Trump has said that he might not defend former Soviet republics Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania if Russia invaded, despite their NATO membership. Mr. Putin wants the United States to treat Russia as an equal superpower with its own acknowledged sphere of influence; Mr. Trump has repeatedly praised Mr. Putin and promised to work with him . . ."

Trump's statements during the third presidential debate provided further evidence of his tilt toward

Russia. He defended the indefensible. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Trump claimed that Russia was not behind the hacked information distributed by Wikileaks that undermined the candidacy of Hillary Clinton

Kurt Eichenwald writes in Newsweek (11/04/2016) "While American intelligence officers have privately briefed Trump about Russia's attempts to influence the U.S. election, he has publicly dismissed that information as unreliable, instead saying this hacking of incredible sophistication and technical complexity could have been done by some 400-pound 'guy sitting on their bed' or even a child.

"Officials from two European countries tell Newsweek that Trump's comments about Russia's hacking have alarmed several NATO partners because it suggests he either does not believe the information he receives in intelligence briefings, does not pay attention to it, does not understand it or is misleading the American public for unknown reasons.

Misleading the American public for unknown reasons? The reason seems all too clear. As usual, Donald Trump puts his self interest ahead of everything else. The leaked information benefits his campaign, so he is more than willing to ignore and deny incontrovertible evidence provided not only by American security agencies, but also by those of our European partners.

Not only has Trump let Russia off the hook as the source of the hacked Wikileak information, he has apparently used Russian disinformation in his campaign. Eichenwald writes, " Trump and his campaign have also spread propaganda created as part of the Kremlin's effort, relying on bogus information generated through traditional Russian disinformation techniques. In one instance, a manipulated document was put out onto the internet anonymously by propagandists working with Russia; within hours, Trump was reciting that fake information at a campaign rally."

Trump's friendly relationship with Russia has so unsettled our Western allies that they have begun to investigate Trump in an attempt to determine what his motives and goals might be. Eichenwald comments, "Officials in Western Europe say that they are dismayed that they now feel compelled to gather intelligence on a man who could be the next president of the United States but believe they have no choice. Moscow is seen as a direct threat to their interests - both in its aggressive efforts to reshape global alliances and for its power to damage Western Europe, which obtains almost 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia.

"Should the United States, the last remaining superpower, tilt its policies away from NATO to the benefit of Russia, the alliance between America and Western Europe could be transformed in unprecedented ways. And so, for perhaps the first time since World War II, countries in Western Europe fear that the American election, should Trump win, could trigger events that imperil their national security and do potential irreparable harm to the alliances that have kept the continent safe for decades."

The threat posed by the linkage between Russia and Donald Trump is serious. We have an adversarial foreign power, Russia, attempting to splinter the NATO alliance and a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who is going along with it.

Gary Patton is the author of two books, Selling Mt. Washington, a political satire, and Outtastatahs: Newcomers' Adventures in New Hampshire, a work of regional humor.